Aurora Naska
About Me
I am currently a Ph.D. student at CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security and Saarland University, where I work under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cas Cremers. My research focuses on the formal analysis of reliable security guarantees for real-world systems. Specifically, I explore the trade-offs between usability, engineering challenges, and security, examining how these factors impact end-user guarantees of communication systems. My work involves analyzing protocols and uncovering vulnerabilities in both confidential computing platforms and secure messaging systems. I am also involved in the Crypto Proof Ladders, an initiative originating from the HACS workshop, to provide an introduction to formal methods for Cryptography.
Previously, I was an Applied Scientist Intern at Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s Automated Reasoning Group in Santa Clara, California in Summer 2023.
Research Interests
- Formal Analysis of Protocols
- Secure Messaging
- Security Standards
Publications
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S&P 25
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2025. -
CCS 25
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2025. -
USENIX 23
USENIX Security Symposium, 2023. -
USENIX 23
USENIX Security Symposium, 2023. -
CCS 20
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2020.
Academic Activities
Invited Talks:
"Impossibility Results for PCS in Real-World Systems", Prosecco, Inria Paris, 2025 "Formal Analysis of Session-Handling in Secure Messaging", Microsoft Research, 2024 "Formal Analysis of Session-Handling in Secure Messaging", Radboud University, 2024 "Usage of Formal Methods in Analyzing Real-World Systems", Cornell University, 2023
Teaching:
- Lecturer, Proseminar: Secure Messaging, 2025
- Lecturer on Tamarin tutorial, SUMMER SCHOOL ON REAL-WORLD CRYPTO AND PRIVACY, 2024
- Instructor on Tamarin tutorial, SUMMER SCHOOL ON REAL-WORLD CRYPTO AND PRIVACY, 2022
- Teaching Assistant, Formal analysis of real-world security protocols, 2022