Publications

Recent publications from the Censored Planet and related projects.

Our research community is a vibrant and growing subfield that exists at the intersection of networking, security and privacy, Internet measurement, and social and political science. Our major publication venues include systems security and privacy conferences (USENIX Security, IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, NDSS, PETS, and SIGCOMM) and measurement conferences (ACM IMC), as well as more specialized interdisciplinary workshops (USENIX FOCI).

Presented in reverse chronological order.

August 2024 USENIX Security

Fingerprinting Obfuscated Proxy Traffic with Encapsulated TLS Handshakes

Diwen Xue Michalis Kallitsis Amir Houmansadr Roya Ensafi

@inproceedings {Xue2024TLS, author = {Diwen Xue and Michalis Kallitsis and Amir Houmansadr and Roya Ensafi}, title = {{Fingerprinting Obfuscated Proxy Traffic with Encapsulated TLS Handshakes}}, booktitle = {33st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24)}, year = {2024}, address = {Philadelphia, PA}, publisher = {USENIX Association}, }

August 2023 Usenix Security Symposium 2023

Network Responses to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine in 2022: A Cautionary Tale for Internet Freedom

Reethika Ramesh Ram Sundara Raman Apurva Virkud Alexandra Dirksen Armin Huremagic David Fifield Dirk Rodenburg Rod Hynes Doug Madory Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{ramesh2023network,
title = {{Network Responses to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine in 2022: A Cautionary Tale for Internet Freedom}},
author = {Ramesh, Reethika and Sundara Raman, Ram and Virkud, Apurva and Dirksen, Alexandra and Huremagic, Armin and Fifield, David and Rodenburg, Dirk and Hynes, Rod and Madory, Doug and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle = {32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23)}, year = {2023}, address = {Anaheim, CA}, publisher = {USENIX Association} }

July 2023 Free and Open Communications on the Internet

The Use of Push Notification in Censorship Circumvention

Diwen Xue Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{Xue2023PUSH, author = {Diwen Xue and Roya Ensafi}, title = {{The Use of Push Notification in Censorship Circumvention}}, booktitle = {Free and Open Communications on the Internet}, year = {2023}, address = {Lausanne, Switzerland}, publisher = {Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies} }

July 2023 Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium

CERTainty: Detecting DNS Manipulation using TLS Certificates

Elisa Tsai Deepak Kumar Ram Sundara Raman Gavin Li Yael Eiger Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{tsai2023detecting, title = {CERTainty: Detecting DNS Manipulation using TLS Certificates}, author = {Tsai, Elisa and Kumar, Deepak and Sundara Raman, Ram and Li, Gavin and Eiger, Yael and Ensafi, Roya}, booktitle={Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)}, year={2023} }

February 2023 Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) 2023

Advancing the Art of Censorship Data Analysis

Ram Sundara Raman Apurva Virkud Sarah Laplante Vinicius Fortuna Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{sundararaman2023advancing,
title = {Advancing the Art of Censorship Data Analysis},
author = {Sundara Raman, Ram and Virkud, Apurva and Laplante, Sarah and Fortuna, Vinicius and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI)},
year={2023}
}

December 2022 Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT 2022)

Network measurement methods for locating and examining censorship devices

Ram Sundara Raman Mona Wang Jakub Dalek Jonathan Mayer Roya Ensafi

Press: Censored Planet Open Technology Fund

PDF Slides

@inproceedings {SundaraRaman2022Network,
author = {Ram Sundara Raman and Mona Wang and Jakub Dalek and Jonathan Mayer and Roya Ensafi},
title = {Network Measurement Methods for Locating and Examining Censorship Devices},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT '22)},
year = {2022},
address = {Rome, Italy},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
}

October 2022 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)

TSPU: Russia’s Decentralized Censorship System

Diwen Xue Benjamin Mixon-Baca ValdikSS Anna Ablove Beau Kujath Jedidiah R. Crandall Roya Ensafi

Press: Censored Planet

PDF Slides

@inproceedings{Xue2022TSPU,
title = {{TSPU: Russia’s Decentralized Censorship System}},
author = {Diwen Xue and Benjamin Mixon-Baca and ValdikSS and Anna Ablove and Beau Kujath and Jedidiah R. Crandall and Roya Ensafi},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Internet Measurement Conference},
year = {2022},
address = {Nice, France},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}
}

August 2022 USENIX Security

OpenVPN is Open to VPN Fingerprinting

Diwen Xue Reethika Ramesh Arham Jain Michalis Kallitsis J. Alex Halderman Jedidiah R. Crandall Roya Ensafi

Press: Censored Planet Michigan News

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings {Xue2022OpenVPN,
author = {Diwen Xue and Reethika Ramesh and Arham Jain and Michalis Kallitsis and J. Alex Halderman and Jedidiah R. Crandall and Roya Ensafi},
title = {{OpenVPN} is Open to {VPN} Fingerprinting},
booktitle = {31st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 22)},
year = {2022},
address = {Boston, MA},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
}

November 2021 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)

Throttling Twitter: An Emerging Censorship Technique in Russia

Diwen Xue Reethika Ramesh ValdikSS Leonid Evdokimov Andrey Viktorov Arham Jain Eric Wustrow Simone Basso Roya Ensafi

Press: Censored Planet New York Times Foreign Policy Ars Technica

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{xue2021throttling,
title = {Throttling Twitter: An Emerging Censorship Technique in Russia},
author = {Diwen Xue and Reethika Ramesh and ValdikSS and Leonid Evdokimov and Andrey Viktorov and Arham Jain and Eric Wustrow and Simone Basso and Roya Ensafi},
booktitle={In ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)},
year={2021}
}

March 2021 Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC) 2021

Lost in Transmission: Investigating Filtering of COVID-19 Websites

Anjali Vyas Ram Sundara Raman Nick Ceccio Philipp Lutscher Roya Ensafi

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{vyas2021lost,
title = {Lost in Transmission: Investigating Filtering of COVID-19 Websites},
author = {Vyas, Anjali and Sundara Raman, Ram and Ceccio, Nick and Lutscher, Philipp and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={In Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC)},
year={2021}
}

November 2020 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2020

Censored Planet: An Internet-wide, Longitudinal Censorship Observatory

Ram Sundara Raman Prerana Shenoy Katharina Kohls Roya Ensafi

Press: Censored Planet Michigan News CACM WSWS

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{sundararaman2020censoredplanet,
title = {Censored Planet: An Internet-Wide, Longitudinal Censorship Observatory},
author = {Sundara Raman, Ram and Shenoy, Prerana and Kohls, Katharina and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={In ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)},
year={2020}
}

October 2020 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)

Investigating Large Scale HTTPS Interception in Kazakhstan

Ram Sundara Raman Leonid Evdokimov Eric Wustrow J. Alex Halderman Roya Ensafi

Press: Google Mozilla BBC CNet The Register Forbes Ars Technica EFF ZDNet Private Internet Access Voice of America

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{sundararaman2020investigating,
title={{Investigating Large Scale HTTPS Interception in Kazakhstan}},
author={R. Sundara Raman, L. Evdokimov, E. Wustrow, A. Halderman, and R. Ensafi},
booktitle={In ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)},
year={2020}
}

February 2020 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)

Measuring the Deployment of Network Censorship Filters at Global Scale

Ram Sundara Raman Adrian Stoll Jakub Dalek Reethika Ramesh Will Scott Roya Ensafi

Press: Censored Planet Michigan CSE

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{sundararaman2020measuring,
title={Measuring the Deployment of Network Censorship Filters at Global Scale},
author={Sundara Raman, Ram and Stoll, Adrian and Dalek, Jakub and Ramesh, Reethika and Scott, Will and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2020, San Diego, California, USA},
year={2020}
}

February 2020 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)

Decentralized Control: A Case Study of Russia

Reethika Ramesh Ram Sundara Raman Matthew Bernhard Victor Ongkowijaya Leonid Evdokimov Annie Edmundson S. Sprecher Muhammad Ikram Roya Ensafi

Press: Associated Press CPJ Voice of America MSN ABC News New York Times Washington Post University of Michigan News

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{ndss20-russia,
title={Decentralized Control: A Case Study of Russia},
author={R. Ramesh, R. Sundara Raman, M. Bernhard, V. Ongkowijaya, L. Evdokimov, A. Edmundson, S. Sprecher, M. Ikram, R.Ensafi},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2020, San Diego, California, USA},
year={2020}
}

November 2018 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)

403 Forbidden: A Global View of CDN Geoblocking

Allison McDonald Matthew Bernhard Luke Valenta Benjamin VanderSloot Will Scott Nick Sullivan J. Alex Halderman Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{Allison2018403,
title={403 Forbidden: A Global View of CDN Geoblocking},
author={Allison McDonald and Matthew Bernhard and Luke Valenta and Benjamin VanderSloot and Will Scott and Nick Sullivan and J. Alex Halderman and Roya Ensafi},
booktitle={ACM Internet Measurement Conference},
year={2018}
}

August 2018 USENIX Security Symposium

Quack: Scalable Remote Measurement of Application-Layer Censorship

Benjamin VanderSloot Allison McDonald J. Alex Halderman Will Scott Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{Ben2018Quack:,
title={Quack: Scalable Remote Measurement of Application-Layer Censorship},
author={Ben VanderSloot and Allison McDonald and Will Scott and J. Alex Halderman and Roya Ensafi},
booktitle={USENIX Security Symposium},
year={2018}
}

February 2018 IEEE Security & Privacy (S&P)

Towards Continual Measurement of Global Network-Level Censorship

Paul Pearce Roya Ensafi Frank Li Nick Feamster Vern Paxson

PDF

@article{Paul2018Towards,
author={Paul Pearce and Roya Ensafi and Frank Li and Nick Feamster and Vern Paxson},
title={Towards Continual Measurement of Global Network-Level Censorship},
journal={IEEE Security & Privacy},
volume={16},
number={1},
year={2018}
}

August 2017 USENIX Security

Global Measurement of DNS Manipulation

Paul Pearce Ben Jones Frank Li Roya Ensafi Nick Feamster Nick Weaver Vern Paxson

PDF Talk Slides

@inproceedings{Paul2017Global,
title={Global Measurement of DNS Manipulation},
author={Paul Pearce and Ben Jones and Frank Li and Roya Ensafi and Nick Feamster and Nick Weaver and Vern Paxson},
booktitle={USENIX Security},
year={2017}
}

May 2017 IEEE Security and Privacy (S&P)

Augur: Internet-Wide Detection of Connectivity Disruptions

Paul Pearce Roya Ensafi Frank Li Nick Feamster Vern Paxson

PDF Talk

@inproceedings{Paul2017Augur:,
title={Augur: Internet-Wide Detection of Connectivity Disruptions},
author={Paul Pearce and Roya Ensafi and Frank Li and Nick Feamster and Vern Paxson},
booktitle={IEEE Security and Privacy},
year={2017}
}

March 2017 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)

A Look at Infrastructure Geolocation in Public and Commercial Databases

Manaf Gharaibeh Anant Shah Bradley Huffaker Han Zhang Roya Ensafi Christos Papadopoulos

PDF

@inproceedings{Manaf2017A,
title={A Look at Infrastructure Geolocation in Public and Commercial Databases},
author={Manaf Gharaibeh and Anant Shah and Bradley Huffaker and Han Zhang and Roya Ensafi and Christos Papadopoulos},
booktitle={ACM Internet Measurement Conference},
year={2017}
}

October 2015 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)

Examining How the Great Firewall Discovers Hidden Circumvention Servers

Roya Ensafi David Fifield Philipp Winter Nick Feamster Nicholas Weaver Vern Paxson

PDF

@inproceedings{Roya2015Examining,
title={Examining How the Great Firewall Discovers Hidden Circumvention Servers},
author={Roya Ensafi and David Fifield and Philipp Winter and Nick Feamster and Nicholas Weaver and Vern Paxson},
booktitle={ ACM Internet Measurement Conference},
year={2015}
}

August 2015 ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Ethics in Networked Systems Research

Ethical Concerns for Censorship Measurement

Ben Jones Roya Ensafi Nick Feamster Vern Paxson Nick Weaver

PDF

@inproceedings{Ben2015Ethical,
title={Ethical Concerns for Censorship Measurement},
author={Ben Jones and Roya Ensafi and Nick Feamster and Vern Paxson and Nick Weaver},
booktitle={ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Ethics in Networked Systems Research},
year={2015}
}

August 2015 USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (USENIX FOCI)

An Analysis of China's Great Cannon

Bill Marczak Nicholas Weaver Jakub Dalek Roya Ensafi David Fifield Sarah McKune Arn Rey John Scott-Railton Ron Deibert Vern Paxson

PDF

@inproceedings{Bill2015An,
title={An Analysis of China's Great Cannon},
author={Bill Marczak and Nicholas Weaver and Jakub Dalek and Roya Ensafi and David Fifield and Sarah McKune and Arn Rey and John Scott-Railton and Ron Deibert and Vern Paxson},
booktitle={USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet},
year={2015}
}

July 2015 Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)

Analyzing the Great Firewall of China Over Space and Time

Roya Ensafi Philipp Winter Abdullah Mueen Jedidiah R. Crandall

PDF

@inproceedings{Roya2015Analyzing,
title={Analyzing the Great Firewall of China Over Space and Time},
author={Roya Ensafi and Philipp Winter and Abdullah Mueen and Jedidiah R. Crandall},
booktitle={Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium},
year={2015}
}

August 2014 USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (USENIX FOCI)

Global Censorship Detection over the RIPE Atlas Network

Collin Anderson Philipp Winter Roya Ensafi

PDF

@inproceedings{Collin2014Global,
title={Global Censorship Detection over the RIPE Atlas Network},
author={Collin Anderson and Phillipp Winter and Roya Ensafi},
booktitle={USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet},
year={2014}
}

March 2014 Passive and Active Measurement (PAM)

Detecting intentional packet drops on the Internet via TCP/IP side channels

Roya Ensafi Jeffrey Knockel Geoffrey Alexander Jedidiah R Crandall

PDF Talk

@inproceedings{Roya2014Detecting,
title={Detecting intentional packet drops on the Internet via TCP/IP side channels},
author={Roya Ensafi, Jeffrey Knockel, Geoffrey Alexander, Jedidiah R Crandall},
booktitle={Passive and Active Measurement},
year={2014}
}

August 2010 USENIX Security Symposium

Idle Port Scanning & Non-interference Analysis of Network Protocol Stacks Using Model Checking

Roya Ensafi Jong Chun Park Deepak Kapur Jedidiah R Crandall

PDF

@inproceedings{Roya2010Idle,
title={Idle Port Scanning & Non-interference Analysis of Network Protocol Stacks Using Model Checking},
author={Roya Ensafi and Jong Chun Park and Deepak Kapur and Jedidiah R. Crandall},
booktitle={USENIX Security Symposium},
year={2010}
}


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