Luke Valenta
Computer security and applied cryptography researcher
Interests
Computer Security, Applied Cryptography, Privacy, Distributed Systems
Education
University of Pennsylvania
- Ph.D. computer science, advised by Nadia Heninger
Sep 2014 - May 2019
- M.S. computer science, GPA 3.93
Sep 2014 - May 2016
University of Maryland
- B.S. computer science, B.S. mathematics, GPA 4.0
Sep 2011 - May 2014
Frostburg State University
- Double major physics and mathematics, GPA 4.0
Sep 2009 - May 2011
Industry Experience
July 2019 - present
Systems Engineer - Cryptography, Cloudflare
May 2018 - Jul 2018
Cryptography Engineering Intern, Cloudflare
- Built mitmengine, a tool for detecting HTTPS interception
- Expanded data processing pipeline for cryptographic analysis of TLS messages
- Gathered and processed data on customer geo-blocking behavior (see 403 Forbidden paper)
Jun 2017 - Aug 2017
Ph.D. Intern, Advanced Security Research Group, Cisco Systems
- Built SSH and IKE modules for the Joy network security monitor
Publications
SIGCOMM 2023
Global, Passive Detection of Connection Tampering. Ram Sundara Raman, Louis-Henri Merino, Kevin Bock, Marwan Fayed, Dave Levin, Nick Sullivan, Luke ValentaIMC 2022
Respect the ORIGIN! a best-case evaluation of connection coalescing in the wild. Sudheesh Singanamalla, Talha Paracha, Suleman Ahmad, Jonathan Hoyland, Luke Valenta, Yevgen Safronov, Peter Wu, Andrew Galloni, Kurtis Heimerl, Nick Sullivan, Christopher A. Wood, Marwan FayedIMC 2022
Toppling top lists: Evaluating the accuracy of popular website lists. Kimberly Ruth, Deepak Kumar, Brandon Wang, Luke Valenta, Zakir DurumericUSENIX Sec 2022
Might I Get Pwned: A Second Generation Compromised Credential Checking Service. Bijeeta Pal, Mazharul Islam, Marina Sanusi Bohuk, Nick Sullivan, Luke Valenta, Tara Whalen, Christopher Wood, Thomas Ristenpart, Rahul ChatterjeeLatinCrypt 2021
Implementing and Measuring KEMTLS. Sofía Celi, Armando Faz-Hernández, Nick Sullivan, Goutam Tamvada, Luke Valenta, Thom Wiggers, Bas Westerbaan, Christopher A. WoodIMC 2018
403 Forbidden: A Global View of CDN Geoblocking. Allison McDonald, Matthew Bernhard, Luke Valenta, Benjamin VanderSloot, Will Scott, Nick Sullivan, J. Alex Halderman, Roya EnsafiEuroS&P 2018
In search of CurveSwap: Measuring elliptic curve implementations in the wild. Luke Valenta, Nick Sullivan, Antonio Sanso, Nadia Heninger.CCS 2017
May the Fourth Be With You: A Microarchitectural Side Channel Attack on Several Real-World Applications of Curve25519. Daniel Genkin, Luke Valenta, Yuval Yarom.PQCrypto 2017
Post-quantum RSA. Daniel J. Bernstein, Nadia Heninger, Paul Lou, Luke Valenta.NDSS 2017
Measuring small subgroup attacks against Diffie-Hellman. Luke Valenta, David Adrian, Antonio Sanso, Shaanan Cohney, Joshua Fried, Marcella Hastings, J. Alex Halderman, Nadia Heninger.USENIX Sec 2016
DROWN: Breaking TLS using SSLv2. Nimrod Aviram, Sebastian Schinzel, Juraj Somorovsky, Nadia Heninger, Maik Dankel, Jens Steube, Luke Valenta, David Adrian, J. Alex Halderman, Viktor Dukhovni, Emilia Käsper, Shaanan Cohney, Susanne Engels, Christof Paar, Yuval Shavitt.FC 2016
Factoring as a Service. Luke Valenta, Shaanan Cohney, Joshua Fried, Satya Boddulari, Nadia Heninger.CCS 2015
Imperfect Forward Secrecy: How Diffie-Hellman Fails in Practice. David Adrian, Karthikeyan Bhargavan, Zakir Durumeric, Pierrick Gaudry, Matthew Green, J. Alex Halderman, Nadia Heninger, Drew Springall, Emmanuel Thomé, Luke Valenta, Benjamin VanderSloot, Eric Wustrow, Santiago Zanella-Béguelin, and Paul Zimmermann. Best paper award.SIGCOMM 2015
Alibi Routing. Dave Levin, Youndo Lee, Luke Valenta, Zhihao Li, Victoria Lai, Cristian Lumezanu, Neil Spring, Bobby Bhattacharjee.BITCOIN 2015
Blindcoin: Blinded, Accountable Mixes for Bitcoin. Luke Valenta, Brendan Rowan.
Preferred Languages
Go, Python, Rust, C
Operating Systems
UNIX, Linux, Android
Awards
Oct 2016
Finalist, Facebook Internet Defense PrizeAug 2016
Pwnie Award - Best Cryptographic Attack, Black HatOct 2015
Best Paper Award, ACM CCSAug 2015
Pwnie Award - Most Innovative Research, Black HatSep 2013
Philip Merrill Presidential ScholarSep 2013
John D. Gannon ScholarshipSep 2012 - May 2013
University of Maryland Computer Science Departmental HonorsSep 2012
Jeffrey C. and Sandra W. Huskamp Computer Science ScholarshipSep 2012
Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, College Park ChapterSep 2010
Kappa Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor SocietySep 2011 - May 2014
Dean’s List, University of MarylandSep 2009 - May 2011
Dean’s List, Frostburg State University
Academic Services
USENIX Sec 2019
28th Usenix Security Symposium, program committeeFC 2019
Financial Cryptography and Data Security, program committeeBITCOIN 2018
Workshop on Bitcoin and Blockchain Research, program committeeBITCOIN 2017
Workshop on Bitcoin and Blockchain Research, program committeePETS 2017.4
Privacy Enhancing Technologies, external reviewer
Other Services
2017 - 2018
Computer and Information Science Graduate Association, University of Pennsylvania, co-chair2016 - 2017
Graduate Student Engineering Group, University of Pennsylvania, president2015 - 2016
Graduate Student Engineering Group, University of Pennsylvania, vice president2014 - present
Security Lab, University of Pennsylvania, sysadmin2014 - present
Security Reading Group, University of Pennsylvania, organizer
Conference Talks
EuroS&P 2018
In search of CurveSwap: Measuring elliptic curve implementations in the wild.CCS 2017
May the Fourth Be With You: A Microarchitectural Side Channel Attack on Several Real-World Applications of Curve25519.NDSS 2017
Measuring small subgroup attacks against Diffie-Hellman.FC 2016
Factoring as a Service.BITCOIN 2015
Blindcoin: Blinded, Accountable Mixes for Bitcoin.
Other Talks
Cloudflare Connect 2023
What security leaders need to know about post-quantum cryptography. (slides)BlackHat USA 2019
Monsters in the Middleboxes: Building Tools for Detecting HTTPS Interception. (slides)BlackHat EU 2018
In search of CurveSwap: Measuring elliptic curve implementations in the wild.Nov 2016
Factoring as a Service. Boston University Security Group.Mar 2015
How Bitcoin Works. Net Tuesday Philly Meetup.
Teaching
Fall 2017
CIS551: Computer and Network Security, University of Pennsylvania, TAFall 2016
CIS551: Computer and Network Security, University of Pennsylvania, TASpring 2016
CIS331: Computer Security, University of Pennsylvania, TAFall 2015
CIS556: Cryptography, University of Pennsylvania, TAFall 2013
CMSC216: Introduction to Computer Systems, University of Maryland, TAFall 2010 - Spring 2011
MATH237: Calculus II, Frostburg State University, tutorFall 2010 - Spring 2011
MATH236: Calculus I, Frostburg State University, tutor
Relevant Coursework
Computer Networks, Algorithms, Programming Handheld Devices, Network Security, Programming Languages, Cryptography, Computer Architecture, Discrete Structures, Computer Systems, Object Oriented Programming, Machine Learning
Additional Activities
Nov 2014, Nov 2016
Mr. and Mrs. Penn Bodybuilding Competition, participantSep 2011 - May 2014
UMD Gymkana Troupe (gymnastics), memberSep 2013
PennApps Hackathon, participantNov 2012
ACM Mid-Atlantic Regional Programming Contest, ninth placeSep 2012 - May 2014
UMD Mobile Applications Developers Club, member