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Operating system (OS) kernels play a critical role in computer systems by virtually having complete control over the systems. OS kernels not only manage hardware and system resources, but also provide services and protection. Given these tasks, OS kernels have to process external untrusted inputs and perform complicated operations, both of which are error-prone. To avoid entering into erroneous states, OS kernels tend to enforce a large number of security checks---"if" and "switch" statements that are used to validate states. Unfortunately, security checks themselves are often buggy.

Online social networks (OSNs) have fundamentally transformed how billions of people use the Internet. These users are increasingly discovering books, music bands, TV shows, movies, news articles, products, and other content through posts from trusted users that they follow. All major OSNs have deployed content curation algorithms that are designed to increase interaction and act as the "gatekeepers" of what users see.

Digital information has become an integral part of our daily lives and there is a growing concern about the security of information. The amount of information that should be kept secure is increasing with the proliferation of high-tech electronics such as smart-phones, tablets, and wearable devices. Accordingly, the number of attacks from malicious parties to obtain the secret information that is stored in a secure (i.e., encrypted) device increases.

Cryptography provides the basic tools to guarantee confidentiality and integrity of data. It hence plays a pivotal role in securing our digital infrastructure, and in enforcing the right for privacy of individuals. The development of secure cryptographic techniques is however difficult and error-prone, as unknown attack strategies need to be taken into account. To overcome this, modern cryptography advocates the paradigm of provable security, where threat models are precisely formalized using the language of mathematics, and the security of cryptosystems is proved within these models.

This project aims to enhance our understanding of tampering attacks which are one of the most basic ones in cryptography and computer security. A tampering adversary may try to modify data at rest or in transit, which could be devastating to the security of a number of computer systems. The goal of non-malleable cryptography is to develop the tools and techniques required to secure computer systems against such attacks. The project's novelties are in conceptualizing a number of new primitives which can help fight against such attacks in emerging computer systems.