Research
Embedded systems, security, and hardware/software design.
I am interested in designing and validating embedded systems, with a particular focus on hardware security, secure channels for microcontrollers, remote attestation, firmware updates with live state transfer, electromagnetic fault injection, kernel exploitation and mitigation strategies, and compiler optimization for edge AI accelerators. I am broadly interested in dependable resource-constrained systems and the interplay between software, hardware, and security.
112 Publications
24 Journal papers
50 Conference papers
2 Patents
Directions
Current research areas
Hardware
Software
Table 1 - Recent publications
Recent publications
Cross-Cache Attacks for the Linux Kernel via PCP Massaging
C. Migliorelli, A. Mambretti, A. Sorniotti, V. Zaccaria, A. Kurmus · Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)
Design, Implementation and Validation of NSCP: A New Secure Channel Protocol for Hardened IoT
J. Bushi, A. Battistello, G. Bertoni, V. Zaccaria · Proceedings of DATE 2025: International Conference on Design, Automation and Test in Europe · pp 1 to 7
Layer-wise Exploration of a Neural Processing Unit Compiler's Optimization Space
F. Indirli, A. Ornstein, G. Desoli, A. Buschini, C. Silvano, V. Zaccaria · Proceedings of the 2024 10th International Conference on Computer Technology Applications · pp 20 to 26
ConceptOS: A Micro-Kernel Approach to Firmware Updates of Always-On Resource-Constrained Hubris-Based IoT Systems
A. Aspesi, V. Zaccaria · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · pp 14472 to 14482
Interruptible Remote Attestation of Low-End IoT Microcontrollers via Performance Counters
D. Calsi, V. Zaccaria · ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS) · pp 1 to 19
Efficient Attack-Surface Exploration for Electromagnetic Fault Injection
D. Carta, V. Zaccaria, G. Quagliarella, M. Molteni · Proceedings of COSADE 2023: Constructive Side-Channel Analysis and Secure Design · pp 23 to 41
ADD-based Spectral Analysis of Probing Security
M. Molteni, V. Zaccaria, V. Ciriani · Proceedings of DATE 2022: International Conference on Design, Automation and Test in Europe · pp 987 to 992
Projects
Research software and collaborations
CASCA
A language for designing hardware countermeasures against side channel attacks. It is based on a final tagless approach for embedding domain specific languages.
Polimi at Home (PAH)
An experiment in MOOC for my students of Informatica B. It allows to learn a Matlab-like language through a set of small lectures and automatically graded exercises. It uses the EDX stack.
2PARMA Use case n. 6
Integration of various technologies from different project partners to create a video-analytics application.
Multicube Explorer
Architectural exploration framework retargetable to different processor-based architectures and exploration algorithms. The tool contains also advanced algorithms for DoE generation and response surface modeling.
xSTreamC compiler and nSTream simulator
Development toolchain for applications based on the stream oriented programming model.
ST200-ISS
Production-grade instruction set simulator for the ST200 VLIW processor family (functional and timing behavior models). Kernel, device components, cache-coherency, secure-storage, co-hosting
Grants
Highlighted funding
Cybersecurity
Grant from industrial partner, Security Pattern
Metodologia e Strumenti per la Valutazione di Circuiti Crittografici
Grant from industrial partner, STMicroelectronics
Strumenti di Progettazione e Verifica per Circuiti Crittografici
Grant from industrial partner, STMicroelectronics
Power estimation and exploration of the architectural space at the system level for systems-on-chip
Post-Doc Grant, Politecnico di Milano
Multi-Objective Design Space Exploration of Multi-Processor SOC Architectures for Embedded Multimedia Applications
Research Grant, Politecnico di Milano
Methodologies for Power Estimation for VLIW Machines
Ph.D. Fellowship, STMicroelectronics