Meet my cats

Hello, I am

Yuan Xiao

Assistant Professor | ShanghaiTech University

Who am I ?

Assistant Professor @ ShanghaiTech University

I got my PhD from the Ohio State University and BE from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Prior to the current job, I worked for Intel Labs for 4 years. My research lies primarily in low-level system security. A special focus is in software-triggered (micro-)architectural vulnerabilities and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE).

Personal Info

  • Email : xiaoyuan@shanghaitech.edu.cn
  • Phone : +86 (021) 20684602
  • Address : SIST Building 1C - 503B

Research Interest

Side-channel & Transient Execution Attacks

Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)

Systematic and automatic analytic tools

Keywords

(Micro-) Architecture, Side-channel Attacks, Trusted Execution Environments, x86, RISC-V, Networking, Cloud Computing, Edge Computing, Mobile Computing, IoT


My Resume

Education

2015 - 2020

Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering

The Ohio State University, Columbus OH, US


2011 - 2015

Bachelor in Engineering, Information Security

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Work

2025 - Present

Assistant Professor

ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China


2020 - 2024

Research Scientist

Intel Labs, Hillsboro OR, US

News

Recruiting graduate students

There are graduate student openings for 2025. Please feel free to email me if interested.

Our paper is accepted to EuroSys

Our paper "Erebor: A Drop-In Sandbox Solution for Private Data Processing in Untrusted Confidential Virtual Machines" (collaboration with NUS, ASU and Intel) is accepted to EuroSys 2025. The acceptance rate this year is as low as 8.17%.

My Team

Publications

[EuroSys 2025] (To appear) Erebor: A Drop-In Sandbox Solution for Private Data Processing in Untrusted Confidential Virtual Machines

Chuqi Zhang (National University of Singapore), Rahul Priolkar (Arizona State University), Yuancheng Jiang (National University of Singapore), Yuan Xiao (Intel Labs), Mona Vij (Intel Labs), Zhenkai Liang (National University of Singapore), Adil Ahmad (Arizona State University)


[NDSS 2024] SENSE: Enhancing Microarchitectural Awareness for TEEs via Subscription-Based Notification

Fan Sang (Georgia Institute of Technology), Jaehyuk Lee (Georgia Institute of Technology), Xiaokuan Zhang (George Mason University), Meng Xu (University of Waterloo), Scott Constable (Intel), Yuan Xiao (Intel), Michael Steiner (Intel), Mona Vij (Intel), Taesoo Kim (Georgia Institute of Technology)


[US Patent 12093432, 2024] Techniques and technologies to address malicious single-stepping and zero-stepping of trusted execution environments

Scott Constable (Intel), Yuan Xiao (Intel), Bin Xing (Intel), Mona Vij (Intel), Mark Shanahan (Intel)


[USENIX Security 2023] AEX-Notify: Thwarting Precise Single-Stepping Attacks through Interrupt Awareness for Intel SGX Enclaves

Scott Constable (Intel Corporation), Jo Van Bulck (imec-DistriNet, KU Leuven), Xiang Cheng (Georgia Institute of Technology), Yuan Xiao (Intel Corporation), Cedric Xing (Intel Corporation), and Ilya Alexandrovich (Intel Corporation), Taesoo Kim (Georgia Institute of Technology), Frank Piessens (imec-DistriNet, KU Leuven), Mona Vij (Intel Corporation), Mark Silberstein (Technion)


[ISCA 2023] TEESec: Pre-Silicon Vulnerability Discovery for Trusted Execution Environments

Moein Ghaniyoun (The Ohio State University), Kristin Barber (The Ohio State University), Yuan Xiao (Intel), Yinqian Zhang (Southern University of Science and Technology), Radu Teodorescu (The Ohio State University)


[US Patent 20230409699, 2023] Method for adding security features to sgx via patch on platforms that support patch rollback

Scott Constable (Intel), Ilya Alexandrovich (Intel), Ittai Anati (Intel), Simon Johnson (Intel), Vincent Scarlata (Intel), Mona Vij (Intel), Yuan Xiao (Intel), Bin Xing (Intel), Krystof Smudzinski (Intel)


[US Patent 20230205869, 2023] Efficient exception handling in trusted execution environments

Scott Constable (Intel), Bin Xing (Intel), Yuan Xiao (Intel), Krystof Zmudzinski (Intel), Mona Vij (Intel), Mark Shanahan (Intel), Francis McKeen (Intel), Ittai Anati (Intel)


[SEED 2022] ENCLYZER: Automated Analysis of Transient Data Leaks on Intel SGX

Jiuqin Zhou (Southern University of Science and Technology), Yuan Xiao (Intel), Radu Teodorescu (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (Southern University of Science and Technology)


[Intel Patent 2021] Unpublished Intel Patent (Filed)

[Ph.D. Dissertation 2020] Automatic and Systematic Detection of Software-exploitable Hardware Vulnerabilities

Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University)


[NDSS 2020] SpeechMiner: A Framework for Investigating and Measuring Speculative Execution Vulnerabilities

Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University), Radu Teodorescu (The Ohio State University)


[NDSS 2019] OBFSCURO: A Commodity Obfuscation Engine on Intel SGX

Adil Ahmad (Purdue University), Byunggill Joe (KAIST), Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University), Insik Shin (KAIST), Byoungyoung Lee (Purdue University, Seoul National University)


[EuroS&P 2019] SgxPectre Attacks: Stealing Intel Secrets from SGX Enclaves via Speculative Execution

Guoxing Chen (The Ohio State University), Sanchuan Chen (The Ohio State University), Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University), Zhiqiang Lin (The Ohio State University), Ten H. Lai (The Ohio State University)


[CCS 2017] Stacco: Differentially Analyzing Side-Channel Traces for Detecting SSL/TLS Vulnerabilities in Secure Enclaves

Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University), Mengyuan Li (The Ohio State University), Sanchuan Chen (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University)


[CCS 2016] Return-Oriented Flush-Reload Side Channels on ARM and Their Implications for Android Devices

Xiaokuan Zhang (The Ohio State University), Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University)


[USENIX Security 2016] One Bit Flips, One Cloud Flops: Cross-VM Row Hammer Attacks and Privilege Escalation

Yuan Xiao (The Ohio State University), Xiaokuan Zhang (The Ohio State University), Yinqian Zhang (The Ohio State University), Radu Teodorescu (The Ohio State University)