cv

A brief overview of my curriculum vitae.

Basics

Name Christian Mainka
Title Student councilor (Studienrat i.H.)
Position Tenured researcher
Location Faculty of Computer Science,
Ruhr University Bochum,
44801 Bochum, Germany

Research Topics

  • Web Security
    • Browser security: Cross-Site Leaks, Same-Origin Policy
    • Web protocol security: Single Sign-On, OAuth, OpenID Connect, REST
    • Focusing on vulnerabilty detection, attack development, and flow analyses
  • Data Security
    • Document security: PDF, ODF, OOXML
    • Data format security: JSON, XML
    • Focusing on signature, encryption, information leakage, and code execution

Education

  • 2017
    PhD
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
    Title: "On Message-Level Security"
  • 2012
    Master IT Security
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
    Master Thesis' Title: "Automatic Penetration Test Tool for Detection of XML Signature Wrapping Attacks in Web Services"
  • 2013
    Bachelor Applied Computer Science
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
    Bachelor Thesis' Title: "Developing a Security Analysis Tool for OpenID-Based Single Sign-on Systems"
  • 2010
    Bachelor IT Security
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
    Bachelor Thesis' Title: "Automatic Penetration Test Tool for Detection of XML Signature Wrapping Attacks in Web Services"

Experience

  • Since 2018
    Tenured researcher, student councilor (Studienrat i.H.)
    Chair for Network and Datasecurity
    Faculty of Compter Science
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
    Tenured Research Faculty.
  • 2017
    Postdoctoral researcher
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
  • Since 2014
    Co-Founder & CTO
    Hackmanit GmbH, Bochum, Germany.
    Penetration Tests, Training, Threat Analysis
    hackmanit.de
  • 2012 - 2017
    PhD
    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

Awards

  • 2024
    Excellent Teaching Award
  • 2022
    Best Paper Award on CSAW (2nd place)
    • For the paper "Oops... Code Execution and Content Spoofing: The First Comprehensive Analysis of OpenDocument Signatures"
    • Awarded with 500 EUR on the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW), Category: Applied Research Competition.
  • 2022
    5x5000 Competition: "Online or presence teaching - it fits!"
    • Winner with the project "e-Hacking"
    • Awarded by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (Zentrum für Wissenschaftsdidaktik, ZfW) at Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 2021
    ACM CCS Best Paper Award
    • For the paper "XSinator.Com: From a Formal Model to the Automatic Evaluation of Cross-Site Leaks in Web Browsers"
    • Awarded on the ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security.
  • 2019
    Best Paper Award on CSAW (1st place)
    • For the paper "1 Trillion Dollar Refund: How To Spoof PDF Signatures"
    • Awarded with 700 EUR on the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW), Category: Applied Research Competition.

Networks

Services