Arslan Khan

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. Close

Home

Education

Purdue University
Doctor of Philosophy - Computer Science
August 2018 - November 2023
Purdue University
Masters of Science - Computer Science
Requirements fulfilled.
University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
August 2010 - May 2015

Professional Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher
Purdue University

Working on embedded systems security and program analysis technologies.

December 2023 - Current
Interim Engineering Intern
Qualcomm

Worked on enhahcing Qualcomm's Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) OS (QSEE/QTEE)

Summer 2022, 2023
Senior Software Developer
Mentor Graphics

Worked on design and rework of Nucleus RTOS for Industry 4.0.

Jul 2016 – Jul 2018
Software Developer
Mentor Graphics

Worked on the design and development of Mentor Embedded Hypervisor.

Jun 2015 – Jul 2016
Intern
Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS)

Developed POC for various systems mostly inclined to concentrated solar energy such as heliostats, parabolic troughs and fresnels.

Summer 2014

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

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.

Pieces Logo

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.

SeRTOS Logo

Teaching Experience

Guest Lectures:
  • CS52700 (Software Security): Gave lecture on Software Compartmentalization. (Class taught by Dr. Antonio Bianchi)
  • CS59200-TCC (Trusted and Confidential Computing): Class lead, lead discussions for various topics. (Class taught by Dr. Dave (Jing) Tian)
  • CS 590 (IoT/CPS Security): Gave lecture on Trusted and Confidential Computing (TCC). (Class taught by Dr. Berkay Celik)

Mentoring Experience

Pursec Mentees:
Graduate Researchers:
  • Muqi Zou (PhD): (PhD Purdue University)
    Project: Fuzzing SGX programs using program mutations
  • Syed Ghazanfar Abbas (PhD): (PhD Purdue University)
    Project: Securing industrial control systems using compartmentalization and invariant enforcement.
  • Arush Arora (PhD): (PhD Purdue University)
    Project: Securing TOR networks using trusted computing.
Undergraduate Researchers:
  • Seunghyun Yeo (Victor) (SNU):
    Project: Architecture-independent enclave Migration using Open Enclave.
  • Sai Raj Karra (Software Engineer at Apple):
    Project: Fingerprinting Linux kernel using trusted execution.
  • Joseph Hsu (Computer Scientist at Air Force Research Lab):
    Project: Dynamic firmware analysis using ARM Coresight.
  • Jack Xiang (Passion Fin):
    Project: Fingerprinting Linux kernel using trusted execution.
Purdue CSGSA Mentees :
2022
  • Li, Lixiang (PhD): PhD Purdue University
  • Chen, Xuan (PhD): PhD Purdue University
  • Sree Sai Ankit Rao Pittala (MS): MS Purdue University
  • Devin Attila Ersoy (MS): MS Purdue University (Interned at Signify)
  • Rucha Shrikant Deshpande(MS): MS Purdue University
  • Terzoglou, Athina (PhD): PhD Purdue University
  • Basile, Dante John Artas (PhD): PhD Purdue University
  • Luo, Xinyu (PhD): PhD Purdue University
2021
  • Janani Vijayarajan (M.S) - Software Engineer, R&D at Axtria - Ingenious Insight
  • Natarajan, Abhiram (Phd) - EPSRC postdoctoral fellow at University of Warwick (Previously, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder)
  • Wu, Shuang (Phd) - Ph.D. candidate in Statistics at University of California, Los Angeles
  • Benjamin Bond (PhD) - Ph.D. Purdue University (Interned at Idaho National Lab)
  • William Lu (PhD) - PhD Purdue University (Interned at Google and Microsoft)

Professional Services

  • Program Comittee (PC): IEEE/ACM Workshop on the Internet of Safe Things (SafeThings 2024), Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC 2024)
  • Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC): USENIX Security 2022, EuroSys 2023, ACM CCS 2023
  • External Reviewer:
    • USENIX Security 2023-24
    • IEEE S&P 2021
    • NDSS 2021

Engagement, Diversity, and Outreach Activities

  • Lead Graduate Student - PURSEC Lab (2020–2023)
  • Organized the security reading group at Purdue and managed research logistics for PURSEC.

  • President - Computer Science Graduate Student Association (2022–2023)
  • Organized various activities for the graduate student association and computer science department.

  • Ombudsperson - Computer Science Department (Fall 2018 - 2023)
  • Part of the Ombuds Services program at Purdue Graduate School.

  • Diversity Coordinator
  • Part of the Diversity Task Force at Purdue CS.

  • Faculty Search Committee Representative
  • Part of the faculty search/recruitment process at Purdue CS.


Awards & Certifications


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.

arslan_khan_8 · Arslan