Science Comics

The Secrets of Hub A and the Traces of the Cookies

A Journey through the future of cryptography and the exciting research world of CASA.

What is safe today may be an open secret tomorrow. This is especially true in the digital sphere: from mass surveillance and post-quantum cryptography to safe routing and encryption. Follow the curious little fox Whitfield on his chase through Hub A. Will he manage all the twists and turns along the way?

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Scientific Background

The concepts and methods presented in this comic were developed by our researchers involved in the Cluster of Excellence CASA. The original publications can be found here:

• Constructing and Deconstructing Intentional Weaknesses in Symmetric Ciphers
• Cryptanalysis of the GPRS Encryption Algorithms GEA-1 and GEA-2
• CRYSTALS – Kyber: a CCA-secure module-lattice-based KEM
• CRYSTALS – Dilithium: Digital Signatures from Module Lattices
• T0RTT: Non-Interactive Immediate Forward-Secret Single-Pass Circuit Construction

For more information about Research Hub A, click here.

A Deep Dive Into Hub B and the Swirl of Embedded Security

A Journey Into the Depths of Hardware Security and the Exciting Research World of CASA

From Hardware Trojans to Side-Channel Attacks, it has become clear that hardware can also be the target of attacks. As systems fall into the hands of various and potentially malicious users, numerous opportunities arise to breach such seemingly and allegedly secure systems. Follow fearless beaver Paul on his dive into the research findings of CASA’s Hub B. Will he solve the mystery of his family’s unstable dam? Have they become the target of a large-scale adversary?

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Scientific Background

The concepts and methods presented in this comic were developed by our researchers involved in the Cluster of Excellence CASA. The original publications can be found here:

• On the Design and Misuse of Microcoded (Embedded) Processors — A Cautionary Note
• Red Team vs. Blue Team: A Real-World Hardware Trojan Detection Case Study Across Four Modern CMOS Technology Generations
• IRShield: A Countermeasure Against Adversarial Physical-Layer Wireless Sensing
• Anti-Tamper Radio: System-Level Tamper Detection for Computing Systems
• Automated Generation of Masked Hardware
• SILVER – Statistical Independence and Leakage Verification

For more information about Research Hub B, click here.

What’s the Fuzz About Hub C and the Missing Carrots?

A Journey through the secrets of secure systems and the exciting research world of CASA.

The world is awash with digital security threats; attackers will not stop at carrot stashes. Today's carrot stash could be tomorrow's central bank. Can brave Betty save her fellow bunnies? And what role does CASA's Hub C research play in fighting this evil?

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Scientific Background

The concepts and methods presented in this comic were developed by our researchers involved in the Cluster of Excellence CASA. The original publications can be found here:

• xTag: Mitigating Use-After-Free Vulnerabilities via Software-Based Pointer Tagging on Intel x86-64
• IJON: Exploring Deep State Spaces via Fuzzing
• NYX: Greybox Hypervisor Fuzzing using Fast Snapshots and Affine Types
• Leveraging Frequency Analysis for Deep Fake Image Recognition
• Adversarial Attacks Against Automatic Speech Recognition Systems via Psychoacoustic Hiding
• Dompteur: Taming Audio Adversarial Examples

For more information about Research Hub C, click here.

Hub D and the Rumble in the Jungle of Usability

A Journey to the Mysteries of Usability and the Exciting Research World of CASA

How can IT specialists and security experts combine their skills in the best way? Which tools may help to get closer to the goal of security and privacy by design? And what about the user experience for the diverse crowd of end users? Join chameleon Maggie on her expedition to CASA's Hub D in search of a purposeful profession. Will she find the clearing of enlightenment in the information jungle?

Find out more here!

Flip Through the Comic

PDF Download

If you're interested in the print edition of our comic, please contact us.

Scientific Background

The concepts and methods presented in this comic were developed by our researchers involved in the Cluster of Excellence CASA. The original publications can be found here:

• Let’s Hash: Helping Developers with Password Security
• "Those things are written by lawyers, and programmers are reading that." Mapping the Communication Gap Between Software Developers and Privacy Experts
• "Make Them Change it Every Week”: A Qualitative Exploration of Online Developer Advice on Usable and Secure Authentication
• How Does Usable Security (Not) End Up in Software Products? Results From a Qualitative Interview Study
• A World Full of Privacy and Security (Mis)conceptions? Findings of a Representative Survey in 12 Countries
• "As Usual, I Needed Assistance of a Seeing Person": Experiences and Challenges of People with Disabilities and Authentication Methods
• Digital Security - A Question of Perspective. A Large-Scale Telephone Survey with Four At-Risk User Groups
• Tangible 2FA – An In-the-Wild Investigation of User-Defined Tangibles for Two-Factor Authentication

For more information about Research Hub D, click here.