Zhiwu XU Associate Professor College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University 724, College of Computer Science and Software Engineering Shenzhen University Nanhai Ave 3688, Nanshan District Shenzhen,Guangdong,P.R.China,518060 Email: xuzhiwu AT szu DOT edu DOT cn

Biography | Research Interests | Publications | Research Projects | Courses | Honors and Awards

Biography

I am currently an associate professor at Shenzhen University. I received the Bachelor Degree in Computer science and technology from Sun Yat-sen University in 2007, and the Ph.D. degrees in Computer science from IRIF(PPS), University Paris Diderot - Paris 7 and SKLCS, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the joint cultivation, in 2013.

Research Interests

• Program Analysis and Verification, Type Systems, Software Security, Automata Theory and Logic, and Machine Learning.

Publications (NOTICE: The electronic versions of the papers listed on this webpage are provided for personal use. Copyright is owned by the respective publishers or persons, and should be included explicitly in any distribution of the papers. See also at Google Scholar and DBLP.)

• Yeting Li, Yecheng Sun, Zhiwu Xu, Jialun Cao, Yuekang Li, Rongchen Li, Haiming Chen, Shing-Chi Cheung, Yang Liu, Yang Xiao. RegexScalpel: Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) Defense by Localize-and-Fix[C]. 31st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 22). 4183-4200. 10-12 August 2022. BOSTON, MA, USA. [URL]
• Cheng Wen, Mengda He, Bohao Wu, Zhiwu Xu, Shengchao Qin. Controlled Concurrency Testing via Periodical Scheduling[C]. 44th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2022). 474-486, 21-29 May 2022. Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
• Jia Ding, Zhiwu Xu. Improving the Transferability of Adversarial Examples with RAdam and Color Invariance[J]. Ruan Jian Xue Bao/Journal of Software, 2022, 33(7):2525-2537 (in Chinese). [URL]
• Yida Tao, Zhihui Chen, Yepang Liu, Jifeng Xuan, Zhiwu Xu, and Shengchao Qin. Demystifying "Bad" Error Messages in Data Science Libraries[C]. 29th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2021). 818-829, 23-28 August 2021. Athens, Greece. [URL]
• Yeting Li, Zixuan Chen, Jialun Cao, Zhiwu Xu, Qiancheng Peng, Haiming Chen, Liyuan Chen, and Shing-Chi Cheung. ReDoSHunter: A Combined Static and Dynamic Approach for Regular Expression DoS Detection[C]. 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21). 3847-3864. 11-13 August 2021. JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada. [URL]
• Yida Tao, Shan Tang, Yepang Liu, Zhiwu Xu, and Shengchao Qin. Speeding up Data Manipulation Tasks with Alternative Implementations: An Exploratory Study[J]. Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology. 230(4):1-28, 23 July 2021. [URL]
• Zhiwu Xu, Cheng Wen, Shengchao Qin, Mengda He. Extracting automata from neural networks using active learning[J]. PeerJ Computer Science 7:e436. 19 April 2021. [URL]
• Zhiwu Xu, Hongxu Chen, Alwen Tiu, Yang Liu, Kunal Sareen. A Permission-Dependent Type System for Secure Information Flow Analysis[J]. Journal of Computer Security. 29(2): 161-228. 29 March 2021. [PDF]
• Yeting Li, Shuaimin Li, Zhiwu Xu, Jialun Cao, Zixuan Chen, Yun Hu, Haiming Chen, Shing-Chi Cheung. TransRegex: Multi-modal Regular Expression Synthesis by Generate-and-Repair[C]. 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2021). 1210-1222, 22-30 May 2021. Madrid, Spain. [PDF]
• Haiming Chen and Zhiwu Xu. Inclusion Algorithms for One-Unambiguous Regular Expressions and Their Applications[J]. Science of Computer Programming. 193:102436, 1 July 2020. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Xiongya Hu, Yida Tao and Shengchao Qin. Analyzing Cryptographic API Usages for Android Applications Using HMM and N-Gram[C]. 14th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering (TASE 2020). 153-160, 11-13 December 2020. Hangzhou, China. [PDF]
• Jia Ding and Zhiwu Xu. Adversarial Attacks on Deep Learning Models of Computer Vision: A Survey[C]. 20th International Conference on Algorithm and Architecture for Parallel Processing (ICA3PP 2020). 3, 396-408, 2-4 October 2020. New York, USA. [PDF]
• Weipeng Cao, Cong Zhou, Yuhao Wu, Zhong Ming, Zhiwu Xu, and Jiyong Zhang. Research Progress of Zero-Shot Learning Beyond Computer Vision[C]. 20th International Conference on Algorithm and Architecture for Parallel Processing (ICA3PP 2020). 2, 538-551, 2-4 October 2020. New York, USA. [PDF]
• Yeting Li, Zhiwu Xu, Jialun Cao, Haiming Chen, Tingjian Ge, Shing-Chi Cheung, Haoren Zhao. FlashRegex: Deducing Anti-ReDoS Regexes from Examples[C]. 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2020). 659-671, 21-25 September 2020. Melbourne, Australia. [PDF]
• Yida Tao, Jiefang Jiang, Yepang Liu, Zhiwu Xu, Shengchao Qin. Understanding Performance Concerns in the API Documentation of Data Science Libraries[C]. 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2020). 895-906, 21-25 September 2020. Melbourne, Australia. [PDF]
• Cheng Wen, Haijun Wang, Yuekang Li, Shengchao Qin, Yang Liu, Zhiwu Xu, Hongxu Chen, Xiaofei Xie, Geguang Pu, Ting Liu. MemLock: Memory Usage Guided Fuzzing[C]. 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2020), 765-777, 6-11 July 2020. Seoul, South Korea. [PDF]
• Yeting Li, Jialun Cao, Haiming Chen, Tingjian Ge, Zhiwu Xu and Qiancheng Peng. FlashSchema: achieving high quality XML schemas with powerful inference algorithms and large-scale schema data[C]. 36th IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE 2020). 1962-1965, 20-24 April 2020. Dallas, Texas, USA. [PDF]
• Yida Tao, Shan Tang, Yepang Liu, Zhiwu Xu, Shengchao Qin. How Do API Selections Affect the Runtime Performance of Data Analytics Tasks?[C]. 34th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2019). 665-668, 10-15 November 2019. San Diego, California, United States. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Kerong Ren and Fu Song. Android Malware Family Classification and Characterization Using CFG and DFG[C]. 13th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering (TASE 2019). 49-56, 29 July-1 August 2019. Guilin, China. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Cheng Wen, Shengchao Qin. Type Learning for Binaries and its Applications[J]. The IEEE Transactions on Reliability. 68(3), 893-912, September 2019. [PDF]
• Fu Song, Yedi Zhang, Taolue Chen, Yu Tan and Zhiwu Xu. Probabilistic Alternating-Time mu-Calculus[C]. Thirty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2019). 6179-6186, 27 January-1 February 2019. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Ping Lu and Haiming Chen. Towards an Effective Syntax and a Generator for DREGs[J]. The Computer Journal, Volume 62, Issue 9, September 2019, Pages 1322-1341. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Kerong Ren, Shengchao Qin and Florin Craciun. CDGDroid: Android Malware Detection Based on Deep Learning using CFG and DFG[C]. 20th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods (ICFEM 2018). 177-193, 12-16 November 2018. Gold Coast, Australia. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Cheng Wen, Shengchao Qin. State-taint analysis for detecting resource bugs[J]. Science of Computer Programming, 93-109, 2018. [PDF]
• Jingyi Wang, Jun Sun, Yifan Jia, Shengchao Qin and Zhiwu Xu. Towards `Verifying' a Water Treatment System. 22nd International Symposium on Formal Methods (FM 2018), 73-92, 15-17 July 2018. Oxford, UK. [PDF]
• Hongxu Chen, Alwen Tiu, Zhiwu Xu and Yang Liu. A Permission-Dependent Type System for Secure Information Flow Analysis. 31st IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF 2018). 218-232, 9-12 July 2018. Oxford, UK. [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Cheng Wen, Shengchao Qin, Zhong Ming. Effective Malware Detection based on Behaviour and Data Features[C]. 2nd International Conference on Smart Computing and Communication, 53-66, 10-12 December 2017. Shenzhen, China.(Best Student Paper) [PDF]
• Zhiwu Xu, Cheng Wen, Shengchao Qin. Learning types for binaries[C]. 19th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods (ICFEM 2017), 430-446, 13-17 November 2017. Xi'an, China. [PDF]
• Shengchao Qin, Zhiwu Xu, Zhong Ming. Survey of research on program verification via separation logic[J]. Ruan Jian Xue Bao/Journal of Software, 2017, 28(8): 2010-2025 (in Chinese). [URL]
• Teng Long, Zhiwu Xu. Deductive proof of security relevant properties under bounded constraints[J]. Computer Engineering and Science, 2017, 39(4): 717-724 (in Chinese).
• Zhiwu Xu, Dongxiao Fan, Shengchao Qin. State-Taint Analysis for Detecting Resource Bugs[C]. 10th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering (TASE 2016). 168-175, 17-19 July 2016. Shanghai, China. [PDF]
• Giuseppe Castagna, Kim Nguyen, Zhiwu Xu, Pietro Abate. Polymorphic Functions with Set-Theoretic Types:Part 2: Local Type Inference and Type Reconstruction[C]. 42nd ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2015). 289-302, 15-17 January 2015. Mumbai, India. [URL]
• Huisong Li, Zhiwu Xu, Haiming Chen. Improved Flow-insensitive Type Qualifier Inference[J]. Computer Science. 2014, 41(9):178-184 (in Chinese).
• Giuseppe Castagna, Kim Nguyen, Zhiwu Xu, Hyeonseung Im, Sergueï Lenglet, Luca Padovani. Polymorphic functions with set-theoretic types: part 1: syntax, semantics, and evaluation[C]. 41st ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2014). 5-18, 20-21 January 2014. San Diego, CA, USA. [URL]
• Liang Du, Yidong Shen, Zhiyong Shen, Jianying Wang, Zhiwu Xu, A self-supervised framework for clustering ensemble[C], 14th International Conference on Web-Age Information Management (WAIM 2013). 253-264, 14-16 June 2013. Beidaihe, China.
• Zhiwu Xu, Lixiao Zheng, Haiming Chen. A Toolkit for Generating Sentences from Context-Free Grammars[J]. International Journal of Software and Informatics, 2011, 5(4): 659-676.
• Lixiao Zheng, Zhiwu Xu, Haiming Chen. Algorithm for generating short sentences from grammars based on branch coverage criterion[J]. Journal of Software, 2011,22(11):2564-2576 (in Chinese).
• Giuseppe Castagna, Zhiwu Xu. Set-theoretic foundation of parametric polymorphism and subtyping[C]. 16th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP 2011). 94-106, 19-21 September 2011. Tokyo, Japan. (CACM Research Highlights nomination by ACM SIGPLAN) [URL]
• Zhiwu Xu, Lixiao Zheng, Haiming Chen. A Toolkit for Generating Sentences from Context-Free Grammars[C]. 8th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods (SEFM 2010). 118-122, 13-18 September 2010. Pisa, Italy. [URL]

Research Projects

• Research on Gradual Security Type Systems for Different Abstract Level Languages, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2020.1-2023.12, PI
• Security Type System for Mobile Applications, Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, 2019.10-2022.09, PI
• Research on Parametric Polymorphism for Structured Data Processing Languages, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Fund), 2015.1-2018.12, PI

Courses

• Specification and Verification (2021-2022)
• Software Engineering (2020-2021, 2021-2022)
• Software Testing (2019-2020)
• Programming Languages (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2020-2021)
• Automata Theory and Formal Languages (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022)
• Principles of Compiler (2015-2016)

Honors and Awards

• Best Paper Award for FMAC 2018
• Best Student Paper Award for SmartCom 2017
• EAPLS PhD Award 2013
• CACM Research Highlights nomination by ACM SIGPLAN for ICFP'11, 2013
• The France Eiffel Excellence Scholarship for international students, 2011-2012
• The Joint Doctoral Promotion Programme of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2009-2010