Detection and Analysis of Cryptographic Primitives

Degree: Master
Contact Person: Anna Pätschke

Field of Research

Code analysis is a widely used tool for understanding, optimizing and securing existing implementations. Especially in the development of open-source cryptographic implementations, the code quality is enhanced through manifold security analyses. However, proprietary implementations are still used, especially in embedded systems. In order to be able to certify that such an implementation is actually secure, it has to undergo analysis and verification steps.

Project Scope

The scope of this thesis project is to develop and evaluate automated ways to ensure the security of cryptographic implementations, so that developers and users without expert knowledge can find and correct mistakes. For this, the primitives have to be pinpointed and then analyzed regarding their (security) properties. Possible techniques include instrumentation, taint analysis or symbolic execution.