The student Jorge Barredo Ferreira an EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE with mention INTERNATIONAL DOCTORATE

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The student Jorge Barredo Ferreira an EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE with mention INTERNATIONAL DOCTORATE

THESIS

The student Jorge Barredo Ferreira an EXCELLENT CUM LAUDE with mention INTERNATIONAL DOCTORATE

2026·02·02

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  • Thesis title: Novel Techniques for Embedded Fuzzing with Side-Channel Analysis and Seed Optimization

Court:

  • Presidency: María Teresa Gómez López (Universidad de Sevilla)
  • Vocal: Pablo Picazo Sánchez (Halmstad University)
  • Secretary: Iñaki Garitano Garitano (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)

Abstract:

The thesis addresses the challenges of assessing software security in embedded and IoT devices, where limited internal visibility, constrained instrumentation, and strict time and energy budgets reduce the effectiveness of conventional fuzzing. Two main contributions are proposed. First, physical sidechannels—electromagnetic traces and power-consumption patterns —are used as execution oracles to detect divergences, infer implicit coverage, and prioritise inputs without modifying the firmware or the platform. Furthermore, methods are examined to map signal patterns to hardware subsystems, thereby improving fault localisation. Second, the thesis evaluates the use of large language models to synthesise structured seeds under low-throughput conditions, increasing semantic validity and input diversity. Across repeated campaigns, the combined approach expands reachable paths, reduces timeto uniquefailures,and mitigates exploration plateaus.