About me

Hey! I am Liwen Xu, a second year PhD student in Computer Science at the ETH Zürich , and a member of the Network Security (Netsec) Group, where I was fortunate to be supervised by Prof. Adrian Perrig and Prof. Huayi Duan. Previously, I obtained my master's degree from the Institute of Cyber Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and bachelor's degree from School of Cyber Engineering, Xidian University (XDU).


I have a wide range of interests in Security, Networking and interdisciplinary areas with AI, with a particular focus on Networking for AI. Previously, I worked on topics including DNS security, threat discovery and correlation, situational awareness and threat intelligence.


My resume (Last update: April, 2024) can be found here. Please feel free to contact me if you wish more information.

Education

Ph.D., ETH Zürich (ETHz), Zürich, Switzerland (Aug 2024 - Present)
  • Major: Computer Science
  • Supervisor: Prof. Adrian Perrig
  • Advisor: Prof. Huayi Duan
  • Group: Network Security (Netsec) Group
M.Eng., Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU, Project 985), Shanghai, China (Sep 2021 - Mar 2024)
  • Major: Cyberspace Security (Exam-exempted)
  • Supervisor: Prof. Jianhua Li, Institute of Cyber Science and Technology
  • Laboratory: National Engineering Research Center for Information Content Analysis Technology (NERCICAT)
  • Dissertation: Research on Cyber Security Threat Sensing and Intelligence Endogenization Based on Multi-source Heterogeneous Data
  • GPA: 3.7/4.0
B.Eng., Xidian University (XDU, Project 211), Xi’an, Shaanxi, China (Sep 2017 - Jun 2021)
  • Major: Cyberspace Security (Experimental Class)
  • Supervisor: Prof. Ning Zhang and Prof. Hui Li, School of Cyber Engineering
  • Dissertation: A Real-time Intelligent Detection System for Malicious Network Traffic Based on Deep Learning (Outstanding Thesis Award)
  • GPA: 3.9/4.0 (Ranking: 1/40)

Publications

DaLens: Charting DNS Self-Amplification Threats at Large
Liwen Xu1, Zechao Cai1, Huayi Duan2, Adrian Perrig1
To appear in the USENIX Security Symposium, August 2026

  • 1Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2Information Hub, HKUST(GZ), China


Resolve the Unresolved: Systematic Work Profiling for DNS Resolvers
Liwen Xu1, Huayi Duan2, Zechao Cai1, Adrian Perrig1
To appear in the IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy, May 2026

  • 1Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2Information Hub, HKUST(GZ), China


HiSec: Towards Cyber Threat Correlation and Discovery Based on Hierarchical Graph Neural Networks
Liwen Xu1, Xiang Lin1, Jianhua Li1, Bai Min2, Liejun Wang2
The 22nd IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom-2023)

  • 1Institute of Cyber Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

  • 2Qianxin Threat Intelligence Center, Qianxin Technology Group Co., LTD, Beijing 100000, China


Cloud Asset Security Analysis based on Hierarchical Graph Neural Network
ZHANG Yilian1, ZHOU Diqing1, XU Liwen2, YE Tianpeng2, LIN Xiang2
Journal of Cyber Security, China

  • 1State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company, Shanghai 200122, China

  • 2Institute of Cyber Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China


Personalized Lightweight Distributed Network Intrusion Detection System in Fog Computing
YE Tianpeng1, LIN Xiang1, LI Jianhua1, ZHANG Xuankai1, XU Liwen1
Chinese Journal of Network and Information Security

  • 1Institute of Cyber Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China


Talks

Demystifying Resolver Work: A Formal Perspective on DNS Resolver Performance Vulnerabilities
Liwen Xu
DNS OARC 46, Edinburgh, Scotland

Localized Intelligence Production and Threat Discovery Based on Unknown Cyberattacks Discovery Using Endogenous Data
Liwen Xu
The Wuhan Cybersecurity Innovation Forum, 2023, China

Grants

NVIDIA Academic Grant Program (June 2026)
  • Project: Learning-Driven Routing Optimization for Large-Scale Path-Aware Networks
  • Allocation: 2 x DGX Spark Donation
  • Role: Co-Principal Investigator / Project leader
CSCS Preparatory Project (Apr 2026)
  • Project: Path-Aware Optimization for Cross-DC Collective Communication in Distributed Training
  • Allocation: Node hours on the HPE Cray EX Supercomputer Clariden@Alps
  • Role: Co-Principal Investigator / Project leader

Selected Honors and Awards

  • Postgraduate Academic Scholarship of SJTU, 2023
  • Postgraduate Academic Scholarship of SJTU, 2022
  • The First Prize Scholarship of SJTU (Top 10% got the awards), 2021
  • Outstanding Graduate of Shaanxi (Top 1% got the awards), 2021
  • Outstanding Graduate of Xidian University (Top 1% got the awards), 2021
  • Outstanding Thesis Award of Xidian University (Top 1% got the awards, Advised by Prof. Ning Zhang), 2021
  • Special Prize of National Cryptography Technology Competition (Top 1 got the awards), 2019
  • National Scholarship, China (Top 1% got the awards), 2019
  • National Scholarship, China (Top 1% got the awards), 2018

Teaching

252-0064-00L Computer Networks, (Spring 2025)
  • Teaching Assistant, D-INFK, ETH Zürich
263-4640-00L Network Security, (Autumn 2024/2025.)
  • Teaching Assistant, D-INFK, ETH Zürich
IS412 Theory and Application of Content Security, (Sep 2021 – Jun 2023)
  • Teaching Assistant, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Supervision

Senne Mark Z Van den Broeck. Detecting and Mitigating DNS Message Amplification Attacks. Master's Thesis, ETH Zürich, March 2025
  • Advisors: Dr. Huayi Duan, Liwen Xu, Prof. Mathias Payer, Dr. Bernhard Tellenbach and Prof. Adrian Perrig.
Marko Lisicic. A First Look at DNS Cache Exhaustion. Master's Thesis, ETH Zürich, March 2025
  • Advisors: Dr. Huayi Duan, Liwen Xu, and Prof. Adrian Perrig.
Xuhao Wan. Research on Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence Model Design and Parsing and Cleaning Techniques. Bachelor's Thesis (A+), SJTU, June 2023
  • Advisors: Prof. Jianhua Li, Liwen Xu.
Tong Guo. Cryptocurrency Mining Behavior Detection Based on Deep Learning and Multidimensional Feature Recognition. Bachelor's Thesis, SJTU, June 2023
  • Advisors: Dr. Xiang Lin, Liwen Xu.

Academic Services

Reviewer
  • USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI 2026, External)
  • IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS 2025, External)
  • Asia-Pacific Workshop on Networking (APNet 2025, External)
Artifact Reviewer
  • IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P 2026, Artifact Evaluation Committee)
  • USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 2025, External)
Submission System Administrator
  • The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP 2025)