Please distribute (apologies for multiple postings): =============================== Two PhD positions in LIAFA <http://www.liafa.univ-paris-diderot.fr/index_en.php> ================== Contact: Tayssir TOUILI <http://www.liafa.jussieu.fr/%7Etouili/> (touili@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@liafa.univ-paris-diderot.fr)