Yuhong Nan (南雨宏)

Welcome to Yuhong Nan's Homepage

I am currently an Associate Professor in the School of Software Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University (Zhongshan University). Prior to this, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University, where I worked with Prof. Dongyan Xu. I received my Ph.D. from Fudan University in 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Min Yang. I am recognized as one of the active top authors in publishing at leading security venues [1][2].

My research interests broadly span software security and user privacy, with a primary focus on analyzing and enhancing the security and privacy of emerging platforms, including LLM Agents, Blockchain, and Mobile ecosystems. My research involves designing and developing practical systems and tools to systematically detect, mitigate, and remediate a wide spectrum of security and privacy threats.

I am always looking for self-motivated students to join my group at Sun Yat-sen University. Please refer to my publications below for more information about my ongoing research projects. If you are interested, feel free to reach out via email with your CV.

Publications

• [NDSS'27] Your Mailbox Is Mine: Prompt Injection Attacks Against Real-World LLM Email Agents. Jiangrong Wu, Yuhong Nan, Jianliang Wu, Zitong Yao, Zesheng Shi, Min Yang, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS 2027).
• [CCS'26] SkillScope: Toward Fine-Grained Least-Privilege Enforcement for Agent Skills. Jiangrong Wu, Yuhong Nan, Yixi Lin, Huaijin Wang, Yuming Xiao, Shuai Wang, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2026).
• [Preprint] FlowArk: Boosting Agentic Data-flow Analysis for Android Apps via Context-Aware Knowledge Reuse. Yiming Zhang, Jiangrong Wu, Yuhong Nan. arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.11308, 2026.
• [Preprint] AgentRaft: Automated Detection of Data Over-Exposure in LLM Agents. Yixi Lin*, Jiangrong Wu*, Yuhong Nan, Xueqiang Wang, Xinyuan Zhang, Zibin Zheng. arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.07557, 2026.
• [ISSTA'26] RPCSpecter: Detecting Blockchain RPC Bugs through a Specification-Driven, Constraint-Aware Fuzzing Approach. Yuming Xiao, Yuhong Nan, Zhijie Zhong, Mingxi Ye, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA 2026). [Distinguished Paper Award]
• [FSE'26] V2E: Validating Smart Contract Vulnerabilities through Profit-driven Exploit Generation and Execution. Jingwen Zhang, Yuhong Nan, Kaiwen Ning, Mingxi Ye, Wei Li, Yuming Xiao, Yuming Feng, Weizhe Zhang, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2026).
• [FSE'26] ChainDelta: Automatic Patch-based Exploit Generation for Ethereum with Fuzzing Agents. Mingxi Ye, Yuhong Nan, Zhijie Zhong, Jianzhong Su, Xingwei Lin, Peilin Zheng, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2026).
• [ICSE'26] Is My RPC Response Reliable? Detecting RPC Bugs in Ethereum Blockchain Client under Context. Zhijie Zhong, Yuhong Nan, Mingxi Ye, Qing Xue, Jiashui Wang, Xinlei Ying, Long Liu, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the 48th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering.
• [Security'26] Cracking Federated Privacy: Initialization-Resilient Gradient Inversion with Fine-Grained Reconstruction. Kaiming Zhu, Jinsheng Yang, Siyang Guo, Huaqian Qin, Taiyu Wang, Junbo Wang, Yuhong Nan, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium 2026.
• [TOSEM'25] Detecting and Analyzing Fine-grained Third-party Library Dependencies in Solidity Smart Contracts. Sicheng Hao, Yuhong Nan, Zeqin Liao, Juan Zhai, and Zibin Zheng. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (2025).
• [TSE'25] ASTRO: Detecting Access Control Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts via Graph Similarity Comparison. Wei Li, Yuhong Nan, Mingxi Ye, Jingwen Zhang, Peilin Zheng, Zibin Zheng. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 51(12): 3267-3283 (2025).
• [TSE'25] Satellite: Detecting and Analyzing Smart Contract Vulnerabilities Caused by Subcontract Misuse. Zeqin Liao, Yuhong Nan, Zixu Gao, Henglong Liang, Sicheng Hao, Jiajing Wu, Zibin Zheng. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 51(12): 3360-3375 (2025).
• [TSE'25] Augmenting Smart Contract Decompiler Output Through Fine-Grained Dependency Analysis and LLM-Facilitated Semantic Recovery. Zeqin Liao, Yuhong Nan, Zixu Gao, Henglong Liang, Sicheng Hao, Peifan Reng, Zibin Zheng. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 51(12): 3574-3590 (2025).
• [ASE'25] Finding Insecure State Dependency in DApps via Multi-Source Tracing and Semantic Enrichment. Jingwen Zhang, Yuhong Nan, Wei Li, Kaiwen Ning, Zewei Lin, Zitong Yao, Yuming Feng, Weizhe Zhang, Zibin Zheng. In Proceedings of the 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. ASE 2025: 1529-1540.
• [Security'25] Demystifying the (In)Security of QR Code-based Login in Real-world Deployments. Xin Zhang, Xiaohan Zhang, Bo Zhao, Yuhong Nan, Zhichen Liu, Jianzhou Chen, Huijun Zhou, Min Yang. In Proceedings of the 34th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'25), pp. 3161-3180.
• [ICSE'25] SmartReco: Detecting Read-Only Reentrancy via Fine-Grained Cross-DApp Analysis. Jingwen Zhang, Zibin Zheng, Yuhong Nan, Mingxi Ye, Kaiwen Ning, Yu Zhang, Weizhe Zhang. In Proceedings of the 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025), pp. 2138-2150.
• [ICICS'25] Identifying Unusual Personal Data in Mobile Apps for Better Privacy Compliance Check. Jiatao Cheng, Yuhong Nan, Xueqiang Wang, Zhefan Chen, Yuliang Zhang. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Information and Communications Security (ICICS 2025), pp. 545-563.
• [Security'24] Navigating the Privacy Compliance Maze: Understanding Risks with Privacy-Configurable Mobile SDKs. Yifan Zhang, Zhaojie Hu, Xueqiang Wang, Yuhui Hong, Yuhong Nan, XiaoFeng Wang, Jiatao Cheng, Luyi Xing. In Proceedings of the 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'24).
• [CCS'24] Are We Getting Well-informed? An In-depth Study of Runtime Privacy Notice Practice in Mobile Apps. Shuai Li, Zhemin Yang, Yuhong Nan, Shutian Yu, Qirui Zhu, Min Yang. In Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'24).
• [CCS'24] Understanding Cross-Platform Referral Traffic for Illicit Drug Promotion. Mingming Zha, Zilong Lin, Siyuan Tang, Xiaojing Liao, Yuhong Nan, XiaoFeng Wang. In Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'24).
• [NDSS'24] Leaking the Privacy of Groups and More: Understanding Privacy Risks of Cross-App Content Sharing in Mobile Ecosystem. Jiangrong Wu, Yuhong Nan, Luyi Xing, Jiatao Cheng, Zimin Lin, Zibin Zheng, Min Yang. In Proceedings of the 31st Network and Distributed System Security Symposium.
• [Security'24] MAGIC: Detecting Advanced Persistent Threats via Masked Graph Representation Learning. Zian Jia, Yun Xiong, Yuhong Nan, Yao Zhang, Jinjing Zhao, Mi Wen. In Proceedings of the 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'24).
• [FSE'24] SmartAxe: Detecting Cross-Chain Vulnerabilities in Bridge Smart Contracts via Fine-Grained Static Analysis. Zeqin Liao, Yuhong Nan, Henglong Liang, Sicheng Hao, Juan Zhai, Jiajing Wu, Zibin Zheng. Proc. ACM Softw. Eng. 1(FSE): 249-270 (2024).
• [ASE'23] SmartCoco: Checking Comment-code Inconsistency in Smart Contracts via Constraint Propagation and Binding. Sicheng Hao, Yuhong Nan, Zibin Zheng, Xiaohui Liu. In Proceedings of the 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.
• [Security'23] AIRTAG: Towards Automated Attack Investigation by Unsupervised Learning with Log Texts. Hailun Ding, Juan Zhai, Yuhong Nan and Shiqing Ma. In Proceedings of the 32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'23).
• [Security'23] Are You Spying on Me? Large-Scale Analysis on IoT Data Exposure through Companion Apps. Yuhong Nan, Xueqiang Wang, Luyi Xing, Xiaojing Liao, Ruoyu Wu, Jianliang Wu, Yifan Zhang, and XiaoFeng Wang. In Proceedings of the 32nd USENIX Security Symposium.
• [Security'22] ProFactory: Improving IoT Security via Formalized Protocol Customization. Fei Wang, Jianliang Wu, Yuhong Nan, Yousra Aafer, Xiangyu Zhang, Dongyan Xu, and Mathias Payer. In Proceedings of the 31st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'22).
• [NDSS'22] Hazard Integrated: Understanding Security Risks in App Extensions to Team Chat Systems. Mingming Zha, Jice Wang, Yuhong Nan, XiaoFeng Wang, Yuqing Zhang, and Weidong Jing. In Proceedings of the 29th Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS'22).
• [NDSS'21] On the Insecurity of SMS One-Time Password Messages against Local Attackers in Modern Mobile Devices. Zeyu Lei, Yuhong Nan, Yanick Fratantonio and Antonio Bianchi. In Proceedings of the 28th Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (acceptance ratio: 15.2%).
• [Security'21] Understanding Malicious Cross-library Data Harvesting on Android. Jice Wang, Yue Xiao, Xueqiang Wang, Yuhong Nan, Luyi Xing, Xiaojing Liao, Jinwei Dong, Nicolas Serrano, Haoran Lu, Xiaofeng Wang, and Yuqing Zhang. In Proceedings of the 30th USENIX Security Symposium.
• [Security'21] ATLAS: A Sequence-based Learning Approach for Attack Investigation. Abdulellah Alsaheel, Yuhong Nan, Shiqing Ma, Le Yu, Gregory Walkup, Berkay Celik, Xiangyu Zhang and Dongyan Xu. In Proceedings of the 30th USENIX Security Symposium.
• [RAID'20] BlueShield: Detecting Spoofing Attacks in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Networks. Jianliang Wu, Yuhong Nan, Vireshwar Kumar, Mathias Payer, and Dongyan Xu. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions and Defenses.
• [WOOT'20] BLESA: Spoofing Attacks against Reconnections in Bluetooth Low Energy. Jianliang Wu, Yuhong Nan, Vireshwar Kumar, Dave (Jing) Tian, Antonio Bianchi, Mathias Payer, and Dongyan Xu. In Proceedings of the 14th USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies.
• [CCS'18] How You Get Shot in the Back: A Systematical Study about Cryptojacking in the Real World. Geng Hong, Zhemin Yang, Sen Yang, Lei Zhang, Yuhong Nan, Zhibo Zhang, Min Yang, Yuan Zhang, Zhiyun Qian, Haixin Duan. In Proceedings of the 25th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS'18).
• [NDSS'18] Finding Clues For Your Secrets: Semantics Driven, Learning Based Privacy Discovery in Mobile Apps. Yuhong Nan, Zhemin Yang, Xiaofeng Wang, Yuan Zhang, Donglai Zhu and Min Yang. In Proceedings of the 25th Network and Distributed System Security Symposium.
• [TIFS'17] Identifying User-Input Privacy in Mobile Applications at a Large Scale. Yuhong Nan, Zhemin Yang, Min Yang, Shunfan Zhou, Yuan Zhang, Guofei Gu, Xiaofeng Wang, and Limin Sun. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 12, no. 3 (2017): 647-661.
• [Security'15] UIPicker: User-Input Privacy Identification in Mobile Applications. Yuhong Nan, Zhemin Yang, Min Yang, Shunfan Zhou, Yuan Zhang, Guofei Gu, Xiaofeng Wang, and Limin Sun. In Proceedings of the 24th USENIX Security Symposium.

Students

Ph.D. Students (co-advised with Prof. Zibin Zheng)

• 2025 Yuming Xiao
• 2023 Jiangrong Wu (now a postdoctoral researcher at HKUST), Jingwen Zhang (Peng Cheng Laboratory), Bowei Su (intern at Ant Group)
• 2022 Mingxi Ye (now a postdoctoral researcher at HKUST), Sicheng Hao (intern at Tencent), Wei Li (intern at Huawei), Zhijie Zhong (now a postdoctoral researcher at NTU)
• 2021 Zeqin Liao (now a postdoctoral researcher at NTU)

Master's Graduates

• 2025 Zitong Yao, Yixi Lin
• 2024 Mengyi Long (intern at Southern Power Grid), Yiming Zhang (internships at ByteDance and Huawei)
• 2023 Xun Zhu (first job in the government sector in Shanghai), Zhefan Chen (intern at Tencent), Shaojiang Wang (intern at ByteDance)
• 2022 Jiatao Chen (Ph.D. student at HKU), Jiayin Huang, Dongpeng Wu (first job at WizardQuant)
• 2021 Zhaoxin Cai (first job at Tencent), Peifu Yang (first job at Tencent)

Undergraduates

• 2022 Xinyuan Zhang (graduate student at NUS), Jiequan Zheng (first job at JD.com)
• 2021 Yue Xu (graduate student at CMU), Qihua Ou (graduate student at SYSU), Zijian Chen (public institution in Dongguan)
• 2020 Yuliang Zhang (Ph.D. student at CityU), Junpeng Zhang (Ph.D. student at SJTU)

Academic Services

• The 2nd ACM Workshop on Explainable and Reliable Software Systems (EXPRESS 2026, co-located with SPLASH/ISSTA 2026), Organizing Committee Member
• The USENIX Security Symposium 2026, 2027, PC Member
• The ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, PC Member
• The ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) 2027, PC Member
• The IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2024, PC Member
• ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS) 2021, 2022, PC Member
• International Conference on Information and Communications Security (ICICS) 2021, 2022, PC Member
• IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), Reviewer
• IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), Reviewer
• IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Reviewer
• IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), Reviewer
• ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), Reviewer
• ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Reviewer
• ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO), Reviewer
• ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS), Reviewer