Sven Dietrich

Research Interests:

My interests are in computer and network security, cryptography, anonymity, and privacy. In network security, my areas are in denial of service and malware (DDoS, botnets), and I have some interests in anti-phishing (I contributed to the technology in the anti-phishing startup Wombat Security Technologies). For cryptography, I look at cryptographic aspects of malware, and have interests in verification of cryptographic protocols.

Teaching:

Spring 2025: CSc 80020 Computer Science Research (Graduate Center), CSCI 493 Introduction to Computer Security (Hunter College)

Spring 2024: CSc 80020 Computer Science Research (Graduate Center)

Fall 2022: CSCI 493/CSCI 795 Introduction to Computer Security (combined BS/MS-level) (Hunter College)

Fall 2021: CSCI 493/CSCI 795 Introduction to Computer Security (combined BS/MS-level) (Hunter College)

Spring 2021: CSCI 335 Software Design and Analysis 3 (Hunter College)

Fall 2020: CSc 81300 Software Security (CUNY Graduate Center)

Spring 2020: CSc 80010 Research Survey (CUNY Graduate Center)

Fall 2018 CSc 87100 Advanced Network Security and Malware (CUNY Graduate Center)

Fall 2015: CSc 87100 Advanced Network Security and Malware (CUNY Graduate Center)

Recent undergraduate courses taught: Cybersecurity Capstone I/II, Cryptography and Cryptanalysis, Advanced Data Structures

Recent masters courses taught: Network Forensics, Architecture of Secure Operating Systems

Select publications: Google Scholar page ; Researchgate page ; dblp page ; CSauthors page (my Erdős number is 4) - PRETT2: Discovering HTTP/2 DoS Vulnerabilities using Protocol Reverse Engineering, by Choongin Lee, Isa Jafarov, Sven Dietrich, and Heejo Lee, in Proceedings of the 29th European Symposium on Computer Security (ESORICS), 2024. The paper can be found here. The associated code is also available. - ZMAD: Lightweight Model-based Anomaly Detection for the Structured Z-Wave Protocol, by Carlos Kayembe Nkuba, Seunghoon Woo, Heejo Lee, and Sven Dietrich, in IEEE Access, vol. 11, 2023, ISSN:2169-3536, DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3285476, accepted for publication (early access version available here as of 12 June 2023). Associated Z-Wave traffic datasets are here. - Attacks on tomorrow's virtual world, by Ilies Benhabbour, Yerom-David Bromberg, Marc Dacier, Sven Dietrich, Rodrigo Rodrigues, and Paulo Esteves-Verissimo, in Proceedings of the 53rd Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), Disrupt 2023, Supplemental Volume, June 2023, to appear. Local copy is here. - Riding the IoT Wave with VFuzz: Discovering Security Flaws in Smart Homes, by Carlos K. Nkuba, Seulbae Kim, Sven Dietrich, and Heejo Lee, in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 1775-1789, 2022, ISSN:2169-3536, DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3138768, (early access copy available 27 December 2021). - V0Finder: Discovering the Correct Origin of Publicly Reported Software Vulnerabilities, by Seunghoon Woo, Dongwook Lee, Sunghan Park, Heejo Lee, Sven Dietrich. In Proceedings of the 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security '21), August 2021. Local copy is here. - QuickBCC: Quick and Scalable Binary Vulnerable Code Clone Detection, by Hajin Jang, Kyeongseok Yang, Geonwoo Lee, Seongbeom Park, Yoonjong Na, Jeremy Seideman, Shoufu Luo, Heejo Lee and Sven Dietrich. In Proceedings of the 36th IFIP TC-11 International Information Security and Privacy Conference (SEC 2021), pp. 66-82, Oslo, Norway, June 2021. - Tracing Privilege Misuse Through Behavioral Anomaly Detection in Geometric Spaces, by Patrick Duessel, Shoufu Luo, Ulrich Flegel, Sven Dietrich, and Michael Meier. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Systematic Approaches to Digital Forensic Engineering (SADFE 2020), pp. 22-31, New York, NY, May 2020. Local copy is here. - Fingerprinting Cryptographic Protocols with Key Exchange using an Entropy Measure, by Shoufu Luo, Jeremy D. Seideman and Sven Dietrich. In Proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Systematic Approaches to Digital Forensic Engineering (SADFE 2018), IEEE CS Security and Privacy Workshops, San Francisco, CA, May 2018. - Cybersecurity and the Future, by Sven Dietrich, in IEEE Computer, Vol. 50 No. 4, p. 7, April 2017, ISSN: 0018:9162. - Security Challenges and Opportunities of Software-Defined Networking, by Marc C. Dacier, Hartmut Koenig, Radoslaw Cwalinski, Frank Kargl, and Sven Dietrich, in IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine 15(2):98-102, March/April 2017, ISSN: 1540-7993. - Who are you now? Fading to multiple personas, by Sven Dietrich, Michael Brenner, and Katharina Krombholz, in Proceedings of the WAY workshop at the 12th Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) 2016, Denver, CO, June 2016. - Detecting Zero-Day Attacks Using Context-Aware Anomaly Detection At The Application Layer, by Patrick Duessel, Christian Gehl, Ulrich Flegel, Sven Dietrich, and Michael Meier, in International Journal of Information Security 16(5):475-490, Springer Verlag, October 2017 (online July 2016). Local copy is here. - Ethics of data sharing: a model for best practice, by Sven Dietrich, Jeroen van der Ham, Aiko Pras, Darren Shou, Anna Sperotto, Aimee van Wynsberghe, and Lenore Zuck, in Proceedings of the 2014 Cyber-security Research Ethics Dialog & Strategy Workshop (CREDS), IEEE CS Security & Privacy Workshops, San Jose, CA, May 2014. - A Secure Submission System for Online Whistleblowing Platforms, by Volker Roth, Benjamin Gueldenring, Eleanor Rieffel, Sven Dietrich and Lars Ries, in Proceedings of Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2013, 8 pp, Springer LNCS 7859, April 2013. Extended version available at arXiv.org. - Experiments in P2P botnet detection, by Lionel Riviere, Sven Dietrich, in IT Oldenbourg Journal, Special Issue on Reactive Security, it - Information Technology Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 90-95, 04/2012. Local copy is here. - SkyNET: A 3G-Enabled Mobile Attack Drone and Stealth Botmaster, by Theodore Reed, Joseph Geis, and Sven Dietrich, in Proceedings of the 5th Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT 2011), August 2011. Project page is here. - Building An Active Computer Security Ethics Community, by David Dittrich, Michael Bailey, and Sven Dietrich, IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine 9(4):32-40, July/August 2011, ISSN: 1540-7993.  Local copy is here. - Friends of an Enemy: Identifying Local Members of Peer-to-Peer Botnets Using Mutual Contacts, with Baris Coskun, Nasir Memon, published in Proceedings of ACSAC 2010, December 2010. Acceptance rate: 17%.

- David Dittrich, Michael Bailey, Sven Dietrich. Towards Community Standards for Ethical Behavior in  Computer Security Research. Stevens CS Technical Report 2009-1, 20 April 2009. Most recent draft (September 2009) is here and here.

- David Dittrich, Sven Dietrich.  Discovery techniques for P2P botnets, Stevens CS Technical Report 2008-4, September 2008. Revised April 2009.

- David Dittrich, Sven Dietrich. P2P as botnet command and control: a deeper insight, in Proceedings of the 2008 3rd International Conference on Malicious and Unwanted Software (Malware), pp. 46-63, October 2008 ("Best Paper" award winner)

- Jelena Mirkovic, Sven Dietrich, David Dittrich, Peter Reiher. Internet Denial of Service: Attack and Defense Mechanisms, Prentice Hall PTR, 2004.

Current students:

- Isa Jafarov (PhD student, 2022-now)

- Saskia Laura Schroeer (PhD student, Co-advised at University of Liechtenstein with Pavel Laskov and Sune Dueholm Mueller, 2023-now)

Former Visiting Scholars/Postdocs:

- Sebastian Schmerl (Fall 2010)

Former Students:

- Jeremy Seideman (PhD student, 2016-2023), defended December 2022. His thesis is listed here.

- Shoufu (Sean) Luo (PhD student, 2011-2023), defended December 2022. His thesis is listed here.

- Patrick Duessel (PhD student, co-advised with Michael Meier, University of Bonn, defended July 2018). His thesis is here.

- Sadia Akhter (PhD student, 2012-2014)

- Alex Washburn (MS thesis student, 2022, defended July 2022). His thesis can be found here.

- Harrison Fernandez (Honors/PRISM undergraduate student, 2018-2019)

- Neal Trischitta (Summer Scholar, 2012)

- Lionel Riviere (Visiting MS Student, 2011)

- Ralph Mattiaccio (Summer Scholar, 2010-2011)

- Tadas Vilkeliskis (Technogenesis Undergraduate Summer Scholar, 2009)

- Rich Catena (Post-MS, 2008-2009)

- Damien Giry (Visiting summer student, 2005)

- Angela DeFrancesco (MS thesis student, 2005)

I am always looking for good undergraduate and graduate students interested in, among others, the research topics above and wanting to pursue a degree at CUNY Hunter College (undergraduate, masters) or at the CUNY Graduate Center (PhD in CS). If you think you are the right person, please send me a brief statement to that effect, your background, and what type of projects you might work on. Generic e-mails of the type "I'm interested in your research" without further explanation are unlikely to be answered. Internships are not generally offered.

Last updated: February 21, 2025.