Alireza
Mehrdad

Since 2024, I started my new role as a security engineer at UL Solutions. In my role, I evaluate and test the security of embedded products by conducting advanced attacks and analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. This involves reviewing security protocols, conducting product analysis, preparing samples, developing scripts, and more to evaluate the security of embedded products effectively.

I did my Ph.D. under the supervision of professor Joan Daemen in the Digital Security group at Radboud University in Nijmegen. The focus of my research was on the design and analysis of symmetric cryptographic primitives, which specifically covers differential and linear cryptanalysis of Permutation Based Cryptographic (PBC) primitives.

During my Ph.D., I completed an internship at SGS Brightsight, where I worked as a security evaluator specializing in fault injection (FI) attacks. In this role, I engaged in a range of activities, including product analysis, sample preparation, and script development for fault injection experiments. I gained expertise in various fault injection techniques such as voltage manipulation (VM), electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) and light manipulation (LM), and assessed the impact of these manipulations on the targeted products.

I did my master's degree under the supervision of Dr. Farokhlagha Moazami and Dr. Hadi Soleimany in the Network Security and Cryptography group at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. I mostly worked on cryptanalysis of Authenticated Encryption (AE) schemes and more specifically candidates of CAESAR (Competition for Authenticated Encryption: Security, Applicability, and Robustness).

Ph.D. (2019 to present)
Digital security
Institute for Computing and Information Sciences
Radboud University, Nijmegen, Gelderland, NL

Master of science (2015 to 2018)
Network Security and Cryptography
Cyberspace Research Institute
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Tehran, IR

Bachelor of science (2011 to 2015)
Electrical Engineering
Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Mazandaran, IR

Mehrdad, A. (2024). Trail Search: Discovering the Perfect Path for Adventure. PhD defence.

Amiri Eliasi, P., Belkheyar, Y., Daemen, J., Ghosh, S., Kuijsters, D., Mehrdad, A., Mella, S., Rasoolzadeh, S. & Van Assche, G. (2024). Koala: A Low-Latency Pseudorandom Function. Selected Areas in Cryptography (SAC) 2024 - 31st International Conference.

Mella, S., Mehrdad, A. & Daemen, J. (2023). Differential and Linear Properties of Vectorial Boolean Functions Based on Chi. Cryptography and Communications. 15, 1087–1116.

El Hirch, S., Mella, S., Mehrdad, A. & Daemen, J. (2022). Improved Differential and Linear Trail Bounds for ASCON. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, 145-178.

Mehrdad, A., Mella, S. & Daemen, J. (2022). Distribution of Linear Approximations over the Non-linear Mapping Chi. The 7th International Workshop on Boolean Functions and their Applications.

Mehrdad, A., Mella, S., Grassi, L. & Daemen, J. (2022). Differential Trail Search in Cryptographic Primitives with Big-Circle Chi: Application to Subterranean. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, 253-288.

Daemen, J., Mehrdad, A. & Mella, S. (2021). Computing the distribution of differentials over the non-linear mapping χ. International Conference on Security, Privacy and Applied Cryptographic Engineering.

Daemen, J., Massolino, P. M. C., Mehrdad, A. & Rotella, Y. (2020). The Subterranean 2.0 Cipher Suite. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, 262-294.

Mehrdad, A., Moazami, F. & Soleimany, H. (2018). Impossible Differential Cryptanalysis on Deoxys-BC-256. ISeCure, 10(2).

2021-2022: Teaching assistant for Security course (NWI-IPC021) by Joan Daemen, Simona Samardjiska and Katharina Kohls.

2020-2021: Teaching assistant for Security course (NWI-IPC021) by Joan Daemen, Simona Samardjiska and Katharina Kohls.

2019-2020: Teaching assistant for Security course (NWI-IPC021) by Joan Daemen and Zekeriya Erkin.

Email: Alireza.Mehrdad@ru.nl