I am assistant professor at Radboud University in the Digital Security (DiS) group and member of CESCA Lab.
My research interests include
- Design and analysis of symmetric cryptographic schemes;
- Hardware implementations of cryptographic algorithms;
- Side-channel and fault analysis of hardware implementations.
Before joining Radboud University, I worked as cryptographer at STMicroelectronics.
- Cryptology (Teaching Assistant) - Master’s programme of Computing Science - Radboud University - Fall 2023.
- Cryptology (Teaching Assistant) - Master’s programme of Computing Science - Radboud University - Fall 2022.
In progress
- Ph.D.
- Solane El hirch, on the design and analysis of cryptographic permutations. Co-supervised with prof. J. Daemen at Radboud University.
Completed
- Ph.D.
- Alireza Merdhad, Trail Search - Discovering the Perfect Paths for Adventure. Co-supervised with prof. J. Daemen at Radboud University.
- Master thesis
- Dor Alter, Tink Outside the Deck. Co-supervised with prof. J. Daemen at Radboud University.
- Denise Verbakel, Designing q-ary Transformations for Symmetric Cryptography. Co-supervised with prof. J. Daemen and ir. D. Kuijsters at Radboud University (July 2023).
- Maaike Van Leuken, Runaway Keystream Generators and their Parallelizability and G&D-Resistance. Co-supervised with prof. J. Daemen at Radboud University (July 2021).
- Federico Ferri, Design and implementation of a cryptographic ASIC circuit for elliptic curve scalar-point multiplications over binary fields. Co-supervised with dr. A. Barenghi and dr. G. Pelosi at Politecnico di Milano and STMicroelectronics(December 2021).
- Andrea Pace, Improving Feature Extraction and Classification in Neural Network based Side Channel Attacks against Asymmetric Cryptosystems. Co-supervised with dr. A. Barenghi and dr. G. Pelosi at Politecnico di Milano and STMicroelectronics (July 2020).
- Bachelor thesis
- Eleonora Mariuzzo, Post-Quantum cryptographic schemes based on error correcting codes. Co-supervised with dr. M. Gregoratti at Politecnico di Milano and STMicroelectronics (December 2021).
- Hany Raghab, A key recovery attack on 6 rounds of AES. Co-supervised with dr. A. Visconti at University of Milan (December 2014).
- Simone Bossi, Can a FDE solution provide security in the event that data is lost or stolen. Co-supervised with dr. A. Visconti at University of Milan (December 2014).
- Internships
- Guilhem Assael, on hardware accelerators for binary elliptic curves. At STMicroelectronics (March - Sept 2020).
- Andrea Pace, on deep-learning based side-channel analysis against RSA and ECC. At STMicroelectronics (Sept 2020 - Feb 2021).
- (pre-print) J. Daemen, S. Hoffert, S. Mella, G. Van Assche, R. Van Keer. Shaking up authenticated encryption IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2024/1618. Link
- J. Daemen, D. Kuijsters, S. Mella, D. Verbakel. Propagation properties of a non-linear mapping based on squaring in odd characteristic. Cryptography and Communications (2024). Link
- P. Amiri Eliasi, Y. Belkheyar, J. Daemen, S. Ghosh, D. Kuijsters, A. Mehrdad, S. Mella, S. Rasoolzadeh, and G. Van Assche. Koala: A Low-Latency Pseudorandom Function. Selected Areas in Cryptography 2024 (SAC 2024), Montréal, Canada, August 26–30, 2024.
- P. Amiri Eliasi, S. Mella, L. Weissbart, L. Batina, S. Picek. Xoodyak Under SCA Siege. 27th International Symposium on Design and Diagnostics of Electronic Circuits and Systems (DDECS 2024), Kielce, Poland, April 3-5, 2024.
- A. Adhikary, A. Basurto, L. Batina, I. Buhan, J. Daemen, S. Mella, N. Mentens, S. Picek, D. Lakshmi Ramachandran, A. Sajadi, T. Stefanov, D. Vermoen, N. Zidaric. PROACT-Physical Attack Resistance of Cryptographic Algorithms and Circuits with Reduced Time to Market. The 20th International Symposium on Applied Reconfigurable Computing (ARC 2024), Aveiro, Portugal, March 20-22, 2024.
- S. Mella, J. Daemen, G. Van Assche. Tighter trail bounds for Xoodoo. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, 2023(4), 187–214. Link
- S. Mella, A. Mehrdad, J. Daemen. Differential and Linear properties of vectorial boolean functions based on chi. Cryptography and Communications (2023). Link
- S. El Hirch, S. Mella, A. Mehrdad, J. Daemen. Improved Differential and Linear Trail Bounds for ASCON. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology 2022(4): 145-178 (2022). Link
- A. Mehrdad, S. Mella, L. Grassi, J. Daemen. Differential Trail Search in Cryptographic Primitives with Big-Circle Chi: Application to Subterranean. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology 2022(2): 253-288 (2022). Link
- A Barenghi, D Carrera, S Mella, A Pace, G Pelosi, R Susella. Profiled side channel attacks against the RSA cryptosystem using neural networks. Journal of Information Security and Applications 66: 103122 (2022). Link
- J. Daemen, A. Mehrdad, S. Mella. Computing the Distribution of Differentials over the Non-linear Mapping Chi. 11th International Conference on Security, Privacy and Applied Cryptographic Engineering (SPACE 2021), Kolkata/IIT Kharagpur, India, December 10-13, 2021. Link
- A Barenghi, D Carrera, S Mella, A Pace, G Pelosi, R Susella. Profiled Attacks Against the Elliptic Curve Scalar Point Multiplication Using Neural Networks. Network and System Security: 15th International Conference (NSS 2021), Tianjin, China, October 23, 2021. Link
- L. Frittoli, M. Bocchi, S. Mella, D. Carrera, B. Rossi, P. Fragneto, R. Susella, G. Boracchi (2020). Strengthening Sequential Side-Channel Attacks Through Change Detection. IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, 2020(3), 1-21. Link
- S. Mella, J. Daemen, G. Van Assche. New techniques for trail bounds and application to differential trails in Keccak. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology 2017(1): 329-357 (2017). Link
- S. Cimato, E. Damiani, S. Mella, CN Yang. Key Recovery in Public Clouds: A Survey on Cross-VM Side Channel Attacks. International Conference on Cloud Computing and Security (ICCCS 2016), Nanjing, China, July 29-31, 2016. Link
- S. Cimato, S. Mella, R. Susella. Partial Key Exposure Attacks on RSA with Exponent Blinding. In e-Business and Telecommunications. 11th International Joint Conference, ICETE. Revised and Extended Selected Papers, 2015. Link
- L. Magri, S. Mella, F. Melzani, B. Rossi, P. Fragneto. J-DFA: a Novel Approach for Robust Differential Fault Analysis. In proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance in Cryptography (FDTC 2015), Saint Malo, France, September 13, 2015. Link
- S. Cimato, S. Mella, R. Susella. New Results for Partial Key Exposure on RSA with Exponent Blinding. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT 2015), Colmar, Alsace, France, July 20-22, 2015. Link
- S. Mella, F. Melzani, A. Visconti. Differential Fault Attacks against AES tampering with the Instruction Flow. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT 2014). Wien, Austria, August 28-30, 2014. Link
- C. Ferretti, S. Mella, F. Melzani. The role of the fault model in DFA against AES. In Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Hardware and Architectural Support for Security and Privacy (HASP ’14). Minneapolis, MN, USA, June 15, 2014. Link
- S. Mella, R. Susella. On the Homomorphic Computation of Symmetric Cryptographic Primitives. In Proceedings of the 14th IMA International Conference on Cryptography and Coding. Oxford, UK, December 17-19, 2013. Link
I received my Bachelor and M.Sc. degree in Mathematics from the University of Milano, Italy.
I got my Ph.D. degree from the University of Milano, Italy in 2018 with a thesis titled "Analysis of cryptographic algorithms against theoretical and implementation attacks" under the supervision of dr. Stelvio Cimato, dr. Gille Van Assche, and prof. ir. Joan Daemen.
In October 2015, I joined STMicroelectronics, Italy where I worked as cryptographer in the Security Roadmap until February 2022, developing hardware accelerators for public-key cryptography.
In January 2021, I joined the Digital Security (DiS) group at Radboud University as postdoctoral researcher.
From January 2025, I am assistant professor in the Digital Security (DiS) group at Radboud University.