Zhenyu Lei (雷镇宇)
Portrait
Pursuing M.S. at
the School of Cyberscience and Engineering, Southeast University

Hello! My name is Zhenyu Lei (pronounced like "Jen-yoo Lei"). I am currently pursuing an M.S. degree at Southeast University, fortunate to be advised by Prof. Fei Tong.

My primary research interest lies in Hardware Fuzzing for Microarchitectural Security, aiming to 1) automate the process of finding leakage primitives, 2) exploit them via side-channels, and 3) develop defenses against these attacks. Furthermore, I am currently exploring AI-driven approaches (e.g., Retrieval-Augmented Generation), to assist in the discovery of unknown microarchitectural vulnerabilities.

I am currently seeking Ph.D. opportunities starting in Fall 2026.

Curriculum Vitae
GitHub LinkedIn ORCID
Education
  • Southeast University
    Southeast University
    School of Cyberscience and Engineering
    M.Eng. in Cyberspace Security
    Sep. 2023 - present
  • Southeast University
    Southeast University
    Youth Class (少年班)
    School of Cyberscience and Engineering
    B.Eng. in Cyber Science
    Sep. 2019 - Jul. 2023
Experience
  • National University of Singapore
    National University of Singapore
    School of Computing
    Research Intern | Hardware Security
    Jan. 2026 - present
  • Alibaba Cloud
    Alibaba Cloud
    Whale Cloud
    Security Summer Intern
    May. 2023 - Jul. 2023
Honors & Awards
  • SEU Second Prize Postgraduate Academic Scholarship
    2024
  • SEU Outstanding Student (Top 15 annually)
    2023
  • SEU Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award
    2023
  • SEU Outstanding Volunteer
    2022
  • SEU Outstanding Youth (Top 10 annually)
    2021
Selected Projects (view all )
Semantics-Guided Black-Box Fuzzing for Microarchitectural Vulnerabilities in Processors
Semantics-Guided Black-Box Fuzzing for Microarchitectural Vulnerabilities in Processors

Zhenyu Lei, Advised by Prof. Fei Tong

Hardware Fuzzing Master Thesis ResearchMar 2025 - Present

Delivering Core Contributions: 1) a Semantics-Guided Fuzzing Strategy for efficient instruction exploration; 2) a novel Coverage Feedback Mechanism established by dynamically maintaining Side-Channel Attack Templates; and 3) ModelChecking Techniques for Vulnerability Localization.

Semantics-Guided Black-Box Fuzzing for Microarchitectural Vulnerabilities in Processors

Zhenyu Lei, Advised by Prof. Fei Tong

Hardware Fuzzing Master Thesis ResearchMar 2025 - Present

Delivering Core Contributions: 1) a Semantics-Guided Fuzzing Strategy for efficient instruction exploration; 2) a novel Coverage Feedback Mechanism established by dynamically maintaining Side-Channel Attack Templates; and 3) ModelChecking Techniques for Vulnerability Localization.

Security Attack Modeling for Processor Microarchitectures
Security Attack Modeling for Processor Microarchitectures

Zhenyu Lei

Hardware Fuzzing Funded by the Cyber Security Association of China (¥60,000)Jun 2025 - Present

Delivering Core Contributions: 1) a SoK on Microarchitectural Vulnerabilities; 2) a Systematic Modeling Report defining standard attack primitives; and 3) a Portable Benchmark Suite for cross-platform security validation.

Security Attack Modeling for Processor Microarchitectures

Zhenyu Lei

Hardware Fuzzing Funded by the Cyber Security Association of China (¥60,000)Jun 2025 - Present

Delivering Core Contributions: 1) a SoK on Microarchitectural Vulnerabilities; 2) a Systematic Modeling Report defining standard attack primitives; and 3) a Portable Benchmark Suite for cross-platform security validation.

All projects