Tiantai Zhang

Ph.D. Student, Nanjing University
Research Intern, Tencent Zhuque Lab (Qingyun Program)

[Now] [Research] [Publications] [Awards]

Bio

Tiantai Zhang is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at Nanjing University, advised by Prof. Bing Mao (since September 2021). He is currently a research intern at Tencent Zhuque Lab through the Qingyun Program. He was previously a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University (June 2025–July 2026), working with Prof. Xiangyu Zhang.

His work spans reverse engineering, binary defense, and the application of large language models to binary security analysis. He has published at top venues including USENIX Security, ISSTA, and TOSEM. Before his Ph.D., he received his B.E. in Communication Engineering from Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications (2017–2021).

What I'm Working On

My current work asks how we can reason reliably about imperfect binaries and build practical protections whose security guarantees survive real-world compilation.

Audit & Validation

How can AI-assisted binary auditing move from plausible findings to verifiable security evidence?

Exploring how to move from plausible vulnerability findings to conclusions that can be checked against real program behavior.

Decompilation & AI

How do decompilation challenges affect model-based binary bug detection?

Using decompilation results to study which lost, distorted, or recovered program properties matter when models search binaries for bugs.

Defense & Optimization

Can compiler and runtime defenses remain secure and practical under optimization?

Investigating protections for security-sensitive program data while studying how compiler transformations affect their effectiveness, guarantees, and cost.

Updated July 2026

A white-hat researcher leads Claude, GPT, Kimi, DeepSeek, and GLM agents from source-code analysis across a semantic wall toward the binary-security frontier while defending against adversarial agents. — From source-code intelligence to the binary-security frontier.

Research Directions

Binary Analysis & Reverse Engineering

Binary disassembly ground truth and evaluation USENIX Security'22
Function entry identification and obfuscation ISSTA'23 TOSEM'25
Model-based binary bug detection under decompilation challenges Current

guided by Dr. Chengbin Pang where my research journey began

Binary Defense

Structure layout randomization Current
Compiler and runtime data protection under real-world optimization Current

introduced to this direction by Dr. Chengbin Pang my first step in broadening my research

LLM-Based Binary Security

Neural-symbolic vulnerability auditing for firmware binaries Current
Feedback-guided validation of binary vulnerability findings Current

introduced to this direction by Prof. Xiangyu Zhang and Chengpeng Wang my second step in that exploration

Publications

Discovering 100+ Compiler Defects in 72 Hours via LLM-Driven Semantic Logic Recomposition
Xingbang He, Yuanwei Chen, Hao Wu, Jikang Zhang, Zicheng Wang, Ligeng Chen, Junjie Peng, Haiyang Wei, Yi Qian, Tiantai Zhang, Linzhang Wang, Bing Mao
ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2026 (Round 1).
Mind the Gap: Action Rebinding Attacks against Android GUI Agents
Yi Qian, Kunwei Qian, Xingbang He, Ligeng Chen, Jikang Zhang, Tiantai Zhang, Haiyang Wei, Linzhang Wang, Hao Wu, Bing Mao
ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2026 (Round 1).
Posing New Challenges to Function Entry Identification Through Fine-Grained CFI Obfuscation
Tiantai Zhang*, Chengbin Pang*, Fei Peng, Linzhang Wang, Bing Mao (*: Equal Contribution)
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2025.
OCFI: Make Function Entry Identification Hard Again
Chengbin Pang*, Tiantai Zhang*, Xuelan Xu, Linzhang Wang, Bing Mao (*: Equal Contribution)
ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2023.
Ground Truth for Binary Disassembly is Not Easy
Chengbin Pang, Tiantai Zhang, Ruotong Yu, Bing Mao, Jun Xu
USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security), 2022.

Awards — things that happened, things that mattered.

Nanjing University Graduate First-Class Academic Scholarship, 2022 & 2023
Nanjing University Ru Li Scholarship, 2022
ICPC Asia-East Continent Final, Bronze Medal, 2019
ICPC Asia Regional Contest, Nanjing Site, Bronze Medal, 2019
China Collegiate Programming Contest (CCPC), Jilin Site, Bronze Medal, 2018
ICPC Asia Regional Contest, Xuzhou Site, Silver Medal, 2018

Algorithm & Competitive Programming · team 🍬 I Love Candy w/ Wenfeng Huang & Chenlei Yang

z472421519 1960 Candidate Master 1🥈 6🥉 4🏳️

Last modified: 2026.04