publications

2024

1. USENIX Sec

   Indirector: High-Precision Branch Target Injection Attacks Exploiting the Indirect Branch Predictor

   Hosein Yavarzadeh, Luyi Li, and Dean Tullsen

   In 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24), Aug 2024

   *Joint first authorship

   USENIX Security Distinguished Paper Bib HTML

   Distinguished Paper Award Winner

   @inproceedings{li2024indirector,
     title = {Indirector: {High-Precision} Branch Target Injection Attacks Exploiting the Indirect Branch Predictor},
     author = {Yavarzadeh, Hosein and Li, Luyi and Tullsen, Dean},
     booktitle = {33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24)},
     year = {2024},
     month = aug,
     address = {Philadelphia, PA},
     pages = {2137--2154},
     publisher = {USENIX Association},
     url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity24/presentation/li-luyi},
     note = {*Joint first authorship}
   }

2. ASPLOS

   Pathfinder: High-Resolution Control-Flow Attacks Exploiting the Conditional Branch Predictor

   Hosein Yavarzadeh, Archit Agarwal, Max Christman, Christina Garman, Daniel Genkin, Andrew Kwong, Daniel Moghimi, Deian Stefan, Kazem Taram, and Dean Tullsen

   In International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS), Apr 2024

   Reverse engineering and exploitation of modern conditional branch predictors

   Bib HTML Video

   @inproceedings{yavarzadeh2024pathfinder,
     title = {Pathfinder: High-Resolution Control-Flow Attacks Exploiting the Conditional Branch Predictor},
     author = {Yavarzadeh, Hosein and Agarwal, Archit and Christman, Max and Garman, Christina and Genkin, Daniel and Kwong, Andrew and Moghimi, Daniel and Stefan, Deian and Taram, Kazem and Tullsen, Dean},
     booktitle = {International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS)},
     year = {2024},
     month = apr,
     url = {https://mktrm.github.io/files/pathfinder-asplos24.pdf},
     artifact = {https://github.com/hoseinyavarzadeh/Pathfinder_Attack},
     note = {Reverse engineering and exploitation of modern conditional branch predictors}
   }

2023

1. IEEE S&P

   Half&Half: Demystifying Intel’s Directional Branch Predictors for Fast, Secure Partitioned Execution

   Hosein Yavarzadeh, Mohammadkazem Taram, Shravan Narayan, Deian Stefan, and Dean Tullsen

   In 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), May 2023

   High-performance control-flow isolation against branch-prediction side channels

   Bib HTML

   @inproceedings{yavarzadeh2023halfnhalf,
     title = {Half\&Half: Demystifying Intel’s Directional Branch Predictors for Fast, Secure Partitioned Execution},
     author = {Yavarzadeh, Hosein and Taram, Mohammadkazem and Narayan, Shravan and Stefan, Deian and Tullsen, Dean},
     booktitle = {2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S\&P)},
     year = {2023},
     month = may,
     pages = {1220--1237},
     publisher = {IEEE},
     url = {https://mktrm.github.io/files/halfandhalf_sp23.pdf},
     note = {High-performance control-flow isolation against branch-prediction side channels}
   }