Professor David Oswald

Professor David Oswald

School of Computer Science
Professor in Computer Security
Head of Research of Computer Science

Contact details

Email
d.f.oswald@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Computer Science
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

David Oswald is a Full Professor in the Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy at the University 麻豆精选, UK. His main field of research is the security of embedded systems and trusted execution. On the one hand, the focus is on attack methods that exploit weaknesses in the physical implementation of mathematically secure cryptographic algorithms. Those techniques include both (passive) side-channel analysis and (active) fault injection, as well as reverse engineering.

On the other hand, David is working on the practical realization of security systems in embedded applications. His research on vulnerabilities of various wide-spread systems (e.g. DESFire RFID smartcards, VW/Hitag2 RKE systems, and Intel SGX) has created awareness for the crucial importance of security among developers of embedded devices.

For more information please visit David's

Qualifications

  • PhD (“Dr.-Ing.”) in IT Security (Ruhr-University Bochum) 2013
  • Combined MSc/BSc in IT Security (“Dipl.-Ing.”) 2009

Postgraduate supervision

  • Murdock, main supervisor, since 2018: FaultFinder: From Faulty Output to Fault Model --- An Automated Approach

  • Pemberton, main supervisor, since 2018: BioLeak: Side-Channel Analysis of Fingerprint Matching Algorithms

  • Aldoseri, main supervisor since 2018: Security of TEEs

  • Zhang, main supervisor since 2019: Next-generation security protocols for medical devices

  • Spielman, main supervisor since 2021: SCAvenger - Attacking Machine Learning with Side Channel Attacks
  • Jacqueline, main supervisor since 2021: Capability architectures: attacks and defenses

Research

  • Embedded system security

  • IoT, RFID and wireless communication

  • Real-world implementation attacks

  • Side-channel analysis

  • Trusted Execution Environments

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Jackson, J, Jiang, M & Oswald, D 2025, '', IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, vol. 2025, no. 2, pp. 268-292.

Chen, Z & Oswald, D 2023, '', IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, vol. 2023, no. 2, pp. 1-23.

Conference contribution

De Meulemeester, J, Wilke, L, Oswald, D, Eisenbarth , T, Verbauwhede, I & Van Bulck, J 2025, . in 2025 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP): San Francisco, CA, USA, 2025. 1 edn, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, IEEE, pp. 104-104, 46th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, San Francisco, California, United States, 12/05/25.

Zhang, C, Yang, X, Oswald, D, Ryan, M & Jovanovic, P 2025, . in 46th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, IEEE, 46th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, San Francisco, California, United States, 12/05/25.

Henes, J, Muench, M, Oswald, D & Ragab, H 2025, . in 2025: Proceedings of the Microarchitecture Security Conference (uASC '25). Proceedings of the Microarchitecture Security Conference, vol. 1, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, 1st Microarchitecture Security Conference, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 19/02/25.

Murdock, K, Thompson, M & Oswald, D 2024, . in ASHES '24: Proceedings of the 2024 Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 8th Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 18/10/24.

Zhang, M, Marin, E, Ryan, M, Kostakos, V, Murray, T, Tag, B & Oswald, D 2024, . in 2024 21st Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST). Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust, IEEE.

Bowden, M, Chothia, T, Clee, A, Collins, S, Henes, J & Oswald, D 2024, . in P Legg, N Coull & C Clarke (eds), Advances in Teaching and Learning for Cyber Security Education. 1 edn, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol. 1213, Springer, pp. 75鈥�95, The 4th Annual Advances in Cyber Security Education, Bristol, United Kingdom, 2/07/24.

Pemberton, O & Oswald, D 2023, . in ASHES '23: Proceedings of the 2023 Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security. CCS: Computer and Communications Security, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), pp. 61鈥�72, 2023 Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security (ASHES 鈥�23), Copenhagen, Denmark, 30/11/23.

Van Strydonck , T, Noorman , J, Jackson, J, Dias, L, Vanderstraeten , R, Oswald, D, Piessens, F & Devriese , D 2023, . in EuroS&P - 8th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy. IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, IEEE, pp. 1143-1159, 8th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, Delft, Netherlands, 3/07/23.

Alder, F, Daniel, L-A, Oswald, D, Piessens, F & Van Bulck, J 2023, . in 2024 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP). Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy , IEEE, 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, San Francisco, California, United States, 20/05/24.

Xu, Z, Pemberton, O, Oswald, D & Zheng, Z 2023, . in International Conference on Smart Card Research and Advanced Applications: CARDIS 2022: Smart Card Research and Advanced Applications. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 13820, Springer, pp. 227鈥�247, 21st Smart Card Research and Advanced Application Conference, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 7/11/22.

Preprint

Spielman, J, Oswald, D, Ryan, M & Van Bulck, J 2025 '' arXiv. <>

Wang, Q & Oswald, D 2024 '' arXiv.

Zhang, C, Yang, X, Oswald, D, Ryan, M & Jovanovic, P 2024 '' Cryptology ePrint Archive. <>