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

[Tayssir Touili]

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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