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Research Interests
I am interested in designing secure and efficient operating systems. 

My research objective is to design a flexible operating system that ensures security. To achieve this goal, my recent studies focus on 1) Overcoming the limitations of extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) and 2) Rethinking operating system design with eBPF.

Overcoming Limitations of Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) : The Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) has become a popular tool for Linux kernel community, as it enables extending the kernel’s capabilities by loading user-provided programs into kernel space. However, the current design of eBPF has limitations in terms of programmability and applicability that hinder its wider use. In a recent publication, I propose a renovated version of eBPF, which addresses these limitations by combining static verification with lightweight runtime sandboxing.

Rethinking Operating System with eBPF : Isolation is a fundamental concept for protecting operating systems. However, synchronizing the user and the kernel between the isolation boundary leads to high overhead in the kernel stack, affecting performance. To address these challenges, I design an OS using eBPF to bridge the semantic gap. Recently, I proposed bypassing the kernel virtual address memory stack to implement efficient methods for transparently detecting use-after-free bugs in user-level applications. Additionally, I am involved in a project aiming to reinvent OS design concepts using Rust, leveraging efficient and safe OS concepts which is only possible with a language-based isolation model with Rust. 

From these sub-goals, I target enhancing Linux kernel with eBPF to bridge the semantic gap between the user and the kernel in a secure environment. It is expected to oversee novel application usage with a co-design model involving both applications and the kernel.

Education

KAIST, Dajeon, Republic of Korea Mar 2023 -

 Ph.D. Student, School of Computing

 • Advisor: Youngjin Kwon


KAIST, Dajeon, Republic of Korea Mar 2021 - Feb 2023

 Mater of Science, School of Computing

 • Advisor: Youngjin Kwon

 • Thesis: vBPF: safely extending eBPF to enhance programmability and flexibility


GIST, Gwangju, Republic of Korea Mar 2017 - Feb 2021 

 Bachelor of Science, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Publications
Under review in two first-author papers, and one third-author paper.