Contact Details
dr. ing. Roel Verdult
email: rverdult@cs.ru.nl
phone: +31 (0)24 3652599
Digital Security (DS), ICIS
Mercator 1 building, office 2.12
Toernooiveld 212
6525 EC Nijmegen
Personal
Roel Verdult is scientific researcher at the Radboud University Nijmegen. He played an important role in the research that uncovered
the serious security weaknesses in the widely deployed MIFARE Classic RFID tag. This is a contactless smartcard that is sold more
than a billion times and used in several public transport systems around the world (including the nation wide ov-chipkaart in the Netherlands
and Oyster card in Londen). The impact is even more serious for MIFARE Classic access control systems of highly secured facilities like
ministries, military bases, banks, nuclear power plants and prisons.
Roel is currently a member of the Digital Security group at the Radboud University Nijmegen. His research covers a variety of security
topics which include (but are not limited to) the electronic passports, contactless smartcards, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID),
Near Field Communication (NFC), secure storage, authentication protocols and other types of transmission security. His research work and
publications are honored with several national and international awards.
Digital Security group
The Digital Security (DS) group works on a broad range of topics in relation to computer security including applied cryptography,
security protocols, smartcards and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and researching the security and accuracy of software.
DS is also involved in research relating to digital security (such as privacy and e-voting), and the interaction between computer science,
cryptography and law. The DS group has an excellent reputation for its work and in particular, its well-chosen mix of practical and theoretical
research. In the 2012 national research assessment of computer science, the Digital Security group was rated “excellent” in all categories.
Radboud University Nijmegen was the first university in the Netherlands to run a Bachelor programme in Cyber Security in 2013.
In addition to its own independent work, the Digital Security group collaborates with other organisations including the Netherlands
Forensic Institute (Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice), the National Police Services Agency (Dutch National Police Force) and
the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (Secret Service of the Netherlands).
The Digital Security group is a member of the European Network of Excellence for Cryptology II (ECRYPT II), a 4-5 year network of
excellence funded within the Information Societies Technology Programme of the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme
under contract number ICT-2007-216676. ECRYPT II’s objective is to continue intensifying the collaboration of European researchers
in information security.
Publications 
PIE: Parser Identification in Embedded Systems
Lucian Cojocar, Jonas Zaddach, Roel Verdult, Herbert Bos, Aurélien Francillon, Davide Balzarotti
31st Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC 2015)
Los Angeles CA, USA. ACM, 2015.
Defeating IMSI Catchers
Fabian van den Broek, Roel Verdult, Joeri de Ruiter
22nd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2015)
Denver CO, USA, pages 340-351. ACM, 2015.
Ciphertext-only Cryptanalysis on Hardened Mifare Classic Cards
Carlo Meijer, Roel Verdult
22nd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2015)
Denver CO, USA, pages 18-30. ACM, 2015.
Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobilizer
( Special Paper Presentation )
Roel Verdult, Flavio D. Garcia, Bariş Ege
22nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 2013)
Washington DC, USA, pages 703-718. USENIX Association, 2015.
Scrutinizing WPA2 Password Generating Algorithms in Wireless Routers
( Best Student Paper Award )
Eduardo Novella Lorente, Carlo Meijer, and Roel Verdult
9th USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT 2015)
Washington DC, USA. USENIX Association, 2015.
Wirelessly Lockpicking a Smart Card Reader
Flavio D. Garcia, Gerhard de Koning Gans, Roel Verdult
International Journal of Information Security (IJIS)
Berlin / Heidelberg, volume 13, number 5, pages 403-420. Springer-Verlag, 2014.
more publications ...
Doctoral Dissertation
The (in)security of proprietary cryptography
Digital Security group, Institute for Computing and Information Sciences, Radboud University, The Netherlands.
Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography, Electrical Engineering Department, KU Leuven, Belgium.
International Awards
Best Student Paper Award
USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies 2015, Augustus 2015
International Hermesdorf Prize
Radboud University Nijmegen award for special attention in the media during 2013, January 2014
Best Paper Award
USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies 2011, Augustus 2011
Outstanding Paper Award
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2009, May 2009
Best Master Thesis
Aia Software Master Thesis Award, January 2009
National student of the year
Dutch award was presented by LSVB, ISO and ScienceGuide, November 2008
Information Security Award
Joop Bautz nomination, October 2008,
NWO I/O Award
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for breaking insecure computer chips, September 2008
Gratuity for the MIFARE Classic research
Radboud University Nijmegen, September 2008