I'm a third-year PhD student in Computer Science at University of Utah, advised by Prof. Stefan Nagy.
My research focuses on improving software systems’ reliability and robustness, with current work centered on binary analysis and fuzz testing in the absence of source code.
Prior to Utah, I obtained my Master's degree from University of Southampton and my Bachelor's from Hainan University.
12/2025 Our paper on binary invariant-based fuzzing is accepted to FSE'26!
04/2025 Our paper on decompiler fuzzing will appear on USENIX ATC'25!
06/2024 Our work on decompiler fuzzing was mentioned by Binary Ninja in their blog post.
Graduate Research Assistant @ FuTURES³ Lab
08/2023 - Present
Binvariants: Enhancing Fuzzing of Closed-source Binary Executables via Register-level Likely Invariants
Zao Yang, Stefan Nagy
The ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE'26)
Bin2Wrong: a Unified Fuzzing Framework for Uncovering Semantic Errors in Binary-to-C Decompilers
Zao Yang, Stefan Nagy
2025 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC'25) @ Boston, MA, USA
Broadening The Solution Space of Feature Selection in Time-interval-based Malware Detection
[PAPER]
Zao Yang, BooJoong Kang
The 4th International Workshop on Data-Driven Security (DDSW 2023) @ Leuven, Belgium