We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join our research group in the area of hardware security and secure computer architecture, with a particular focus on transient execution attacks and defenses in RISC-V processors.
Transient execution vulnerabilities, including speculative execution and out-of-order execution attacks, have fundamentally changed the processor security landscape. Since the discovery of attacks such as Spectre and Meltdown, it has become clear that microarchitectural optimizations can unintentionally leak sensitive information through side channels. While significant research has focused on commercial processor architectures, the rapidly growing RISC-V ecosystem presents new challenges and opportunities for designing secure, open, and trustworthy computing platforms.
The successful candidate will investigate security vulnerabilities arising from speculative and transient execution mechanisms in RISC-V processors, develop novel attack methodologies, and design effective hardware and software countermeasures. The research will contribute to the development of next-generation secure RISC-V architectures suitable for embedded systems, IoT devices, edge computing platforms, and high-performance computing infrastructures.
Research Topics
The PhD research may include:
- Analysis of speculative and transient execution vulnerabilities in RISC-V processors.
- Development of novel microarchitectural side-channel attacks.
- Security assessment of open-source RISC-V cores and SoCs.
- Design of hardware-level mitigations against transient execution attacks.
- Secure microarchitectural mechanisms for resource-constrained processors.
- Formal security evaluation and verification methodologies.
- Cache, branch predictor, memory hierarchy, and timing-channel security.
- Hardware/software co-design approaches for secure execution.
- Benchmarking and evaluation frameworks for microarchitectural security.
- AI-assisted detection and analysis of microarchitectural vulnerabilities.
Candidate Profile
Applicants should hold (or be close to completing) a Master’s degree in:
- Computer Engineering
- Computer Science
- Electrical Engineering
- Telecommunications Engineering
- Cybersecurity
- Related disciplines
Knowledge in one or more of the following areas is desirable:
- Computer architecture
- Operating systems
- Hardware design (Verilog, VHDL, SystemVerilog)
- Embedded systems
- RISC-V architectures
- Computer security
- Side-channel analysis
- C/C++, Python, Linux development environments
Strong analytical skills, programming experience, and an interest in low-level system security are highly valued.
What We Offer
- A fully funded PhD position (28.000 €/year gross salary) within an internationally recognized research team.
- Participation in cutting-edge research on hardware security and secure processor architectures.
- Collaboration with leading European academic and industrial partners.
- Access to state-of-the-art FPGA and processor evaluation platforms.
- Opportunities to publish in top-tier conferences and journals in computer architecture and cybersecurity.
- Support for attending international scientific conferences and research schools.
Expected Impact
The PhD research will contribute to strengthening the security of future RISC-V processors by developing new methodologies to identify, evaluate, and mitigate transient execution vulnerabilities. The outcomes are expected to advance the state of the art in secure open hardware architectures and support the development of trustworthy European computing technologies through the QUASAR EU project.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should submit the following documents to [email protected]:
- Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- Academic transcripts
- Motivation letter outlining their research interests
- Contact details of two academic or professional references
