PhD Student in microarchitectural attacks and defenses

Applications are invited to apply for one PhD student position at the IMDEA Software Institute, Madrid, Spain.

Selected candidates will work under the supervision of Marco Guarnieri .

The specific topic of the research will be determined based on the common interests of the candidate and the supervisor.

Some potential research topics are the following:

• CPU fuzzing for information leaks (both black-box on silicon CPUs and white-box on RTL designs)
• Program analysis and verification techniques for detecting programs vulnerable to microarchitectural attacks
• Hardware verification of security properties on RTL designs
• Secure compilation techniques for preventing microarchitectural attacks

Ideal candidates have earned (or are in their last year of) a Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Mathematics, with experience in at least one of the following areas:

• Computer Security
• Testing and Fuzzing
• Computer architectures
• Program analysis and verification
• Formal methods and logics

Solid programming skills will be highly valued. The position requires good teamwork and communication skills, including excellent spoken and written English.

The IMDEA Software Institute is ranked among the best European research institutes in the areas of Programming Languages and Computer Security. Located in the Montegancedo Science and Technology Park, it perfectly combines the sunny and vibrant city of Madrid with cutting edge research and inspiring working environment.

The institute provides an internationally competitive stipend, access to an excellent public health care system, unemployment benefits, retirement benefits, and support for research related travel. The working language at the institute is English. Knowledge of Spanish is not required.

The duration of the position is intended to be for the duration of the doctoral studies. The ideal starting period is from mid-October 2021.

Deadline for applications is October 7th, 2021. Review of applications will begin immediately, and continue until the positions are filled.

Applicants interested in the position should submit their application at https://careers.software.imdea.org/  selecting option 5 - PhD Student and reference code 2021-09-phd-uarchsec.

For any questions about these positions, please contact Marco Guarnieri directly (marco dot guarnieri at imdea dot org).

The IMDEA Software Institute only accepts applications sent through https://careers.software.imdea.org/

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