Doctoral fellow

ABOUT GHENT UNIVERSITY

Ghent University is a world of its own. Employing more than 15.000 people, it is actively involved in education and research, management and administration, as well as technical and social service provision on a daily basis. It is one of the largest, most exciting employers in the area and offers great career opportunities.

With its 11 faculties and more than 85 departments offering state-of-the-art study programmes grounded in research in a wide range of academic fields, Ghent University is a logical choice for its staff and students.

Within the faculty of Engineering and Architecture, the Computing Systems Lab (CSL) is search of more powerful, but less power-hungry, and more secure computers. The lab studies and develops novel design methodologies for both individual processors and whole computing systems, more efficient run-time resource management techniques and tools, innovative processor and accelerator architectures, solutions that use available resources much more efficiently and effectively, adaptable hardware solutions for embedded systems new security solutions and software protections, as well as tools and techniques to automate their deployment. CSL staff counts 5 professors, 2 postdoc researchers, and about 20 PhD students. The research for these PhD positions will be conducted in the System Software team, headed by prof. Bjorn De Sutter (https://users.elis.ugent.be/~brdsutte/).

YOUR TASKS

The Machine-At-The-End (MATE) attack model concerns adversaries that try to get unauthorized access to software assets, or make unauthorized use of such assets, on machines over which they have full control to execute, inspect, reverse engineer, and manipulate the software using all kinds of static and dynamic analysis and tampering techniques. MATE software protections (SPs) are techniques applied to the software, such as obfuscations and anti-tampering techniques, that aim to protect the software against such attacks, i.e., they try to safeguard the confidentiality and integrity of assets in the software. The domain of MATE software protection urgently requires solutions for some major problems, as we currently lack (1) standardized, broadly applicable methods to assess software protection strength; (2) automated decision support tools to determine which protections to apply and how on given use cases, (3) the necessary insights into attacker capabilities, in particular in this age of AI.

• You will conduct strategic basic research in the domain of MATE software protection, on any of the following topics based on your expertise and preferences, and in agreement with your supervisor: (i) decision support for the use of software protection tools (i.e., to decide which protections to apply where in a program); (ii) novel obfuscations and obfuscation recipes to defeat LLMs and other AI-based reverse engineering tools; (iii) the use of AI techniques and LLMs to optimize reverse engineering strategies; (iv) modeling techniques to assess the required effort to mount reverse engineering and tampering attacks on software; (v) integration of software protection techniques in industrial development life cycles.
• Conducting design science research in the selected topic, you will develop new solutions for urgent problems. Those solutions will take the form of new constructs, models, and methods (i.e., algorithms and best practices). You will then develop prototype software implementations of the models and methods you design, to evaluate and validate them on relevant software samples.
• You will help in translating your own and related academic research results into more mature knowledge and capabilities, e.g., at technology readiness level 6 or 7, such that they can more easily be adapted by industry.
• You will collaborate with colleagues working on related topics in the MATE software protection domain, e.g., to share common infrastructure and datasets.
• You publish and present results both at international conferences and in scientific journals, using open science practices.
• This research will lead to a PhD degree. Throughout the complete PhD period, you receive a full-time, attractive salary.
• You assist in limited educational tasks of the research group, namely being a teaching assistant for one one-semester course.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• You hold a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, Information Engineering Technology, or similar.
• You are interested to do research in an academic environment for a 4 years period view of a PhD degree.
• You are proficient technically and have an affinity with (systems) programming, operating systems, and software hacking.
• Knowledge of C/C++ is a must.
• Knowledge of compilers, software protection, reverse engineering, program analysis techniques, and the system-level operation of platforms such as Linux, Android, iOS are all a plus.
• Experience with advanced uses of artificial intelligence and large language models is a plus as well.
• You can plan and carry out your tasks in an independent way. You have strong analytical skills to interpret the obtained research results.
• You are a team player and have strong communication skills.
• You can commit to timing and milestones set forward by different research projects.
• Your English is fluent, both speaking and writing.

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU

• We offer a full-time position as a doctoral fellow, consisting of an initial period of 12 months, which - after a positive evaluation, will be extended to a total maximum of 48 months.
• Your contract will start as soon as you can start.
• The fellowship amount is 100% of the net salary of an AAP member in equal family circumstances. The individual fellowship amount is determined by Team Personnel Administration based on family status and seniority. A grant that meets the conditions and criteria of the regulations for doctoral fellowships is considered free of personal income tax. Click here for more information about our salary scales
• All Ghent University staff members enjoy a number of benefits, such as a wide range of training and education opportunities, 36 days of holiday leave (on an annual basis for a full-time job) supplemented by annual fixed bridge days, bicycle allowance and eco vouchers. Click here for a complete overview of all the staff benefits.

INTERESTED?

Send your cv, three references, a copy of your diploma and transcripts (if already in your possession) and a motivation letter to bjorn.desutter@ugent.be.

We do not accept late applications.

As Ghent University maintains an equal opportunities and diversity policy, everyone is encouraged to apply for this position.

For more information about this vacancy, please contact prof. Bjorn De Sutter (bjorn.desutter@ugent.be, +32(0)9/264 33 67)