David Kohlbrenner
I am an Assistant Professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington.
Previously I was a post-doc
with Dawn
Song and
the ADEPT lab
at UC Berkeley, and did my PhD
with Hovav
Shacham at UC San Diego.
Google Scholar profile
Contact: dkohlbre [at] cs.washington.edu
If you are a UW student, please send from your academic email address
(david.kohlbrenner [at] gmail.com for non-academic)
Office: CSE2 310
Research
My research interests span software security, systems, and hardware architecture.
I put special focus on the impact of hardware design on high-level software security.
Active projects include:
Next generation microarchitectural side-channels and defenses.
FPGA analog side-channels.
The Keystone TEE framework for RISC-V.
Teaching
CSE484 Computer Security and Privacy (25sp,24sp, 23sp, 21au, 21wi)
CSE564 (Graduate) Computer Security and Privacy (20au)
CSE123 Introduction to Computer Programming III (23au)
CSEP564 (Graduate, PMP) Computer Security and Privacy (24au,22au)
CSE599 Hardware Security (22sp)
Previously:
Advanced topics on secure hardware (UC Berkeley)
CSE80 Linux and the Command Line aka T4CS (UC San Diego)
Students
PhD
Alexandra Michael Fall 2022 -> present (coadvised with Dan Grossman)Gregor Haas Fall 2022 -> present
Maddie Burbage Fall 2023 -> present (coadvised with Baris Kasikci)
Undergrad and Masters
Pranav Gopalkrishnan (Undergrad, Fall 2023 - present)Past Students
Michael FlandersMicheal Chung (Undergrad) -> Apple
Conference Publications
A. Wang, B. Chen, Y. Wang, C. Fletcher, D. Genkin, D. Kohlbrenner, R. Paccagnella
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), 2025.
B. Chen, Y. Wang, P. Shome, C. Fletcher, D. Kohlbrenner, R. Paccagnella, D. Genkin
USENIX Security, 2024.
Pwnie Award 2024 -- Best Cryptographic Attack
M. Flanders, R. Sharma, A. Michael, D. Grossman, D. Kohlbrenner
ASPLOS, 2024.
C. Drews, O. Weng, A. Meza, A. Althoff, D. Kohlbrenner, R. Kastner, D. Richmond
ASPLOS, 2024.
Y. Wang, R. Paccagnella, Z. Gang, W. R. Vasquez, D. Kohlbrenner, H. Shacham, C. Fletcher
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), 2024.
J. Yu, A. Dutta, T. Jaeger, D. Kohlbrenner, C. Fletcher
USENIX Security, 2023.
Talk Recording
Y. Wang, R. Paccagnella, A. Wandke, Z. Gang, G. Garrett-Grossman, C. Fletcher, D. Kohlbrenner, H. Shacham
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), 2023.
Y. Wang, R. Paccagnella, ET. He, H. Shacham, C. Fletcher, D. Kohlbrenner
USENIX Security, 2022.
Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security 2024
IEEE Micro Top Picks 2022
Pwnie Award 2022 -- Best Cryptographic Attack
J. Vicarte, M. Flanders, R. Paccagnella, G. Garret-Grossman, A. Morrison, C. Fletcher, D. Kohlbrenner
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), 2022.
2nd at CSAW 2022 Applied Research Competition
J. Vicarte, P. Shome, N. Nayak, C. Trippel, A. Morrison, D. Kohlbrenner, C. Fletcher
ISCA, 2021.
Honorable Mention for Intel Hardware Security Academic Award 2022
D. Lee, D. Kohlbrenner, S. Shinde, D. Song, K. Asanovic
EuroSys 2020.
Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security 2022
I. Lebedev, K. Hogan, J. Drean, D. Kohlbrenner, D. Lee, K. Asanovic, D. Song, S. Devadas
Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE). IEEE, 2019.
D. Kohlbrenner and H. Shacham
USENIX Security. August 2017 (Updated Nov 2022, original)
C. Disselkoen, D. Kohlbrenner, L. Porter, D. Tullsen
USENIX Security. August 2017
D. Kohlbrenner and H. Shacham
USENIX Security. August 2016
2nd at CSAW 2016 Applied Research Competition
M. Andrysco, D. Kohlbrenner, K. Mowery, R. Jhala, S. Lerner, and H. Shacham
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), May 2015 (Updated June 2017, original)
K. Mowery, M. Wei, D. Kohlbrenner, H. Shacham, and S. Swanson
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), May 2013
Other Publications
G. Andrade, D. Lee, D. Kohlbrenner, K. Asanovic, D. Song
Workshop on Computer Architecture Research with RISC-V (CARRV), May 2020
K. Cheang, C. Rasmussen, D. Lee, D. Kohlbrenner, K. Asanovic, S. Seshia
Workshop on Secure RISC-V Architecture Design (SECRISC-V 2020), Aug 2020
D. Kohlbrenner, S. Shinde, D. Lee, K. Asanovic, D. Song
IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine ( Volume: 18 , Issue: 5 , Sept.-Oct. 2020 )
Non-papers
Security impact of noexcept (D. Kohlbrenner, D. Svoboda, A. Wesie)