Hocheol Nam (남호철)

Hocheol Nam (남호철)

Ph.D. candidate at KAIST

About me

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science (Information Security Program) at KAIST, where I am a member of the Network Security and Privacy Research Lab advised by Prof. Min Suk Kang. I received my B.S. in Software Science at Dankook University, and I completed compulsory military service at the Capital Defense Command, R.O.K. Army. My current research interests are:

  • Network security including:
    • Network attack (e.g., Botnets, DDoS) prevention, detection, and response;
    • Security for emerging networks (e.g., SDN, Programmable data-plane);
    • Mobile and wireless network security;
    • Space and satellite communication security; and
  • Security and privacy for blockchains and cryptocurrencies.

I also help maintain the Security and Privacy Conference Deadlines webpage.

News

  1. Service

    I’m going to serve as a PC member at USENIX Security 2027.

  2. Service

    I’m going to serve as a PC member at ACM CCS 2026 Poster Sessions.

  3. Service

    I’m going to serve as a AEC member at ACM CCS 2026.

  4. Service

    I’m going to serve as a AEC member at NDSS 2027.

  5. Talk

    Presented our paper “On the Security Risks of Memory Adaptation and Augmentation in Data-plane DoS Mitigation” at NDSS 2026.

  6. Paper

    Our paper “Observing Starlink with Accessible Tools: An Empirical Experience Study of LEO Downlinks” was accepted to SpaceSec 2026.

  7. Service

    I’m going to serve as a AEC member at USENIX Security 2026.

  8. Paper

    Our paper “On the Security Risks of Memory Adaptation and Augmentation in Data-plane DoS Mitigation” was accepted to NDSS 2026.

  9. Award

    Received the Distinguished Artifact Reviewers Award at ACM CCS 2025.

  10. Service

    I’m going to serve as a PC member at ACM CCS 2025 Poster/Demonstration Sessions.

View all news

Selected Publications

  1. NDSS

    On the Security Risks of Memory Adaptation and Augmentation in Data-plane DoS Mitigation

    Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), San Diego, CA, USA, 2026

    We introduce ‘Heracles attack’ that uncover security risks in adaptive data-plane DoS defenses in programmable switches, and propose a new sketch mechnaism ‘Shield’ to mitigate Heracles attack.

    PDF DOI GitHub Zenodo Details
    BibTeX
    @inproceedings{nam2026heracles,
  title = {{On the Security Risks of Memory Adaptation and Augmentation in Data-plane DoS Mitigation}},
  author = {Nam, Hocheol and Lim, Daehyun and Zhou, Huancheng and Gu, Guofei and Kang, Min Suk},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS'26)},
  pages = {1-20},
  year = {2026},
}
  2. CCS

    On Frontrunning Risks in Batch-Order Fair Systems for Blockchains

    ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), Taipei, Taiwan, 2025

    We examine frontrunning risks in batch-order fair blockchain systems (like Themis [CCS’23]) and propose the ‘Ambush attack’ that enables frontrunning attacks that remain possible despite fair-ordering guarantees.

    PDF Full version DOI GitHub Zenodo Details
    BibTeX
    @inproceedings{park2025frontrunning,
  title = {{On Frontrunning Risks in Batch-Order Fair Systems for Blockchains}},
  author={Park, Eunchan and Yoon, Taeung and Nam, Hocheol and Maram, Deepak and Kang, Min Suk},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 32nd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)},
  year = {2025},
}
  3. ICSE

    Fork State-Aware Differential Fuzzing for Blockchain Consensus Implementations

    IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), Ottawa, ON, Canada, 2025

    We introduce Forky, a fork state-aware differential fuzzing framework for finding semantic discrepancies in blockchain consensus implementations. We test Forky on Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are the representatives of the two major blockchain consensus algorithm families, PoW and PoS consensus algorithms.

    *Co-first authors
    PDF DOI GitHub Zenodo Details
    BibTeX
    @inproceedings{kim2025fork,
  title = {{Fork State-Aware Differential Fuzzing for Blockchain Consensus Implementations}},
  author = {Wonhoi Kim and Hocheol Nam and Muoi Tran and Amin Jalilov and Zhenkai Liang and Sang Kil Cha and Min Suk Kang},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'25)},
  pages = {3048-3059},
  year = {2025},
}
  4. FC

    Short Paper: On the Claims of Weak Block Synchronization in Bitcoin

    Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC), St. George's, Grenada, 2022

    We re-evaluates claims that Bitcoin has slow block propagation. We show that block synchronization is actually fast enough, and that previous slow-propagation claims stemmed from bugs and limits in monitoring tools. We finally ask several open-ended questions regarding the technical and ethical issues around monitoring blockchain networks.

    *Co-first authors
    PDF DOI Preprint Details
    BibTeX
    @inproceedings{baek2022short,
  title={{Short paper: On the claims of weak block synchronization in Bitcoin}},
  author={Baek, Seungjin and Nam, Hocheol and Oh, Yongwoo and Tran, Muoi and Kang, Min Suk},
  booktitle={International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC)},
  pages={663--671},
  year={2022},
  organization={Springer}
}

View all publications