Biography

Qifan Zhang (张起帆) is now a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at University of California, Irvine with focus on Computer Security, advised by Prof. Zhou Li. His research interests include Network Security, especially Domain Name System (DNS), and Machine Learning for Security. Before that, he received his B.E. degree in Computer Science and Technology from ShanghaiTech University in 2020.
Pronunciation of his name: Chee-Fan Jang.

Recent news

  • [01/2023]: Awarded with Associated Graduate Students Conference Stipend (Fall 2022 round). Thank you, UCI AGS!
  • [12/2022]: Present my TaskMaster paper in ACSAC ‘22 in Austin, TX.
  • [10/2022]: Awarded with a 2022 ACSAC Student Conferenceship. Thank you, ACSAC!
  • [10/2022]: TaskMaster paper (finally) got accepted into ACSAC ‘22.
Interests
  • Domain Name System (DNS). I’m interested in security, privacy and reliability of DNS. My past research covered protocol security [NDSS'23], implementation assessment [Security'23], and automated vulnerability detection with fuzzing techniques (ongoing).
  • Machine Learning for Security. I’m also interested in solving security and privacy issues via machine-learning based methods. Recently, my research demonstrates model extraction on Autonomous Vehicle using Gradient-Descent based methods [ACSAC'22].
Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Engineering

    2020 - now

    University of California, Irvine

  • B.E. in Computer Science and Technology / Minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

    2016 - 2020

    ShanghaiTech University

Publications

Xiang Li, Chaoyi Lu, Baojun Liu, Qifan Zhang, Zhou Li, Haixin Duan, Qi Li (2023). The Maginot Line: Attacking the Boundary of DNS Caching Protection. In USENIX Security ‘23 (Acceptance rate: ??.?%).

Cite

Xiang Li, Baojun Liu, Xuesong Bai, Mingming Zhang, Qifan Zhang, Zhou Li, Haixin Duan, Qi Li (2023). Ghost Domain Reloaded: Vulnerable Links in Domain Name Delegation and Revocation. In NDSS ‘23 (Acceptance rate: 17.4%).

Cite Project DOI

Qifan Zhang, Junjie Shen, Mingtian Tan, Zhe Zhou, Zhou Li, Qi Alfred Chen, Haipeng Zhang (2022). Play the Imitation Game: Model Extraction Attack against Autonomous Driving Localization. In ACSAC ‘22 (Acceptance rate: 24.1%).

PDF Cite Slides DOI

Xianran Liao, Jiacen Xu, Qifan Zhang, Zhou Li (2022). A Comprehensive Study of DNS Operational Issues by Mining DNS Forums. In IEEE Access.

PDF Cite DOI

Recent & Upcoming Talks

The 38th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference | Texas, TX | ACSAC '22
In ACSAC ‘22, I was invited to present our TaskMaster paper in the CPS and IoT I session.
Dec 5, 2022 AT&T Hotel and Conference Center
Qifan Zhang
Slides
The 38th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference | Texas, TX | ACSAC '22

Miscs

Awards and Honors

In UC Irvine

  • Associated Graduate Students Conference Stipend (Fall 2022)
  • 2022 ACSAC Student Conferenceship
  • Student travel grant for NDSS (2021)
  • Student travel grant for USENIX Security (2021)
  • Student travel grant for IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (2021)

In ShanghaiTech

  • 2020 ShanghaiTech Outstanding Graduate
  • SIST Outstanding Teaching Assistant (2020, 2019, 2018)
  • Merit Student (2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017)
  • Outstanding Personnel in 2017 Summer Camp

Services

External Reviewer

  • NDSS: 2023, 2022, 2021
  • AsiaCCS: 2022, 2021

Teaching

In UC Irvine

  • EECS 40 (F22): Objected Oriented Systen and Programming (#students: 95)

In ShanghaiTech

  • SI 100C (F17): Introduction to Computer Science and Technology (#students: 127)
  • CS 100 (F18): Programming (#students: 243)
  • CS 277 (F19): Introduction to Data Science and FinTech (#students: 23)
  • (core TA) SI 100B (S18, S19, S20): Introduction to Information Science and Technology (#students: 203/174/410)

Students Advised

  • Shenghan Zheng (4-year undergraduate, ShanghaiTech), UCInspire program, 2022.
  • Wenhao Zhang (B.S. at SUSTech), UCInspire program, 2021. now a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University.
  • Xiaoran Liao (B.S. at UC Irvine), 2021.

Links

Collaborators and friends

(maybe both)

I’d like to thank my friends and instructors who help me a lot during this tough journey. Without you I will not be able to go this far.

The following ones listed are just part of them to protect their privacy. Let me know if you feel comfortable to join this list.

Projects

Classical Music

Qifan Zhang is also a crazy fan of classical music. Many thanks to Dr. Pope and Prof. Emeriti Dr. Tucker, he was appointed as the principal clarinet player of UCI Symphony Orchestra, Department of Music since 2020.

Every serious classical clarinetist will own both a B♭ and an A clarinet.

Contact