PhD Student in microarchitectural attacks and defenses
Applications are invited for one PhD student position at the IMDEA Software Institute, Madrid, Spain.
Selected candidates will work under the supervision of Marco Guarnieri.
The PhD student will work in the context of the ERC Consolidator grant “PRIMULA: Principled Microarchitectural Security with Leakage Contracts.”
Responsibilities
Conduct research on microarchitectural attacks and defenses. Potential research topics include:
- CPU fuzzing for information leaks (both black-box on silicon CPUs and white-box on RTL designs)
- Hardware verification for microarchitectural security
- Synthesis of program-level leakage models from 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
The specific topic of the research will be determined based on the common interests of the candidate and the supervisor.
Qualifications
Adecuado 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
- Program analysis, compilers, and verification
- Formal methods and logics
Solid programming skills are highly valued. The position requires good teamwork and communication skills, including excellent spoken and written English.
Benefits
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.
Dates
The duration of the position is intended to be for the duration of the doctoral studies. The ideal starting period is from September 2026.
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