Xiaolu Hou

E-mail: houxiaolu.email at gmail.com
Office: 04-03, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology
CV ,  Google Scholar,  dblp, ORCID, LinkedIn
ORCID iD icon https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4512-6921

I am currently an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia. My research focus is on hardware security of cryptographic implementations and neural networks. I design and develop novel attacks and protection techniques on protocol, hardware and software levels.

I got my PhD degree in Mathematical Sciences in May 2017 from School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. My PhD supervisor was Assoc. Prof. Frédérique Oggier. My thesis is available here.

I am looking for PhD and master students, feel free to contact me if you are interested.

Research Interests:

Book

  1. Cryptography and Embedded Systems Security
    [Springer Link] [Author's copy] [Errata]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier,
    ISBN: 978-3-031-62205-2, Springer Nature, 2024.
  2. Automated Methods in Cryptographic Fault Analysis
    [Springer Link]
    Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou, Shivam Bhasin (Eds.),
    ISBN: 978-3-030-11332-2, Springer, 2019.

Book Chapter

  1. On Implementation-Level Security of Edge-Based Machine Learning Models.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Lejla Batina, Shivam Bhasin, Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou, Dirmanto Jap,
    Security and Artificial Intelligence: A Crossdisciplinary Approach, Springer Nature, 2022.

Journal

  1. Another Look at Side-Channel-Resistant Encoding Schemes.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier, Mladen Kovačević,
    IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, no. 8, 2024.
  2. New Results on Machine Learning-Based Distinguishers.
    [PDF]
    Anubhab Baksi, Jakub Breier, Vishnu Asutosh Dasu, Xiaolu Hou, Hyunji Kim, Hwajeong Seo,
    IEEE Access, no. 11, 2023.
  3. FooBaR: Fault Fooling Backdoor Attack on Neural Network Training.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou, Martín Ochoa, Jesus Solano,
    IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), no. 3, 2023.
  4. SNIFF: reverse engineering of neural networks with fault attacks.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Dirmanto Jap, Xiaolu Hou, Shivam Bhasin, Yang Liu,
    IEEE Transactions on Reliability, no. 4 2022.
  5. How Practical are Fault Injection Attacks, Really?
    [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou
    IEEE Access, no. 10, 2022.
  6. SBCMA: Semi-Blind Combined Middle-Round Attack on Bit-Permutation Ciphers with Application to AEAD Schemes.
    [HTML]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier, Shivam Bhasin,
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2022.
  7. Constrained Proximity Attacks on Mobile Targets.
    [HTML]
    Xueou Wang, Xiaolu Hou, Ruben Rios, Nils Ole Tippenhauer, Martín Ochoa,
    ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security, no. 2, 2022.
  8. A Finer-Grain Analysis of the Leakage (Non) Resilience of OCB.
    [PDF]
    Francesco Berti, Shivam Bhasin, Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou, Romain Poussier, François-Xavier Standaert, Balazs Udvarhelyi,
    IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (TCHES), no. 1, 2022.
  9. Back To The Basics: Seamless Integration of Side-Channel Pre-processing in Deep Neural Networks.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Yoo-Seung Won, Xiaolu Hou, Dirmanto Jap, Jakub Breier, Shivam Bhasin,
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2021.
  10. Physical Security of Deep Learning on Edge Devices: Comprehensive Evaluation of Fault Injection Attack Vectors.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier, Dirmanto Jap, Lei Ma, Shivam Bhasin, Yang Liu,
    Microelectronics Reliability, Elsevier, 2021.
  11. On Evaluating Fault Resilient Encoding Schemes in Software
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou and Yang Liu,
    IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), 2021.
  12. A Countermeasure Against Statistical Ineffective Fault Analysis.
    [PDF] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Mustafa Khairallah, Xiaolu Hou, Yang Liu,
    IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems–II, no. 12, 2020.
  13. SITM: See-In-The-Middle–Side-Channel Assisted Middle Round Differential Cryptanalysis on SPN Block Ciphers.
    [PDF]
    Shivam Bhasin, Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou, Dirmanto Jap, Romain Poussier, Siang Meng Sim,
    IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (TCHES), no. 1, 2020.
  14. On Side Channel Vulnerabilities of Bit Permutations in Cryptographic Algorithms.
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Dirmanto Jap, Xiaolu Hou and Shivam Bhasin,
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2020.
  15. Fully Automated Differential Fault Analysis on Software Implementations of Block Ciphers
    [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier, Fuyuan Zhang and Yang Liu,
    IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (TCHES), no. 3, 2019.
  16. Fault Attacks Made Easy: Differential Fault Analysis Automation on Assembly Code
    [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou and Yang Liu,
    IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (TCHES), no. 2, 2018.
  17. Modular Lattices from a Variation of Construction A over Number Fields
    [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou, and Frédérique Oggier,
    Advances in Mathematics of Communications, no. 4, 2017.
  18. Construction of Arakelov-modular Lattices over Totally Definite Quaternion Algebras
    [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou,
    International Journal of Number Theory, no. 7, 2017.
  19. Hilbert spaces of entire Dirichlet series and composition operators
    [HTML]
    Xiaolu Hou, Hu Bingyang, and Le Hai Khoi,
    Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, no. 1, 2013.
  20. Composition operators on Hilbert spaces of entire Dirichlet series
    [HTML]
    Xiaolu Hou, Hu Bingyang, and Le Hai Khoi,
    Comptes Rendus Mathematique, no. 19–20, 2012.
  21. Some properties of composition operators on entire Dirichlet series with real frequencies
    [HTML]
    Xiaolu Hou, and Le Hai Khoi,
    Comptes Rendus Mathematique, no. 3–4, 2012.

Conference Proceedings

  1. A Desynchronization-Based Countermeasure Against Side-Channel Analysis of Neural Networks
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Dirmanto Jap, Xiaolu Hou, and Shivam Bhasin,
    The International Symposium on Cyber Security, Cryptology and Machine Learning (CSCML) 2023.
  2. DNFA: Differential No-Fault Analysis of Bit Permutation Based Ciphers Assisted by Side-Channel
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier and Shivam Bhasin,
    IEEE Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference (DATE) 2021, France.
  3. Security Evaluation of Deep Neural Network Resistance Against Laser Fault Injection
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Xiaolu Hou, Jakub Breier, Dirmanto Jap, Lei Ma, Shivam Bhasin and Yang Liu,
    IEEE International Symposium on the Physical and Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits (IPFA) 2020, Singapore.
  4. SoK: On DFA Vulnerabilities of Substitution-Permutation Networks
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Mustafa Khairallah, Xiaolu Hou, Zakaria Najm, Jakub Breier, Shivam Bhasin, Thomas Peyrin,
    ACM SIGSAC Asia Conference on Computer & Communications Security (AsiaCCS) 2019, Auckland, New Zealand.
  5. Poster: Practical Fault Attack on Deep Neural Networks
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, Xiaolu Hou, Dirmanto Jap, Lei Ma, Shivam Bhasin and Yang Liu,
    ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2018, Toronto, Canada.
  6. Location Proximity Attacks against Mobile Targets: Analytical Bounds and Attacker Strategies
    [HTML]
    Xueou Wang, Xiaolu Hou, Ruben Rios, Per Hallgren, Nils Tippenhauer and Martin Ochoa,
    European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS) 2018, Barcelona, Spain.
  7. Feeding Two Cats with One Bowl: On Designing a Fault and Side-Channel Resistant Software Encoding Scheme
    [HTML] [PDF]
    Jakub Breier, and Xiaolu Hou,
    Cryptographers' Track at the RSA Conference (CT-RSA) 2017, San Francisco, US.
  8. On LCD Codes and Lattices
    [HTML]
    Xiaolu Hou, and Frédérique Oggier,
    IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 2016, Barcelona, Spain.
  9. Construction and Secrecy Gain of a Family of 5-modular Lattices
    [HTML]
    Xiaolu Hou, Fuchun Lin, and Frédérique Oggier,
    IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW) 2014, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.