About
Zhibo Liu (刘智博)
- ROLE
- Associate Professor @ School of Computer Science, Nanjing University
- LOCATION
- Nanjing, China
- FOCUS
- Software Security, AI Security, Binary Analysis, Reverse Engineering
- STATS
- 30 publications · 2 distinguished paper awards
- UPDATED
- June 2026
Zhibo Liu has been an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at Nanjing University since 2026.
Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2023 to 2025, supported by the HK RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme.
He obtained his Ph.D. in 2023 from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at HKUST, under the supervision of Prof. Shuai Wang. Before joining HKUST, he received his B.Eng. degree from Nankai University in 2019.
His current research focuses on software reverse engineering and binary analysis, with broader interests in computer security and software engineering.
Contact
{
"message": "Feel free to reach out!",
"email": "zhiboliu [at] nju [dot] edu [dot] cn",
"location": "Nanjing, China",
"address": "163 Xianlin Avenue, Qixia District, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China",
"office": "Xianlin Campus, Computer Science and Technology Building 706",
"github": "github.com/monkbai",
"scholar": "scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=kIsmHd4AAAAJ",
"dblp": "dblp.org/pid/193/9286-1.html",
"orcid": "orcid.org/0000-0002-7872-1129",
"cv": "files/CV-Zhibo_Liu.pdf",
"website": "monkbai.github.io"
}
News
2026.02
NEW
Joined Nanjing University.
2025.05
AWARD
CipherSteal (IEEE S&P 2025) received a Distinguished Paper Award.
2024.12
TALK
Black Hat Europe talk on side-channel and bit-flip attack surfaces in DNN executables.
2024.03
AWARD
Received HKUST CSE Best PhD Dissertation Award (2022-23) - Honorable Mention.
2023.12
AWARD
Supported by HK RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (PDFS).
2023.09
AWARD
ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at ASE 2023.
2023.08
TALK
Presented 'BTD: Unleashing the Power of Decompilation for x86 Deep Neural Network Executables' at Black Hat USA 2023.
Experience and education
experience: - role: Associate Professor institution: School of Computer Science, Nanjing University period: Jan 2026 – Present - role: Postdoctoral Researcher institution: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology period: Oct 2023 – Dec 2025 education: - degree: Ph.D. in Computer Science institution: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology period: Sept 2019 – Sept 2023 - degree: B.E. in Information Security institution: Nankai University period: Sept 2015 – June 2019
Publications
Selected publications (15)
(* denotes corresponding author)
year
paper
2025
An Empirical Study Measuring In-The-Wild Cryptographic Microarchitectural Side-Channel Patches
[paper]
DecLLM: LLM-Augmented Recompilable Decompilation for Enabling Programmatic Use of Decompiled Code
[paper]
Preserving Privacy in Software Composition Analysis: A Study of Technical Solutions and Enhancements
[paper]
CipherSteal: Stealing Input Data from TEE-Shielded Neural Networks with Ciphertext Side Channels
[paper]
2024
DeepCache: Revisiting Cache Side-Channel Attacks in Deep Neural Networks Executables
[paper][fixed_paper]
Are We There Yet? Filling the Gap Between ML-Based Binary Similarity Analysis and Binary Software Composition Analysis
[paper]
full list
Full publication list
year
paper
2025
The Phantom Menace in PET-Hardened Deep Learning Models: Invisible Configuration-Induced Attacks
[paper]
An Empirical Study Measuring In-The-Wild Cryptographic Microarchitectural Side-Channel Patches
[paper]
DecLLM: LLM-Augmented Recompilable Decompilation for Enabling Programmatic Use of Decompiled Code
[paper]
Preserving Privacy in Software Composition Analysis: A Study of Technical Solutions and Enhancements
[paper]
CipherSteal: Stealing Input Data from TEE-Shielded Neural Networks with Ciphertext Side Channels
[paper]
Compiled Models, Built-In Exploits: Uncovering Pervasive Bit-Flip Attack Surfaces in DNN Executables
[paper]
2024
The Devil is in the (Micro-) Architectures: Uncovering New Side-Channel and Bit-Flip Attack Surfaces in DNN Executables
[talk]
DeepCache: Revisiting Cache Side-Channel Attacks in Deep Neural Networks Executables
[paper][fixed_paper]
HyperTheft: Thieving Model Weights from TEE-Shielded Neural Networks via Ciphertext Side Channels
[paper]
Are We There Yet? Filling the Gap Between ML-Based Binary Similarity Analysis and Binary Software Composition Analysis
[paper]
Evaluating C/C++ Vulnerability Detectability of Query-Based Static Application Security Testing Tools
[paper]
CacheQL: Quantifying and Localizing Cache Side-Channel Vulnerabilities in Production Software
[paper][code]
2022
Enhancing DNN-Based Binary Code Function Search With Low-Cost Equivalence Checking
[paper][code]
Services
Young Assistant Editor
- 2026-2029: Frontiers of Computer Science (FCS)
Program Committee Member
- 2026: CCS
Reviewer
- 2026: TDSC
- 2025: TDSC, TIFS, TOSEM, TPDS
- 2024: TDSC
- 2023: TIFS, TDSC
Artifact Evaluation Committee
- 2023: USENIX Security, ISSTA
- 2022: ISSTA, OSDI, USENIX ATC, WiSec
External Reviewer
- 2025: IEEE S&P
- 2024: IEEE S&P, USENIX Security
- 2023: IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, ISSTA, NeurIPS, SANER ERA Track
- 2022: ASE, NDSS BAR, CCS, AsiaCCS
- 2020: TIFS, ICICS, ICSE SEIP
Teaching
2023
TA
Teaching Assistant for COMP 3632: Principles of Cybersecurity (HKUST, Spring 2023)
2020
TA
Teaching Assistant for COMP 3632: Principles of Cybersecurity (HKUST, Fall 2020)
2020
TA
Teaching Assistant for COMP 3632: Principles of Cybersecurity (HKUST, Spring 2020)
Honors
2025
AWARD
IEEE S&P Distinguished Paper Award
2024
AWARD
Black Hat Europe Briefing Speaker (London, UK)
2023
AWARD
HK RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme
2023
AWARD
HKUST CSE Best PhD Dissertation Award (2022-23) - Honorable Mention
2023
AWARD
ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at ASE 2023
2023
AWARD
Black Hat USA Briefing Speaker (Las Vegas, USA)
2019-2023
AWARD
HKUST Postgraduate Studentship
2022
AWARD
HKUST Research Travel Grant
2022
AWARD
HKUST RedBird Academic Excellence Award
Miscellaneous
The Good, the Bad, and the Bye Bye by Yanick 'reyammer' Fratantonio