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Mathy Vanhoef

@vanhoefm.bsky.social
824 followers 370 following 49 posts

Prof. @KU_Leuven | Research in Network & Software Security | Known for WPA2 KRACK attack, Dragonblood, and FragAttacks | Open to consultancy | Ex-Postdoc NYU

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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Interview with SecureW2, where we look back on various Wi-Fi attacks and give network security advice to handle future attacks, especially in the age of AI securew2.com/signal/sneak... tl;dr: ensure a layered defense
securew2.com
'Always Have a Layered Defense': KRACK Attack Researcher Keeps Finding New Wi-Fi Hacks
Cybersecurity researcher Mathy Vanhoef knows hackers don’t often break cryptography. Instead, they find ways to sneak around it.
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Kenny Paterson @kennyog.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Signal is the gold standard for secure messengers. We broke Signal’s integrity (twice) in this paper via message injection attacks. @kientuong114.bsky.social presented this week at #USENIX and he and Noemi will present it again at #WAC (Crypto workshop) this weekend. Catch their talk if you can!
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vincentholst.bsky.social @vincentholst.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In 2023, @nature.com published 'Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time', receiving world-wide media attention. Our Matters Arising, published after a 32 month delay (more on that soon), shows that the reported decline can largely be attributed to dataset artefacts. 🧵
The average CD_5 index per year for Web of Science. The original Park et al. decline (top curve) becomes essentially flat (bottom curve) when removing papers with CD_5=1. Those papers largely correspond to dataset artefacts.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 26/07/2026
I have run into situations where people want to set duress passwords on things and there are really three possibilities.
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Steven Van de Walle @stevenvdwalle.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Dus je kunt flexijobben bij je eigen werkgever mits 5/5 Dan is het echt totaal onbegrijpelijk dat een klein bijberoep zo disproportioneel wordt belast.
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Matthew Green @matthewdgreen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Where these tools shine is literature searches. I’m increasingly of the opinion that we need to write papers for LLMs to read. It’s frustrating that many ePrint sites actually block these tools. This is the first tool that can find the “small result” you left as a footnote in Appendix B that I need.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Nominate yourself to help review papers for USENIX Security 2027! sec-rms.com/submit-appli... (or rms.swag.cispa.de/submit-appli... ). Deadline: May 28, 2026. We're looking for both senior and junior people. See Andrei Sabelfeld's LinkedIn post for more info: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
sec-rms.com
Signal PC interest - USENIX Security Symposium
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Inderdaad een significante achteruitgang..
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Interesting, thanks for the pointer!
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Client isolation is supposed to prevent two clients on the same SSID to attack each other. We can bypass client isolation. Attacks are independent of the used crypto settings :)
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
“Using WPA3 or client certificates or GCMP or <other crypto> doesn’t prevent our attacks”. When writing the paper, reviewers often asked “does it work against WPA3/MFP” and the answer is yes
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Excellent article on the work by @dangoodin.bsky.social: arstechnica.com/security/202... I'd say we bypass Wi-Fi encryption, in the sense that we can bypass client isolation. We don't break Wi-Fi authentication or encryption. Crypto is often bypassed instead of broken. And we bypass it ;)
arstechnica.com
New AirSnitch attack breaks Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises
That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
We found that Wi-Fi client isolation can often be bypassed. This allows an attacker who can connect to a network, either as a malicious insider or by connecting to a co-located open network, to attack others. NDSS'26 paper: www.ndss-symposium.org/wp-content/u... GitHub: github.com/vanhoefm/air...
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
In addition to being absolutely brilliant, amazing & charming in her own right, we all know she was raised by a single dad w/4 siblings and that he came to the US bc of persecution bc of his participation in the ‘89 Tiananmen democracy uprising, right?
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Ed @ed3d.net · 17/02/2026
this is one of the most amazing papers I have ever read eprint.iacr.org/2026/058.pdf
eprint.iacr.org
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall, PhD @josephhall.org · 15/02/2026
The NDSS Symposium 2026 program is live. With 265 accepted papers and 8 workshops, the quality of security research this year is staggering. It is a testament to the community's dedication to keeping the digital world safe. www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss2026/pro... 1/4
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 14/11/2025
The US government is considering punishing American scientists who worked with Chinese researchers *years ago, retroactively*.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
I've found AI tools to be quite useful too look for related work. And apparently so do others, searching Google Scholar for "utm_source=chatgpt.com" gives 13,900+ hits ;) scholar.google.com/scholar?star...
scholar.google.com
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Russia is blocking mobile phones being brought back into the country from abroad for 24 hours, in an attempt to mitigate drone attacks. Seems like this can probably be bypassed using relay "worm hole" attacks, though it adds some complexity. novayagazeta.eu/articles/202...
novayagazeta.eu
One-day data block introduced on Russian SIM cards being brought back into country — Novaya Gazeta Europe
The Russian authorities have begun blocking mobile phones being brought back into the country from abroad for 24 hours in an attempt to undermine Ukrainian drone strikes, the Ministry of Digital Devel...
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall, PhD @josephhall.org · 28/10/2025
woo! $10 MM USD in grants from ICANN... amazing. And great grantees here! "ICANN Announces First Cohort of Grant Program Recipients" www.icann.org/en/announcem...
icann.org
ICANN Announces First Cohort of Grant Program Recipients
Following an extensive applicant review period, ICANN has announced some of the projects that will receive funding in the ICANN Grant Program’s first cycle.
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Aurore Fass @aurore-fass.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Last chance to (self-) nominate for USENIX Security'26 Artifact Evaluation Committee! You should expect a low load of ~1 artifact for functionality/reproducibility assessments per cycle (max 3 for the whole year). Please support Open Science and fill the form by Oct 17: forms.gle/WoYRX4govNY1... 🚀
forms.gle
(Self-)Nomination for the USENIX Security '26 Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC)
For the seventh year, USENIX Security allows the evaluation of artifacts that support a paper: software, hardware, evaluation data and documentation, raw measurement data, raw survey results, mechaniz...
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Matthew Garrett @mjg59.eicar-test-file.zip · 24/09/2025
I have been learning more about PDFs than I really wanted to for maybe the absolutely most funny reason possible - letting agency forgery: mjg59.dreamwidth.org/73317.html
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LaurieWired @lauriewired.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
The West has a blindspot when it comes to alternative CPU designs.

 We’re so entrenched in the usual x86, ARM, RISC-V world, that most people have no idea what’s happening over in China.

 LoongArch is a fully independent ISA that’s sorta MIPS…sorta RISC-V…and sorta x87!
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
At USENIX Security? Then check out: Studying the Use of CVEs in Academia, won distinguished paper award www.usenix.org/conference/u... Discovering and Exploiting Vulnerable Tunnelling Hosts, won most innovative research Pwnie @ DEFCON www.usenix.org/conference/u... Big thanks to all co-authors!!
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Nadim Kobeissi @nadim.computer · 06/08/2025
I'm thrilled to announce that after months of intensive work, the complete materials for my Applied Cryptography course at the American University of Beirut are now finished: both Part 1 (Provable Security) and Part 2 (Real-World Cryptography)!
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Good luck :)
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Breaking: NSF is suspending roughly 300 grants with UCLA, following a DOJ finding on Tuesday that the university violated Title VI by "creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students."
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Our research on open tunneling servers got nominated for the Most Innovative Research award :) The work will be presented by Angelos Beitis at Black Hat and also at USENIX Security Brief summary and code: github.com/vanhoefm/tun... Paper: papers.mathyvanhoef.com/usenix2025-t...
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Disclosure timeline is on X/twitter: reported in 2012, but no real response because it was considered theoretical. They weren't given access to a train's test track facility, so impossible to confirm ethically in practice. Devices now considered end of life. Replacement is maybe here in 2027..
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Martin Laurent @malauren.be · 12/07/2025
Also in Poland. It was used by Russia in 2023 to stop about 20 trains.
railtarget.eu
Suspicious Train Disruptions in Poland: Is Russia Pulling the Levers? | RAILTARGET
Over the past weekend, Poland experienced an unusual series of train stoppages that have raised serious national security concerns.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Yikes. Turns out you can send a plaintext radio signal to cause any train in the USA to do an emergency break. The original 'security' was just a checksum, no encryption or authentication. Reporting this took them 12 years (!) because the vendor dismissed it initially www.cisa.gov/news-events/...
cisa.gov
End-of-Train and Head-of-Train Remote Linking Protocol | CISA
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David Picard @davidpicard.eurosky.social · 06/06/2025
Reminder that the MSCA postdoctoral program exists. If you have a PhD and want to work in a European lab, you have until September to apply. Just contact them now. ec.europa.eu/info/funding...
ec.europa.eu
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
I somehow missed this paper. Creative work of the authors, thanks for sharing!
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Senate GOP budget bill has little-noticed provision that could hurt your Wi-Fi arstechnica.com/tech-policy/... ==> Possibly no 6GHz for Wi-Fi 7
arstechnica.com
Senate GOP budget bill has little-noticed provision that could hurt your Wi-Fi
Cruz bill could take 6 GHz spectrum away from Wi-Fi, give it to mobile carriers.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Reminder to apply to be part of the artifact evaluation committee of NDSS'26! And share with your colleagues :) We'll likely close this form around the end of next week.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
All papers should publish their code. Help realize this by becoming an artifact reviewer at NDSS'26, apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... You'll review artifacts of accepted papers. We especially encourage junior/senior PhD students & PostDocs to help. Distinguished reviews will get awards!
docs.google.com
Self-nomination for the Artifact Evaluation Committee of NDSS 2026
We are looking for members of the Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC) of NDSS 2026. The Network and Distributed System Security symposium adopts an Artifact Evaluation (AE) process allowing authors t...
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
I saw that too.. good luck with the submission!
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Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Lee Jae-myung, the South Korean politician who climbed the fence of the parliament to get inside and vote against martial law, has been elected president. Pretty cooool
Lee Jae-myung going beast mode
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
The Wi-Fi Alliance test plan is something I haven't seen myself... it's indeed annoying to get familiar with the big picture. Though I would say that the Dragonfly RFC can be ignored, the full description is in the IEEE 802.11 standard, and 802.11 contains updates to the side-channel leaks etc.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
So the WPA3 document is basically "support these features of the 802.11 standard, and some minor extensions in that document, and then you can call yourself WPA3" + some best practices
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
A lot of 'WPA3' is a marketing and test suite on top of the 802.11 standard. I don't think the 2024 release of 802.11 made any substantial changes to SAE. Instead, the 2024 release incorporated other amendments like 802.11ax and 802.11ay into a single document.
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
The GET program makes standards available after 6 months. But you're unlucky with timing: last month the 2024 edition of 802.11 was released. This means the 2020 version is no longer accessible under GET, and you need to wait 6 months for the 2024 edition under GET access. Yeah, I know...
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Core of WPA3 is Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), defined in IEEE 802.11, the 2024 version of that document will be available for free in around 6 months... The WPA3 'spec' on top of IEEE is public
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
All papers should publish their code. Help realize this by becoming an artifact reviewer at NDSS'26, apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... You'll review artifacts of accepted papers. We especially encourage junior/senior PhD students & PostDocs to help. Distinguished reviews will get awards!
docs.google.com
Self-nomination for the Artifact Evaluation Committee of NDSS 2026
We are looking for members of the Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC) of NDSS 2026. The Network and Distributed System Security symposium adopts an Artifact Evaluation (AE) process allowing authors t...
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Kasper Nollet @kaspernollet.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Calling researchers: EU #grantconsultancy 🚨 Have you worked with private grant consultants for EU research funding (Horizon, EIC, etc.)—Have you had positive or negative experiences? 📩 Share your story: kaspernollet@gmail.com / thordeyaert@hotmail.be (@thordeyaert.bsky.social) 🔁 RT appreciated!
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Clémentine Maurice @bloody-tangerine.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Haven't seen this on Bluesky yet: S&P 2027 will take place in Montreal, Canada!
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Mathy Vanhoef @vanhoefm.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
New version of the IEEE 802.11 standard that underpins Wi-Fi was has been released. A total of 5969 pages! The number of pages clearly keeps increasing. That includes more features to defend networks, but also more features to potentially abuse 👀
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LOEWE emergenCITY @emergencity.de · 06/03/2025
In two weeks, @vanhoefm.bsky.social , professor at DistriNet at KU Leuven, takes the stage for our next #DistinguishedLecture. He will present current strategies to strengthen Wi-Fi #security based on recent attacks on networks and previously detected design flaws. All information: buff.ly/gslCMCB
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