Doctoral researcher in Metamorphic Security Testing

This PhD position is supported by the Competence Hub in Research in Cybersecurity and Cyber Defence (Cyber Research Hub), an initiative of the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence (DoD) in partnership with the University of Luxembourg. Also, this project will be conducted in collaboration with the National Cybersecurity Competence Center (NC3). NC3's mission is to support the Luxembourg ecosystem by enhancing cybersecurity skills and capacity, thereby contributing to the growth of the country's cybersecurity industry and reinforcing the European Union's strategic autonomy.We offer an attractive doctoral position in the context of the project M etamo rphic Secur ity T esting A ssisted by L LMs (MORTAL), funded by the Cyber Research Hub and in collaboration with NC3. The project objective is the definition of techniques and tools for automated vulnerability detection to (1) maximise the detection of zero-day vulnerabilities, and (2) enable continuous cybersecurity assessment of software. More specifically, the project will investigate the use of multimodal large language models and fuzzing for metamorphic security testing.

The successful candidate will join the SVV research group, headed by Prof. Domenico Bianculli, and will report to Prof. Fabrizio Pastore (principal investigator for MORTAL). The team focuses on the development and design of reliable, safe, and secure software systems, carrying out both upstream activities, such as requirements quality assurance and architecture analysis, as well as downstream verification & validation activities, primarily software testing and analysis. For further information, you may refer to https://www.uni.lu/snt-en/research-groups/svv

The position holder will be required to perform the following tasks:

• Carrying out research in the predefined areas
• Implementing prototype tools
• Empirically evaluating the proposed solutions and tools
• Spending time at the premises of our partner for requirements understanding, training, and in-the-field assessment of the proposed solutions
• Disseminating results through scientific publications
• Providing guidance to master and bachelor students