Doctoral Student: Fault Attacks on Post-Quantum Cryptographic Algorithms

About the role

Four-year fully funded PhD at KTH on fault-injection attacks against post-quantum cryptographic implementations (Kyber, Dilithium, Falcon, SPHINCS+, and emerging NIST standards). The work combines hardware security, side-channel analysis, and cryptographic engineering. Deadline 31 May 2026.

Responsibilities

• Design and run fault-injection experiments against PQC implementations on real hardware.
• Develop countermeasures and prove their effectiveness against modelled adversaries.
• Publish in CHES, USENIX Security, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, and cryptographic-engineering venues.
• Collaborate with European partners in the PQC standards ecosystem.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or a closely related field.
• Solid grounding in cryptography, with exposure to lattice or hash-based schemes.
• Programming proficiency in C and Python; embedded systems experience is a plus.
• Fluent English.

Nice to have

• Prior hands-on work with side-channel or fault-injection setups.
• Familiarity with NIST PQC candidates and reference implementations.
• A first-author paper or strong Master’s thesis on a security topic.

How to apply

Open the apply link and submit CV, transcripts, research statement, Master’s thesis, and two reference contacts via KTH’s Varbi recruitment system before 31 May 2026.