About
I am a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech, advised by Dr. Bo Ji and Dr. Peng Gao. My research interests broadly fall within the areas of system security and privacy, specifically on emerging computing platforms and complex systems, including recently proposed programmable switches and SmartNICs. Building upon this, I am particularly driven to develop secure, scalable, and intelligent primitives embedded within the network infrastructure, enhancing its security and robustness.
Education
- Ph.D in Computer Science, Virginia Tech, 2025
- M.Sc. in Computer Science, The George Washington University, 2020
- B.Sc. in Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, 2017
Publications
NetCap: Data-Plane Capability-Based Defense Against Token Theft in Network Access
Osama Bajaber, Bo Ji, Peng Gao
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2026
Acceptance rate: TBA
CTINexus: Automatic Cyber Threat Intelligence Knowledge Graph Construction Using Large Language Models
Yutong Cheng, Osama Bajaber, Saimon Amanuel Tsegai, Dawn Song, Peng Gao
IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P), 2025
Acceptance rate: 20%
P4Control: Line-Rate Cross-Host Attack Prevention via In-Network Information Flow Control Enabled by Programmable Switches and eBPF
Osama Bajaber, Bo Ji, Peng Gao
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P / Oakland), 2024
Acceptance rate: 14.9%
News
- (Nov 2025) Successfully defended my PhD dissertation!
- (Nov 2025) Our paper “NetCap: Data-Plane Capability-Based Defense Against Token Theft in Network Access” was accepted to NDSS 2026!
- (Jul 2025) I will serve on the Program Committee of PRISM 2026 (Co-located with NDSS)
- (Jul 2025) I will serve on the Program Committee of ACM AsiaCCS 2026
- (Feb 2025) Our paper “CTINexus: Automatic Cyber Threat Intelligence Knowledge Graph Construction Using Large Language Models” was accepted to IEEE EuroS&P 2025
- (Jan 2025) I will join Meta as a PhD Software Engineer Intern in Summer 2025!
- (Jan 2025) I will serve as a student organizer in the 2nd DMV Security Workshop 2025
- (Sep 2024) I have been selected for the 2024 Davenport Leadership Fellowship
- (Apr 2024) I received a travel grant to attend IEEE S&P 2024
- (Mar 2024) I will serve on the Poster Program Committee of IEEE S&P 2024
- (Jan 2024) I will serve as a student organizer in the inaugural DMV Security Workshop 2024
- (Oct 2023) Our paper “P4Control: Line-Rate Cross-Host Attack Prevention via In-Network Information Flow Control Enabled by Programmable Switches and eBPF” was accepted to IEEE S&P (Oakland) 2024!
- (Oct 2023) I will serve on the Program Committee of ICICS 2024
- (Jul 2023) I have been selected for the 2023 Bitshares Fellowship
- (Jun 2023) I will serve on the Artifact Evaluation Committee of NDSS 2024
- (Mar 2023) I have been selected for the CCI SWVA Cyber Innovation Scholarship
- (Mar 2023) I will serve on the Poster Program Committee of IEEE S&P 2023
- (Sep 2022) I received a travel grant to attend IEEE ICNP 2022
Awards
- Davenport Leadership Fellowship, Virginia Tech, Sep 2024
- IEEE S&P Travel Grant, Apr 2024
- CCI SWVA Cyber Innovation Scholarship, Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), 2023-2025
- Bitshares Fellowship, Virginia Tech, Aug 2023
- IEEE ICNP Travel Grant, Oct 2022
Professional Services
Organizing Committee
• 2025 DMV Security Workshop
• 2024 DMV Security Workshop
Program Committee
• PRISM 2026, co-located with NDSS 2026
• ACM AsiaCCS 2026
• ICICS 2024
Journal Reviewer
• IEEE Transactions on Networking (ToN)
• IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC)
Artifact Evaluation Committee
• NDSS 2024
Poster Program Committee
• IEEE S&P 2023-2024
External Reviewer
• IEEE S&P 2025-2026
• USENIX Security 2026
• CCS 2023-2025
• NDSS 2025
• ACSAC 2025
• IEEE EuroS&P 2024
• SIGMETRICS 2023