Davide Balzarotti

Together with @mrjimmyblack.com (and Claude) we developed a tool that helps detecting hallucinated references in academic papers! This evolved from a simple python script into a full system written in Rust to quickly go through thousands of citations. Check it out!

github.com/gianlucasb/h...

Hello security researchers! Like it or not, agentic AI is here. It’s time to explore its impact on novel, academic research in cybersecurity. To this end, we’re launching the Conference for Synthetic Security Research (https://synsec.org). Researchers, start your agents!

The way I interpret this, is that this is finally the year of Linux on the desktop

Interesting. But I think the real question is not whether AI makes mistakes. Ofc it does, but human (expert?!) reviewers make tons of mistakes too.. so how do they compare?

Wolfenstein 3D (1992) by id Software didn’t need DRM. It had threats.
Even if the "aggressive" protection mechanism was a joke… it definitely made you think twice. 😅

🚨 New research from EURECOM & Univ. of Milan!
[1/3] “Unveiling BYOVD Threats: Malware’s Use and Abuse of Kernel Drivers” (to appear at NDSS’26) reveals how malware exploits signed drivers to gain kernel privileges. This work led to the discovery of 7 unknown weaponized drivers 💣

Several scientists have received letters from the NIH director disinviting them from their positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding, I'm told.

In July, I reported that NIH staff were told to select members aligned with Trump administration priorities.

Well, well, well... 🤡

a screenshot of the html version with prompt injection written white on black

*you need dark mode for that

(it's then written white on black)

International scientists rethink U.S. conference attendance Opposition to Trump administration and fears of customs run-ins are shifting travel plans

This is something conference organizers are (or should be) acutely aware of... www.science.org/content/arti...

Etats-Unis : un chercheur français refoulé pour avoir exprimé « une opinion personnelle sur la politique menée par l’administration Trump » Le ministre de la recherche a dit sa « préoccupation », mercredi, après cette décision des autorités américaines. Le chercheur du CNRS aurait subi un contrôle aléatoire à son arrivée, avant que son or...

French researcher, going to a conference in Houston, was forbidden entry to US; his work and personal electronics were both confiscated.

Why? Because a “random search” of his cell phone revealed a negative personal opinion on Trump and the Trump administration. www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

Not happy with the reviewer experience at USENIX Security 😢. A stricter review process is necessary, but not seeing other reviewers’ names makes it feel empty. I like to know who I’m engaging with—posting reviews into an anonymous void and reading nameless opinions takes the soul out of it.

Crowdsourced Fact-Checking at Twitter: How Does the Crowd Compare With Experts? Fact-checking is one of the effective solutions in fighting online misinformation. However, traditional fact-checking is a process requiring scarce expert human resources, and thus does not scale well...

Meta is also embracing Community Notes (as now branded on X), the crowdsourcing approach to fact-checking on social networks.
We have audited the program when it was called Birdwatch and found both promising results and concerning manipulation risks. More details below.👇

Socrates teaching its method

Meet EULER (EURECOM Language Model for Education and Research) and our new #Socratic LLM for AI-Driven Education, eurecom-blog.medium.com/eurecoms-soc...
Model available @huggingface.bsky.social and @ollama.bsky.social
#LLM #RAG #EduTech

Some mornings, all you want is to be that Swan...

Watch the recording of my #ekoparty talk "Advanced #Fuzzing with #LibAFL" here:

youtu.be/FI7C37lz4Rg?...

Thanks @fede-k.bsky.social for this amazing event!