The Applied Cryptography Research lab is seeking interested students to help with a variety of projects in applied cryptography and network security. Please see the below descriptions for the projects and skills/experiences that might be useful for working on them. The specified skill sets are not required but are skills that the student will learn throughout the course of the project if she/he does not already have them. And while these skills are a bonus, we are mainly looking for highly motivated and interested students. Please feel free to apply even if you have no prior research experience!
Please contact me at
clg@cs.purdue.edu if you have any questions.
*** Please note that this form was for Summer 2020. As such, it is significantly out of date and many of these projects are now completed or no longer have openings. You are welcome to submit your information still though, and I will try to contact you once open positions for current projects have been finalized. ***----------
Project Name: Automatic Identification of Cryptographic Algorithms in Binaries
Project Description:
Identification of cryptographic primitives can be used to detect the presence of malicious payloads in binaries as well as a tool for binary analysis. This project aims to develop a novel approach to identify different cryptographic algorithms in heavily obfuscated binaries.
Project Tasks:
Students will perform a variety of tasks which may include running C++ code of cryptographic functions to learn about their characteristics, analyzing binary code, testing our various approaches on different obfuscated binaries, and working with machine learning scripts for supervised learning. Some other contributions may include:
- Survey and comparison of existing techniques
- Develop a novel approach to identify specific algorithm/function
o Loop body identification
o Control-flow/data flow analysis
o Function signature identification
- Use supervised learning for better detection
- Targeted Algorithms:
o ECDSA, RSA, AES, AES-GCM, RC4
Helpful skills (suggested but not required):
Language skill: C/C++, Python
Algorithm: RSA, AES, ECDSA, RC4
Others: Binary analysis, supervised learning/machine learning
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Project Name: TorMB: Bringing Network Function Virtualization to Tor
Project Description:
Tor is a powerful and important tool for providing anonymity and censorship resistance to users around the world. Yet it is surprisingly difficult to deploy new services and functionality in Tor—it is largely relegated to proxies and hidden services—or to nimbly react to new forms of attack. This project seeks to close this gap by introducing programmable middleboxes into the Tor network. In this architecture, users can install and run sophisticated “functions” on willing Tor routers. We will work to demonstrate a wide range of functions that improve anonymity, resilience to attack, performance of hidden services, and more.
Project Tasks:
Students will perform a variety of tasks which may include extending the current set of functions to include privacy preserving statistics gathering for the Tor network, learning about SGX, working to extend the current system to enable function deployment in SGX, and building and deploying their own functions on the Tor network. There is the potential for a large degree of freedom in this project if the student would like, as we are always looking for new functions and functionality to build and deploy.
Helpful skills (suggested but not required):
Programming Language: Python, C/C++ programming in SGX
Concepts and basics: Onion Routing (specifically Tor) and anonymous communication networks, SGX
Coursework: CS422 Computer Networks (or equivalent), CS426 Computer Security (or equivalent)
