Abbas Ali

Information Systems, Security,
and Forensics (ISSF) Lab

4901 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128

I am a PhD student and NSF-funded Graduate Student Research Assistant in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where I work in the Information Systems, Security, and Forensics (ISSF) Laboratory with Prof. Hafiz Malik.

My research is on securing cyber-physical systems at the hardware level. Modern vehicles and connected devices contain dozens of embedded computers, and the assumption that each one is genuine and untampered with is rarely verified. I build systems that check that assumption directly — using the physical characteristics of the silicon itself.

Specifically, I work on:

Hardware fingerprinting — identifying devices by manufacturing variations unique to each chip
FPGA-based intrusion detection — detection that runs in real time, in the vehicle, rather than in the cloud
Side-channel analysis — using electromagnetic and power measurements to detect tampering and counterfeit components

Before starting my PhD I spent two years as an FPGA engineer, building high-performance digital systems in production. I received my BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, graduating as a gold medalist.

Research in Action

From bench to conference floor

A device does not need to announce what it is. Manufacturing leaves every chip with slightly different switching behaviour — overshoot, ringing, settling time. An attacker can copy firmware, a serial number, or a message. They cannot copy physics.

Baltimore · the demo
Live on the table

Real devices at VehicleSec ’26, identified in real time purely from the analog shape of their switching signals.
Demo abstract
Baltimore · the talk
Is Your ECU Really Yours?

The paper talk, alongside a lightning talk extending the method to production ECUs over the CAN bus.
Read the paper
The mechanism
Physics as identity

Two chips off the same reel switch slightly differently. That difference is measurable, and it is not something firmware can rewrite.
The bench
Same make, same model

Eight devices across four hardware types, including boards of the same make and model.

99.5% real-time accuracy — no firmware changes, no protocol access
Production hardware
Nine real ECUs, weeks apart

Electrically identical production automotive ECUs, captured across thirteen sessions over several weeks. A fingerprint that holds only within one sitting cannot be deployed.

Drifting — hover to pause, click to hold

news

Sep 15, 2026	Real-Time Authentication of Embedded Hardware has been accepted at EAI SmartSP 2026.
Aug 25, 2026	Featured in UM-Dearborn’s Research with Purpose on fully funded graduate programs.
Aug 01, 2026	Presented Short: Is Your ECU Really Yours? at USENIX VehicleSec 2026 in Baltimore.
Apr 17, 2026	Won the graduate division of the student poster competition at the 2026 CCAT Global Symposium on Mobility Innovation, Ann Arbor.
Aug 01, 2025	Our paper A Lightweight IDS Framework Using FPGA-Based Hardware Fingerprinting on Zynq SoC appeared at IEEE CSR 2025 in Chania, Greece.
Jan 06, 2025	Started my PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, funded by the NSF.
Jun 01, 2024	First-author paper Speed vs. efficiency: A framework for high-frequency trading algorithms on FPGA using Zynq SoC platform published in Alexandria Engineering Journal.
Sep 21, 2023	Our paper A performance comparison of machine learning models for stock market prediction with novel investment strategy published in PLOS ONE.

selected publications

VehicleSec
Short: Is Your ECU Really Yours?

Abbas Ali and Hafiz Malik

In 4th USENIX Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (VehicleSec 26), Aug 2026

Awarded Abs Bib HTML PDF

Artifact Evaluated: Available, Functional, Reproduced

A hardware fingerprinting framework for authenticating embedded devices in vehicular networks. The approach analyses the analog characteristics of digital switching behaviour to detect compromised or counterfeit devices, extracting 211 waveform features and applying Random Forest and stacked ensemble methods to achieve 99.5% accuracy under controlled conditions and 100% device type classification across the tested hardware.
@inproceedings{ali2026ecu, title = {Short: Is Your ECU Really Yours?}, author = {Ali, Abbas and Malik, Hafiz}, booktitle = {4th USENIX Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (VehicleSec 26)}, publisher = {USENIX Association}, address = {Baltimore, MD}, year = {2026}, month = aug, pages = {359--370}, isbn = {978-1-939133-56-4}, }

IEEE CSR

A Lightweight IDS Framework Using FPGA-Based Hardware Fingerprinting on Zynq SoC

Abdul Waheed Mohammed, Abbas Ali, Hasan Arif, and 2 more authors

In 2025 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR), Aug 2025

DOI Bib HTML

@inproceedings{mohammed2025lightweight,
  title = {A Lightweight IDS Framework Using FPGA-Based Hardware Fingerprinting on Zynq SoC},
  author = {Mohammed, Abdul Waheed and Ali, Abbas and Arif, Hasan and Mohammed, Fazal Rahaman Pasha and Malik, Hafiz},
  booktitle = {2025 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR)},
  address = {Chania, Greece},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  year = {2025},
  month = aug,
  pages = {544--549},
  doi = {10.1109/CSR64739.2025.11130113},
}

AEJ

Speed vs. efficiency: A framework for high-frequency trading algorithms on FPGA using Zynq SoC platform

Abbas Ali, Abdullah Shah, Azaz Hassan Khan, and 5 more authors

Alexandria Engineering Journal, Jun 2024

DOI Bib HTML

@article{ali2024speed,
  title = {Speed vs. efficiency: A framework for high-frequency trading algorithms on FPGA using Zynq SoC platform},
  author = {Ali, Abbas and Shah, Abdullah and Khan, Azaz Hassan and Sharif, Malik Umar and Zahid, Zaka Ullah and Shahid, Rabia and Jan, Tariqullah and Zafar, Mohammad Haseeb},
  journal = {Alexandria Engineering Journal},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  volume = {96},
  pages = {1--14},
  year = {2024},
  month = jun,
  issn = {1110-0168},
  doi = {10.1016/j.aej.2024.03.064},
}

PLOS ONE

A performance comparison of machine learning models for stock market prediction with novel investment strategy

Azaz Hassan Khan, Abdullah Shah, Abbas Ali, and 5 more authors

PLOS ONE, Sep 2023

DOI Bib HTML

@article{khan2023performance,
  title = {A performance comparison of machine learning models for stock market prediction with novel investment strategy},
  author = {Khan, Azaz Hassan and Shah, Abdullah and Ali, Abbas and Shahid, Rabia and Zahid, Zaka Ullah and Sharif, Malik Umar and Jan, Tariqullah and Zafar, Mohammad Haseeb},
  journal = {PLOS ONE},
  publisher = {Public Library of Science},
  volume = {18},
  number = {9},
  pages = {e0286362},
  year = {2023},
  month = sep,
  issn = {1932-6203},
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0286362},
}

EAI SmartSP

Real-Time Authentication of Embedded Hardware

Hasan Arif, Abbas Ali, Saad Kiyani, and 1 more author

In 4th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Cyber-Physical Systems and Smart Vehicles (SmartSP), 2026

Accepted

Bib

@inproceedings{arif2026realtime,
  title = {Real-Time Authentication of Embedded Hardware},
  author = {Arif, Hasan and Ali, Abbas and Kiyani, Saad and Malik, Hafiz},
  booktitle = {4th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Cyber-Physical Systems and Smart Vehicles (SmartSP)},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Accepted}
}

Live on the table

Is Your ECU Really Yours?

Physics as identity

Same make, same model

Nine real ECUs, weeks apart

news

selected publications