Applications are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Computer Science programme. The position is available from November 2025 or later.

Title:
Foundations of secure resource sharing

Research area and project description:
This project challenges the traditional computer security practice of minimizing resource sharing, proposing instead to embrace sharing while ensuring security through principled design. The focus of the project is provable resilience to a class of attacks known as side channels. Side channels are prevalent in all modern systems from cloud computing to embedded devices. They are difficult to defend against, because a comprehensive mitigation requires tight control over information flow throughout the whole system stack: from hardware to the operating system, programming languages runtime, and the user-level applications.

The project will focus on three interconnected research areas:

Modeling energy side channels in modern systems

• Investigate how energy-aware features in modern processors and smartphones create new attack vectors, including exploiting software-based energy monitoring capabilities and remote attacks.
• Analyze how classic timing side channels interact with energy-aware systems.

Mitigation of energy side channels using system and software techniques

• Develop automated tools for detecting potential energy side channels in software, either as “secure powerboxes” that maintain constant energy consumption regardless of sensitive data, and/or "virtual efficiency threads" for energy padding using low-priority, security-checked computations
• Develop mitigation techniques using static analysis, type systems, and compiler techniques, to ensure balanced energy consumption.
• Implement, evaluate, and prove correctness of the mitigation techniques.

Energy-aware differential privacy

• Explore the application of differential privacy techniques (and related probabilistic techniques) to energy side channel mitigation, with the particular focus on reasoning about noise in energy measurements and the associated security compromise.
• Balance security/privacy trade-offs with efficiency and usability.

Please upload a project description (1-3 pages). This document should describe your ideas and research plans for this specific project.

Qualifications and specific competences:
Master’s degree, or a Bachelor’s degree plus one year of completed Master’s studies in Computer Science or related fields. 

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Computer Science, Åbogade 34, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. 

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information for this project are invited to contact: Associate Professor Aslan Askarov, aslan@cs.au.dk or Associate Professor Rene Rydhof Hansen, Dept of Computer Science, Aalborg University, rrh@cs.aau.dk

How to apply:

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see the Application guide. Please read the Application guide thoroughly before applying.

When ready to apply, go to https://phd.nat.au.dk/for-applicants/apply-here/ (Note, the online application system opens 1 June 2025)

1. Choose August 2025 Call with deadline 1 August 2025 at 23:59 CEST.
2. You will be directed to the call and must choose the programme “Computer Science”.
3. In the boxed named “Study”: In the dropdown menu, please choose: “Foundations of secure resource sharing (Fosres)”

Please note:

• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.

At the Faculty of Natural Science at Aarhus University, we strive to support our scientific staff in their career development. We focus on competency development and career clarification and want to make your opportunities transparent. On our website, you can find information on all types of scientific positions, as well as the entry criteria we use when assessing candidates. You can also read more about how we can assist you in your career planning and development.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background.