Yongdae Kim ☕️

Yongdae Kim

(he/him)

Professor

KAIST

Professional Summary

Yongdae Kim (IEEE Fellow) is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Graduate School of Information Security at KAIST, where he holds the KAIST ICT Endowed Chair Professorship and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Southern California in 2002 and was on the faculty at the University of Minnesota until 2012. He previously served as Chair Professor at KAIST (2013–2016) and Director of the KAIST Cyber Security Research Center (2018–2020). He currently serves as the steering committee chair for NDSS and has chaired major conferences including ACM CCS and ACM WiSec. His research focuses on discovering and analyzing security vulnerabilities in emerging systems such as cellular networks, drones, and autonomous vehicles.
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Education

PhD Computer Science

1998-09-01
2002-05-30

University of Southern California

MS Mathematics

1991-03-01
1993-02-28

Yonsei University

BS Mathematics

1987-03-01
1991-02-28

Yonsei University

Interests

Cellular Security (LTE, 5G, 6G, …) Drone Security Security of Self-driving Card CPS Security
📚 My Research

My research focuses on discovering and analyzing security vulnerabilities in emerging systems such as cellular networks, drones, and autonomous vehicles.

Current Research Interests:

  • Cellular Network Security (4G/5G/6G)
  • Autonomous Vehicle Security
  • Drone Security
  • Security Research using ML

Past Research Interests: Blockchain Security • IoT Security • Embedded Systems Security • Network Protocol Analysis • Wireless Security • Applied Cryptography • Anonymity • Privacy • Mobile Security • Sensor Security • Software Security • System Security

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Publications
Mincheol Son, Kwangmin Kim, Beomseok Oh, CheolJun Park, Yongdae Kim (2025). CITesting: Systematic Testing of Context Integrity Violations in LTE Core Networks. Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS 2025, Taipei, Taiwan, October 13-17, 2025.
DOI
Impact: We uncovered 29, 22, 16, and 59 distinct CIVs in Open5GS, srsRAN, Amarisoft, and Nokia LTE cores, respectively. These allow remote detachment, IMSI exposure, and presence detection without requiring proximity. We contributed patches to Open5GS and Amarisoft. CITesting will be released as an open-source tool to support future uplink security research.
Suhwan Jeong, Beomseok Oh, Kwangmin Kim, Insu Yun, Yongdae Kim, CheolJun Park (2025). FirmState: Bringing Cellular Protocol States to Shannon Baseband Emulation. 18th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks, WiSec 2025, Arlington, VA, USA, 30 June 2025- 3 July 2025.
DOI
Tuan Dinh Hoang, Taekkyung Oh, CheolJun Park, Insu Yun, Yongdae Kim (2025). LLFuzz: An Over-the-Air Dynamic Testing Framework for Cellular Baseband Lower Layers. 34th USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2025, Seattle, WA, USA, August 13-15, 2025.
DOI Code
Impact: LLFuzz uncovered 11 previously unknown vulnerabilities across 15 commercial smartphones from major vendors including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, and Apple. Seven of these vulnerabilities have been assigned CVE identifiers and patched by vendors, while four remain undisclosed due to patch delays. The CVEs include: itemize Qualcomm: CVE-2025-21477, CVE-2024-23385 – affecting over 90 chipsets. MediaTek: CVE-2024-20076, CVE-2024-20077, CVE-2025-20659 – affecting over 80 chipsets. Samsung: CVE-2025-26780 – affecting Exynos 2400 series and Modem 5400. Apple: CVE-2024-27870 – equivalent to CVE-2025-21477 in Qualcomm modems. itemize LLFuzz revealed systemic flaws in how lower-layer baseband logic is implemented across vendors. In one test, a single malformed MAC-layer packet immediately disabled a device during data streaming. These results demonstrate that lower layers remain a blind spot in mobile security. LLFuzz is open-sourced at https://github.com/SysSec-KAIST/LLFuzz.
Yooho Jang, Ju-Hong Park, Taekkyung Oh, Yongdae Kim, Seong-Ook Park (2025). Passive 3-D User Equipment Tracking Using Long-Term Evolution Uplink Signals. IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..
DOI
Chunghyo Kim, Juhwan Noh, Esmaeil Ghahremani, Yongdae Kim (2025). Revisiting GPS Spoofing in Phasor Measurement: Real-World Exploitation and Practical Detection in Power Grids. ACM Trans. Priv. Secur..
DOI
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Experience

  1. ICT Chair Professor

    KAIST

  2. Member

    National Academy of Engineering of Korea

  3. Fellow

    IEEE

  4. Head

    Police Science and Technology Research Center, KAIST

  5. Professor

    School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST

  6. Professor (Joint Appointment)

    Graduate School of Information Security, KAIST

  7. Head

    Cyber Security Research Center, KAIST

  8. KAIST Chair Professor

    KAIST

  9. Assistant/Associate Professor

    Dept. of Computer Science, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

  10. McKnight Land-Grant Professor

    KUniversity of Minnesota, Twin Cities

  11. Visiting Researcher

    UC Irvine

  12. Member of Research Staf

    Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute

Education

  1. PhD Computer Science

    University of Southern California

  2. MS Mathematics

    Yonsei University

  3. BS Mathematics

    Yonsei University
Awards & Honors

Academic Honors

  • Member, National Academy of Engineering of Korea (2025)
  • KAIST ICT Chair Professor (2025–Present)
  • IEEE Fellow (2024)
  • KAIST Chair Professor (2013–2015)
  • McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, University of Minnesota (2006)
  • NSF CAREER Award (2005)

Best Paper Awards

  • Distinguished Paper Award, ACM CCS 2025
  • Best Paper Award, ACM WiSec 2016

Teaching Excellence

  • Best Lecture Award, KAIST Electrical Engineering (2022)