Robert Primas

Dipl.-Ing. BSc

PhD Students, Team Mangard

Mario Werner is a PhD candidate, supervised by Prof. Stefan Mangard, in the Secure Systems (SESYS) research group of the IAIK. His main research interest is the development of processor extensions that are easy to use and provide strong security properties. Mario received his Master's degree (with distinction) in 2014 from Graz University of Technology where he studied Information and Computer Engineering. His thesis, titled Control-Flow Integrity: Compiler Assisted Signature Monitoring, deals with protecting processors against physical attacks and introduced Mario to his current research field.
+43 (316) 873 - 5504
robert.primas@iaik.tugraz.at
Robert Primas

Research

Mario primarily works on the development of processor extensions and modifications (incl. LLVM compiler support) that enable the construction of general-purpose processor architectures with strong security capabilities. Here, he particularly focuses on the development of countermeasures and techniques against powerful physical attacks that are widely applicable to embedded systems. An example for such a technique is the memory encryption and authentication framework MEMSEC (code) that prevents physical tampering and can even withstand side-channel analysis. Another interesting example, which received a best paper award at EuroS&P 2018, is a sponge-based CFI scheme that protects against software attacks (e.g., code-reuse) as well as physical fault injection.

Teaching

Besides supervising numerous internships as well as Bachelor and Master Theses, Mario is also involved in teaching, preparing, and grading the following courses:

  • (since 2014) System-on-Chip Architectures and Modelling
  • (since 2019) Computer Organization
  • (since 2019) Computer Organization and Networks