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Modern processors use branch prediction and speculative execution to maximize performance. For example, if the destination of a branch depends on a memory value that is in the process of being read, CPUs will try guess the destination and…
Transient execution attacks, also called speculative execution attacks, have drawn much interest as they exploit the transient execution of instructions, e.g., during branch prediction, to leak data. Transient execution is fundamental to…
Patch reviewing is critical for software development, especially in distributed open-source development, which highly depends on voluntary work, such as Linux. This paper studies the past 10 years of patch reviews of the Linux memory…
Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attack usually refers to the form of long-term, covert and sustained attack on specific targets, with an adversary using advanced attack techniques to destroy the key facilities of an organization. APT…
The Linux kernel is highly-configurable, with a build system that takes a configuration file as input and automatically tailors the source code accordingly. Configurability, however, complicates testing, because different configuration…
The rise of advanced persistent threats (APTs) has marked a significant cybersecurity challenge, characterized by sophisticated orchestration, stealthy execution, extended persistence, and targeting valuable assets across diverse sectors.…
The authors present the results of a simple usability test performed on line_explorer, an innovative tool aimed at letting students explore programming. The system offers an interactive environment where students can learn, review, and…
SMS Phishing (also known as 'smishing') is a growing deceptive social engineering (SE) attack that leverages mobile SMS to conduct cybercrimes such as stealing sensitive information or spreading malware by tricking users into interacting…
Page Frame Cache (PFC) is a purely software cache, present in modern Linux based operating systems (OS), which stores the page frames that are recently being released by the processes running on a particular CPU. In this paper, we show that…
Web applications are the target of many well known exploits and also a fertile ground for the discovery of security vulnerabilities. Yet, the success of an exploit depends both on the vulnerability in the application source code and the…
A new form of caching, namely application-level caching, has been recently employed in web applications to improve their performance and increase scalability. It consists of the insertion of caching logic into the application base code to…
Conventional security solutions are insufficient to address the urgent cybersecurity challenge posed by insider attacks. While a great deal of research has been done in this area, our systematic literature analysis attempts to give readers…
Runtime software patching aims to minimize or eliminate service downtime, user interruptions and potential data losses while deploying a patch. Due to modern software systems' high variance and heterogeneity, no universal solutions are…
We explore a new type of malicious script attacks: the persistent parasite attack. Persistent parasites are stealthy scripts, which persist for a long time in the browser's cache. We show to infect the caches of victims with parasite…
A large part of modern day communications are carried out through the medium of E-mails, especially corporate communications. More and more people are using E-mail for personal uses too. Companies also send notifications to their customers…
By developing communications and increase of access points, computer networks have been vulnerable considerably against wide range of information attacks, specially new and complicated attacks. Every day, replication attacks attack millions…
Software containers are widely adopted for developing and deploying software applications. Despite their popularity, major security concerns arise during container development and deployment. Software Engineering (SE) research literature…
The widespread accessibility of the Internet has led to a surge in online fraudulent activities, underscoring the necessity of shielding users' sensitive information from cybercriminals. Phishing, a well-known cyberattack, revolves around…
Peer sampling is a first-class abstraction used in distributed systems for overlay management and information dissemination. The goal of peer sampling is to continuously build and refresh a partial and local view of the full membership of a…
The Android operating system runs on the majority of smartphones nowadays. Its success is driven by its availability to a variety of smartphone hardware vendors on the one hand, and the customization possibilities given to its users on the…