cv
A brief overview of my curriculum vitae.
Contact Information
| Name | Christian Mainka |
| Professional Title | Professor Dr.-Ing. |
| [email protected] | |
| Location | University of Wuppertal, Robust, Secure and Privacy-Preserving Smart Systems, Rainer-Gruenter-Str. 21, Building FME/1.03c, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany |
| Website | https://christianmainka.de |
Research Topics
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Web Security
- Browser security: Cross-Site Leaks, Same-Origin Policy
- Web protocol security: Single Sign-On, OAuth, OpenID Connect, REST
- Focusing on vulnerability detection, attack development, and flow analyses
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Data Security
- Document security: PDF, ODF, OOXML
- Data-format security: JSON, XML
- Focusing on signatures, encryption, information leakage, and code execution
Experience
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2025 - present Wuppertal, Germany
Professor
University of Wuppertal — Chair for Robust, Secure and Privacy-Preserving Smart Systems
School of Electrical, Information and Media Engineering.
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2018 - 2025 Bochum, Germany
Tenured researcher, student councilor (Studienrat i.H.)
Ruhr University Bochum — Chair for Network and Data Security
Faculty of Computer Science.
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2017 - 2018 Bochum, Germany
Postdoctoral researcher
Ruhr University Bochum
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2014 - 2026 Bochum, Germany
Co-Founder & CTO
Hackmanit GmbH
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2012 - present Germany
Freelancer
Penetration Tests, Training, Threat Analysis
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2012 - 2017 Bochum, Germany
PhD Candidate
Ruhr University Bochum
Education
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2012 - 2017 Bochum, Germany
PhD
Ruhr University Bochum
Dissertation: "On Message-Level Security"
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2010 - 2012 Bochum, Germany
Master IT Security
Ruhr University Bochum
Thesis: "Automatic Penetration Test Tool for Detection of XML Signature Wrapping Attacks in Web Services"
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2010 - 2013 Bochum, Germany
Bachelor Applied Computer Science
Ruhr University Bochum
Thesis: "Developing a Security Analysis Tool for OpenID-Based Single Sign-on Systems"
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2007 - 2010 Bochum, Germany
Bachelor IT Security
Ruhr University Bochum
Thesis: "Automatic Penetration Test Tool for Detection of XML Signature Wrapping Attacks in Web Services"
Awards
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2024 Excellent Teaching Award
For the lecture Message-Level Security. Teaching Award of the Faculty of Computer Science.
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2022 Best Paper Award on CSAW (2nd place)
For “Oops… Code Execution and Content Spoofing: The First Comprehensive Analysis of OpenDocument Signatures”. Awarded with 500 EUR at the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW), Applied Research Competition.
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2022 5x5000 Competition: "Online or presence teaching - it fits!"
Winner with the project e-Hacking. Awarded by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (ZfW) at Ruhr University Bochum.
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2021 ACM CCS Best Paper Award
For “XSinator.com: From a Formal Model to the Automatic Evaluation of Cross-Site Leaks in Web Browsers”. Awarded at the ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security.
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2019 Best Paper Award on CSAW (1st place)
For “1 Trillion Dollar Refund: How To Spoof PDF Signatures”. Awarded with 700 EUR at the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW), Applied Research Competition.
Networks
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2021 - 2023 Member of the Global Young Faculty VII
Applied Science Communication working group. Initiative of Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with the University Alliance Ruhr.
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2019 - 2025 Associate Principal Investigator of DFG CASA
Research Hub C: Secure Systems (Cluster of Excellence: Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries).
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IETF IETF OAuth Working Group
RFC 9700 (OAuth 2.0 Security Best Current Practice), RFC 9207 (Authorization Server Issuer Identification), OAuth 2.0 for Browser-Based Apps.
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ISO ISO Technical Committee PDF Specification
Working Group Securing PDF.
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DIN DIN Working Group PDF
Services
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2023 - 2025 Senate: Status Group Scientific Staff
Substitute member, Status Group Scientific Staff (Ruhr University Bochum).
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2021 - 2025 Faculty Council
Full member of the Faculty Council of Computer Science (Ruhr University Bochum).
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2022 - 2025 Quality Improvement Commission
Member of the commission for improving teaching and studies (full member since 2023).
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PC Program Committees
ACM CCS 2026, USENIX Security 2024 & 2025, RAID 2024, RuhrSec 2017–2025, ICICS 2021–2023, MetaCom 2023.
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Reviews Reviewer and Sub-Reviewer
ACNS, AsiaCCS, CCS, EuroS&P, IJIS, S&P, …