[FM-India] Two PhD positions in LIAFA, Paris, France: Software verification and Model-checking for malware detection

[Madhavan Mukund]

 Please distribute (apologies for multiple postings):
 
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 Two PhD positions in LIAFA 
 <http://www.liafa.univ-paris-diderot.fr/index_en.php>
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 Contact: Tayssir TOUILI <http://www.liafa.jussieu.fr/%7Etouili/> 
 (touili at liafa.univ-paris-diderot.fr)
 
 Two PhD positions are available in the "Verification" team in LIAFA,
 Paris.
 
 
 *Subject 1: Software  verification**
 **------------------------------------------*
 
 The subject of the thesis is about concurrent programs verification.
 The PhD student is expected to investigate and develop novel
 techniques, algorithms and tools for the analysis of software.
 
 Indeed, nowadays, software is everywhere: in telecommunication, in
 navigation, in nuclear plants, etc.  The tasks that software deal
 with are becoming more and more complex and critical, in the sense
 that any small error can cause huge human and/or economical
 damages. Therefore, it is crucial to be sure that a software does not
 contain any error before using it.  Programmers need then to have
 rigorous formal mathematical techniques that allow to verify and
 check their programs.  Unfortunately, programs present several
 complex features that make their analysis very complex: concurrency,
 synchronisation, recursion, procedure calls, pointers, manipulation
 of integer and real variables, etc.  Thus, the objective of this
 thesis is to develop new techniques for software model-checking that
 can deal with all these complex features.
 
 *Subject 2: Model-checking for malware detection*
 *-----------------------------------------------------------------*
 
 The topic of the thesis is the development of new original
 model-checking and static analysis techniques for malware detection.
 Indeed, the number of malwares is growing extraordinarily fast.
 Therefore, it is important to have efficient malware detectors.  To
 identify viruses, existing antivirus systems use either code
 emulation or signature (pattern) detection.  These techniques have
 some limitations. Indeed, emulation based techniques can only check
 the program's behavior in a limited time interval, whereas signature
 based systems are easy to get around.  To sidestep these limitations,
 instead of executing the program or making a syntactic check over it,
 virus detectors need to use analysis techniques that check the
 /*behavior*/ (not the syntax) of the program in a /*static*/ way,
 i.e.  without executing it.  Towards this aim, we propose in this
 thesis to develop new /*model-checking*/ and /*static analysis */
 techniques for virus detection.
 
 *How to apply:**
 **==========*

 The positions are available immediately. Candidates must have a
 master in computer science.

 The candidate must send a CV, university grades, recommendation
 letters, and a motivation letter to Tayssir TOUILI
 (touili at liafa.univ-paris-diderot.fr)

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