Sundararaman Jeyaraman

PhD candidate,
CERIAS and Department of Computer Sciences,
Purdue University

 425 south river road, Apt #1,
West Lafayette IN 47906

Office: 765-494-4120
Home: 765-409-4744
j.s.r AT c.s DOT p.u.r.d.u.e DOT e.d.u

[ Research | Publications | Work Experience | Education | Resume | Random Links  ]

Research 

My research focuses on tackling both foundational and practical issues of Computer Security.

For my PhD dissertation (under the supervision of Prof. Mike Atallah), I am investigating practical approaches for inferring causal relationships between system events. Knowledge of causal relationships between system events greatly aids in solving several critical security issues such as Intrusion Analysis, Computer Forensics, Network Traceback, Malware Detection, Mandatory Access Control and Information flow control. The goals of the dissertation are:
  • Shed more light on the nature of causal relationships between system events. Poor understanding of the meaning of causality, especially in the context of computer events, has resulted in many of the current techniques for inferring causality being very imprecise. Towards that end, I provide a comprehensive definition that captures most aspects of causality.
  • Investigate the challenges in determining causal relationships. Specifically, I provide empirical evidence that the current treatment of system processes as mere black-boxes has  resulted in highly imprecise answers to causal queries.
  • Propose, develop and evaluate novel analysis techniques that use gray box techniques for answering causal queries in an efficient and highly precise fashion.
More details can be obtained from my thesis proposal.

Simultaneously, I have been working on another critical aspect of practical computer security viz., usability. Specifically, I am interested in addressing the need for enhancing the usability of existing password authentication systems without necessitating any modifications to the existing infrastructure. Towards that end, along with Umut Topkara, I have proposed and developed a system that automatically generates memorable mnemonics for a given random-looking password. This work has been accepted for publication at ACSAC 2005.

Education

Doctoral candidate in Computer Sciences, Purdue University  (Expected Dec 2007)

Bachelors in Engineering, Guindy Engineering College, Anna University, India, 2000
 
Publications

Have the cake and eat it too -- Infusing usability into password authentication systems,
Sundararaman Jeyaraman, Umut Topkara
In proceedings of the 21st Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), December 2005

An empirical study of Automatic Event Reconstruction Systems ,
Sundararaman Jeyaraman, Mike Atallah
In proceedings of the 6th Annual Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS), August 2006

Impact of Network Design on Worm Propagation,
Brian Carrier, Sundararaman Jeyaraman, Sarah Sellke,
CERIAS Technical Report, CERIAS TR 2004-35

Algorithms for Variable Length Subnet Address Assignment,
Mike Atallah, Sundararaman Jeyaraman,
CERIAS Technical Report, CERIAS TR 2005-10
Resume

PDF

Work Experience

Jan 2006 - Present
Research Assistant, Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, Purdue University.
  – Developed and deployed a web-based Virtual Machine Management System for managing the Xen virtual machine backends for the nanoHUB
  – Assisted in the deployment of the OpenVZ OS-level virtualization solution for the nanoHUB
  – Improving the overall security of the nanoHUB middleware infrastructure (using SSL and VNC)
  – Security audit and penetration testing of the nanoHUB submit facility

Aug 2000 - Dec 2005
Teaching Assistant, Purdue University.
  – Taught various graduate (Operating Systems) and undergraduate (Computer Security, Introduction to Programming) courses in the Department of Computer Sciences

Jan 2003 - Aug 2003
Research Assistant, CERIAS, Purdue University.
  – Worked with Prof. Mike Atallah on developing a compiler-based protection mechanism for function pointers against buffer-overflow, heap-overflow and format-string attacks.
  – Improved the performance of SNORT using content caching techniques.

May 2001 - Aug 2001
Research Engineer Intern, Nokia Research Center, Mt View, CA.
  – Implemented a draft version of Mobile IPv6 Fast Handovers in Linux 2.4 and FreeBSD 3.4 kernels.

Honors

Awarded Best Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Computer Sciences, 2004
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