arXiv subjects

Carlos Benitez

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos Benitez.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum ROP: Using Quantum Algorithms for ROP Chain Selection in Exploit Construction

The quantum computing threat to cybersecurity is nowadays predominantly framed around Shor's algorithm and its eventual capacity to break asymmetric cryptography. Beyond cryptanalysis, however, quantum computing may also enable other capabilities in offensive security. This work explores one such direction: the application of quantum combinatorial optimization to Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) gadget selection for exploit construction. We formulate gadget selection as a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem that captures individual gadget cost and inter-gadget register-clobbering interactions, and solve it using QAOA on real IBM Heron r2 hardware. Applied to a Linux kernel exploitation scenario, the QAOA-selected chain achieves privilege escalation to uid=0 with SMEP and SMAP active. Across eight Linux binaries and 16 benchmark instances, QAOA recovered the lowest-cost valid chain in 11 cases; in the remaining five, it did not recover the optimum, with the failures associated with excessive circuit depth on current limited hardware.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

Mapping Quantum Threats: An Engineering Inventory of Cryptographic Dependencies

The prospective emergence of large-scale quantum computers capable of executing Shor's algorithm at cryptographically relevant scale would render widely deployed public-key cryptography computationally insecure. Under this threat model, both confidentiality of previously protected data and the authenticity of digital signatures could be compromised across multiple layers of digital infrastructure. This paper presents a systematic engineering inventory of technologies that depend on quantum-vulnerable asymmetric cryptography. The analysis is structured along two complementary axes (technology domain and operational environment) linking cryptographic primitives to their real-world deployment contexts. The resulting framework provides a structured basis for identifying systemic exposure to quantum-related risks across contemporary digital ecosystems.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2020

Measuring shape relations using r-parallel sets

Geometrical measurements of biological objects form the basis of many quantitative analyses. Hausdorff measures such as the volume and the area of objects are simple and popular descriptors of individual objects, however, for most biological processes, the interaction between objects cannot be ignored, and the shape and function of neighboring objects are mutually influential. In this paper, we present a theory on the geometrical interaction between objects based on the theory of spatial point processes. Our theory is based on the relation between two objects: a reference and an observed object. We generate the $r$-parallel sets of the reference object, we calculate the intersection between the $r$-parallel sets and the observed object, and we define measures on these intersections. Our measures are simple like the volume and area of an object, but describe further details about the shape of individual objects and their pairwise geometrical relation. Finally, we propose a summary statistics for collections of shapes and their interaction. We evaluate these measures on a publicly available FIB-SEM 3D data set of an adult rodent.

cs.CV↗