# Fuzzer Benchmark Report (from bug-count CSV)

- Time budget: **24.00h**

> **Warning — trial run.** This benchmark was executed with fewer than 10 instances per fuzzer and/or a time budget shorter than 24h. Results from trial runs are meant for debugging purposes and are not valid for extracting conclusions across different fuzzers.

## Executive summary
This report is derived solely from cumulative bugs-found over time across repeated runs per fuzzer. It emphasizes robust, distribution-based metrics (median/IQR, success rates, time-to-k) and shape-based behavior (plateau time, late discovery share) instead of single-run time-to-first-bug.

## Bugs found at fixed time budgets (median [IQR])
| Fuzzer | Runs | 1h | 4h | 8h | 24h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medusa | 4 | 5 [5,5] | 8 [7,8] | 8 [7,8] | 8 [8,8] |
| recon-fuzzer | 4 | 5 [4,6] | 6 [6,6] | 6 [6,7] | 6 [6,7] |
| echidna | 4 | 4 [4,5] | 5 [5,5] | 6 [5,6] | 6 [6,7] |

## Overall metrics
| Fuzzer | AUC (norm) | Plateau time | Late discovery share | Final median | Final IQR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medusa | 0.761 | 10.00h | 0.000 | 8 | 0.50 |
| recon-fuzzer | 0.624 | 7.00h | 0.000 | 6 | 1.75 |
| echidna | 0.564 | 16.80h | 0.154 | 6 | 1.50 |

## Milestones: time-to-k and success rates
| Fuzzer | time-to-1 (p50) | time-to-3 (p50) | time-to-5 (p50) | reach-1 rate | reach-3 rate | reach-5 rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medusa | 0.10h | 0.10h | 0.10h | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| recon-fuzzer | 0.00h | 0.10h | 0.80h | 100.0% | 100.0% | 75.0% |
| echidna | 0.10h | 0.10h | 2.10h | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |

## Throughput metrics (if supported by log format)
Values are run-level rates aggregated per fuzzer; `n/a` indicates the parser could not recover that metric from logs.
| Fuzzer | Runs | Tx/s runs | Tx/s p50 [p25,p75] | Gas/s runs | Gas/s p50 [p25,p75] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medusa | 4 | 4 | 1099.50 [1024.50,1217.00] | 4 | 670934626.00 [644023274.75,682801475.75] |
| recon-fuzzer | 4 | 4 | 1695.47 [1688.02,1698.93] | 4 | 6465634.00 [5751510.25,7560216.50] |
| echidna | 4 | 4 | 2541.48 [2436.30,2671.38] | 4 | 9335652702.00 [0.00,18908013337.25] |

## Progress metrics from logs (fuzzer-specific proxies)
Coverage/corpus values are parsed from each fuzzer's native progress output and are useful for trend context, not strict cross-fuzzer equivalence.
| Fuzzer | Runs | Seq/s runs | Seq/s p50 [p25,p75] | Coverage runs | Coverage p50 [p25,p75] | Corpus runs | Corpus p50 [p25,p75] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medusa | 4 | 4 | 10.50 [10.00,11.50] | 4 | 12294.00 [12212.50,12365.75] | 4 | 593.50 [585.50,602.00] |
| recon-fuzzer | 4 | 0 | n/a | 4 | 144206.50 [144065.50,145407.00] | 4 | 612.50 [602.00,627.50] |
| echidna | 4 | 0 | n/a | 4 | 140390.50 [139884.75,140598.25] | 4 | 576.50 [561.50,592.50] |

## Statistical comparison (Mann-Whitney U test)

Pairwise Mann-Whitney U tests on end-of-budget bug counts (two-sided).
Bonferroni correction applied for 3 comparison(s). Significance level: alpha = 0.05.

**Warnings:**
- One or more fuzzers have fewer than 5 runs. Statistical power may be limited.

| Fuzzer A | Fuzzer B | Median A | Median B | U statistic | p-value | p (corrected) | Significant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medusa | recon-fuzzer | 8 | 6.5 | 14.5 | 0.0650 | 0.1949 | no |
| medusa | echidna | 8 | 6.5 | 14.5 | 0.0650 | 0.1949 | no |
| recon-fuzzer | echidna | 6.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 1.0000 | 1.0000 | no |

No pairwise comparison reached significance after Bonferroni correction.

> **Note:** The Mann-Whitney U test assesses whether one fuzzer tends to find
> more bugs than another across runs. It does not measure effect size or
> practical importance. Small sample sizes (fewer than 5 runs) reduce
> statistical power.

## Shape-based interpretation (rules of thumb)
- **Fast-start / early-plateau**: high early checkpoint median + early plateau time + low late discovery share.
- **Steady**: moderate AUC, later plateau, consistent improvements across checkpoints, moderate variance.
- **Slow-burn / late-surge**: low early checkpoints but high late discovery share and later plateau time; often higher final median.

## Limitations
- Core metrics in this section are count-based; use `broken_invariants.md` / `broken_invariants.csv` for invariant identities.
- Severity, exploitability, and root-cause uniqueness cannot be measured directly without richer per-bug metadata.
- Harness design still affects results; mitigate by keeping harness identical across fuzzers and reporting many runs.
