Yoochan Lee

I’m a Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, with a Ph.D. from Seoul National University.

My research improves system security by advancing exploit techniques that reveal the true severity of software vulnerabilities. By developing principled methods to assess exploitability, I enable defenders to prioritize remediation where it matters most. My work spans kernel exploitation, side-channel–assisted attacks, and data-oriented programming.

Research Interests

System Security Kernel Exploitation Vulnerability Assessment OS Security

📢 I am on the academic job market for the 2026-2027 cycle, seeking tenure-track faculty positions. Please feel free to reach out!

News

Dec 3, 2025	DirtyFree is accepted to NDSS 2026!
Nov 1, 2025	I joined Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy as a postdoctoral researcher.
Feb 3, 2023	My talk about macOS privilege escalation is accepted to the Hack In The Box Amsterdam 2023!

Selected publications

NDSS

DirtyFree: Simplified Data-Oriented Programming in the Linux Kernel

Yoochan Lee, Hyuk Kwon, and Thorsten Holz

In Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), Feb 2026

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{dirtyfree,
  author = {Lee, Yoochan and Kwon, Hyuk and Holz, Thorsten},
  title = {DirtyFree: Simplified Data-Oriented Programming in the Linux Kernel},
  booktitle = {Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)},
  address = {San Diego, CA},
  month = feb,
  year = {2026},
}

SEC

Pspray: Timing Side-Channel based Linux Kernel Heap Exploitation Technique

Yoochan Lee, Jinhan Kwak, Junesoo Kang, Yuseok Jeon, and Byoungyoung Lee

In USENIX Security Symposium, Aug 2023

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{pspray,
  author = {Lee, Yoochan and Kwak, Jinhan and Kang, Junesoo and Jeon, Yuseok and Lee, Byoungyoung},
  title = {Pspray: Timing Side-Channel based Linux Kernel Heap Exploitation Technique},
  booktitle = {USENIX Security Symposium},
  year = {2023},
  address = {Anaheim, CA},
  month = aug,
}

SEC

ExpRace: Exploiting Kernel Races through Raising Interrupts.

Yoochan Lee, Changwoo Min, and Byoungyoung Lee

In USENIX Security Symposium, Aug 2021

Bib PDF

@inproceedings{exprace,
  title = {ExpRace: Exploiting Kernel Races through Raising Interrupts.},
  author = {Lee, Yoochan and Min, Changwoo and Lee, Byoungyoung},
  booktitle = {USENIX Security Symposium},
  year = {2021},
  month = aug,
}