Hang Zhang

Hang Zhang

Assistant Professor @ IUB

Welcome! I am an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Indiana University Bloomington. Before joining IUB, I obtained my Ph.D. degree from UC Riverside under the supervision of Prof. Zhiyun Qian, and received my postdoc training at Georgia Tech, working with Prof. Taesoo Kim.

My research area is computer system and software security, I am especially interested in devising and applying sophisticated program analysis techniques to solve practical yet challenging security problems, such as vulnerability discovery and analysis in complex software systems like OS Kernels. My past research applies different approaches (e.g., manual reverse engineering, automatic static and dynamic program analysis) to analyze different code layers (e.g., binary, IR, and source code), revealing multiple kernel security vulnerabilities and resulting in open-source security tools attracting interest from both academia and industry.

Prospective Students: I am actively looking for Ph.D. students who are passionate about computer security research. If you enjoy hacking, feel free to drop me an email with your CV and a brief self-introduction! Though not necessary, background in program analysis, reverse engineering, CTF, bug hunting, or source code level understanding of complex software (e.g., OS kernels, browsers, databases) would be advantageous.

Selected Publications

USENIX Security 23
A Hybrid Alias Analysis and Its Application to Global Variable Protection in the Linux Kernel [paper] [code]
Guoren Li, Hang Zhang, Jinmeng Zhou, Wenbo Shen, Yulei Sui and Zhiyun Qian
In Proceedings of USENIX Security 2023.
ICSE 22
Demystifying the Dependency Challenge in Kernel Fuzzing
Yu Hao, Hang Zhang, Guoren Li, Xingyun Du, Zhiyun Qian, Ardalan Amiri Sani
In Proceedings of IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2022.
CCS 21
Statically Discovering High-Order Taint Style Vulnerabilities in OS Kernels [paper] [code]
Hang Zhang, Weiteng Chen, Yu Hao, Guoren Li, Yizhuo Zhai, Xiaochen Zou, and Zhiyun Qian
In Proceedings of ACM CCS 2021.
USENIX Security 21
An Investigation of the Android Kernel Patch Ecosystem [paper] [code]
Zheng Zhang, Hang Zhang, Zhiyun Qian, and Billy Lau
In Proceedings of USENIX Security 2021.
USENIX Security 18
Precise and Accurate Patch Presence Test for Binaries [paper] [code]
Hang Zhang and Zhiyun Qian
In Proceedings of USENIX Security 2018, Baltimore, MD.
CCS 16
Android ION Hazard: the Curse of Customizable Memory Management System [paper] [website]
Hang Zhang, Dongdong She, Zhiyun Qian
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2016, Vienna, Austria.
[CVE-2015-8950] [CVE-2016-8756] [CVE-2016-8757] [CVE-2016-8758] [CVE-2017-8164] [CVE-2017-8165]
CCS 15
Android Root and its Providers: A Double-Edged Sword [paper]
Hang Zhang, Dongdong She, Zhiyun Qian
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2015, Denver, CO.
Media coverage: [ARS Technica] [Trustlook] [Marketwired]

Selected Professional Service

  • Journal Reviewer
    • IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC) 2024
    • IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE) 2023
    • Security and Communication Networks (SCN) 2022
    • ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS) 2021
  • Conference TPC Member
    • ACM CCS 2024
    • IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2024
    • EAI SecureComm 2023 - 2024
  • Sub-Reviewer
    • IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2018 - 2022
    • USENIX Security 2020, 2022 - 2023
    • ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2016 - 2019, 2023
    • Network & Distributed System Security (NDSS) 2019 - 2021
    • ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) 2021
    • ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) 2017 - 2018
    • ACM AsiaCCS 2016, 2018