Pieces
Pieces is a highly programmable language-agnostic automatic program compartmentalization framework. Pieces can be programmed to partition programs based on various criteria, including methods of isolation between compartments.
About
I am an assistant professor in the CSE Departmant at PennState. I am also part of the Institute for Networking and Security Research. I graduated from Purdue University, where i was part of FRIENDS and PurSec labs under the guidance of Prof. Dongyan Xu and Prof. Dave (Jing) Tian. Other than that I also work closely with Prof. Antonio Bianchi.
My research focuses on advancing the fields of systems and security by exploring innovative architectures and uncovering critical security vulnerabilities in confidential computing and operating systems. I specialize in resource-constrained environments, particularly embedded systems, which power a wide range of critical domains, including automotive, industrial control systems, and robotics. My goal is to develop secure by design, efficient solutions that drive the future of these cutting-edge technologies.
I’m looking for highly-motivated students. If you are interested in working with me, drop me an email.
Publications
Ruoyu Wu, Muqi Zou, Arslan Khan, Taegyu Kim, Dongyan Xu, Dave (Jing) Tian, Antonio Bianchi, NeuroScope: Reverse Engineering Deep Neural Network on Edge Devices using Dynamic Analysis. 34th USENIX Security Symposium (Security’25), Seattle, WA, August 2025. Paper
Muqi Zou, Arslan Khan, Ruoyu Wu, Han Gao, Antonio Bianchi, and Dave (Jing) Tian. D-Helix: A Generic Decompiler Testing Framework Using Symbolic Differentiation. 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (Security’24), Philadelphia, PA, USA, August 2024. Paper
Syed Ghazanfar Abbas, Muslum Ozgur Ozmen, Abdulellah Alsaheel, Arslan Khan, Z. Berkay Celik, and Dongyan Xu. SAIN: Improving ICS Attack Detection Sensitivity via State-Aware Invariants. 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (Security’24), Philadelphia, PA, USA, August 2024. Paper
Arslan Khan, Muqi Zou, Kyungtae Kim, Dongyan Xu, Antonio Bianchi, and Dave Jing Tian. “Fuzzing SGX Enclaves via Host Program Mutations”. In: 2023 IEEE 8th European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P). 2023. Paper
Arslan Khan, Dongyan Xu, and Dave Jing Tian. “EC: Embedded Systems Compartmentalization via Intra-Kernel Isolation”. In: 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P). 2023. Paper
Arslan Khan, Dongyan Xu, and Dave Jing Tian. “Low-Cost Privilege Separation with Compile Time Compartmentalization for Embedded Systems”. In: 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P). 2023. Paper
Arslan Khan, Joseph I. Choi, Dave Jing Tian, Tyler Ward, Kevin R. B. Butler, Patrick Traynor, John M. Shea, and Tan F. Wong. “Privacy-Preserving Localization using Enclaves”. In: 2021 IEEE 12th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON). Best Presentation Award. 2021, pp. 0269–0278. Paper
Arslan Khan, Hyungsub Kim, Byoungyoung Lee, Dongyan Xu, Antonio Bianchi, and Dave Jing Tian. “M2MON: Building an MMIO-based Security Reference Monitor for Unmanned Vehicles.” In: USENIX Security Symposium. 2021, pp. 285–302. Paper
Projects
SeRTOS
Security Enhahnced FreeRTOS (SeRTOS) is a security enhahnced version of the famous RTOS, FreeRTOS. It has compile time privilege separation and other cool security features.
Interests
Apart from being a security researcher, i like to travel and hike. I've visited most of Northeren Pakistan and various places around the US. When forced indoors, I like to play games (I have achieved ELO of 1700+ on Age Of Empires using unconventional methods), learn new instruments and play with synthesizers. Here's some music i've written over the years.