A 1995 discovery identifying a critical flaw in the Netscape Navigator SSL implementation marked an early contribution to digital security for David A. Wagner. Born in 1974, this American computer scientist and mathematician has built a career focused on the vulnerabilities of encryption protocols and the practical challenges of securing modern computational systems.
Academic Progression
Wagner began his formal education at Princeton University, where he earned an A.B. in mathematics in 1995. He subsequently transitioned to the University of California, Berkeley, for graduate studies. He completed an M.S. in computer science in 1999, followed by a Ph.D. in the same field in 2000. Following his doctoral work, he joined the faculty at Berkeley, eventually attaining the rank of Full Professor in 2010. He held the position of chair of the Computer Science Department between 2020 and 2022.
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Throughout his career, Wagner has authored two books and more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His work in cryptanalysis is extensive. In 1999, he co-developed the slide attack, the boomerang attack, and mod n cryptanalysis. In 1998, he contributed to the development of the Twofish block cipher, which reached the finals of the NIST Advanced Encryption Standard competition. Other significant efforts include his 2000 analysis of the A5/1 stream cipher used in GSM mobile phones and his 2001 work regarding the security protocol for 802.11 WiFi networks.
Voting Systems and Machine Learning
Wagner has applied his expertise to the integrity of electoral processes. He served as a principal investigator for the 2007 Top-to-Bottom review of California's electronic voting systems, where his documentation and source code analysis led to the decertification of several vendor-supplied machines. He also participated in the ACCURATE project and provided technical guidance to the Election Assistance Commission. More recently, he focused on adversarial machine learning, co-developing the Carlini-Wagner attack in 2017 to demonstrate vulnerabilities in twenty different models.
Fast facts
- Born: 1974
- Nationality: United States
- Ph.D. in computer science: 2000, University of California, Berkeley
- Current employer: University of California, Berkeley
- Academic chair: 2020–2022
- Notable contribution: Twofish block cipher
Questions readers ask
What specific security protocols has Wagner cryptanalyzed?
He has worked on the SSL implementation in Netscape Navigator, the CMEA algorithm, the A5/1 stream cipher, the PPTP tunnelling protocol, and WEP.
What was the outcome of the 2007 California voting system review?
The review identified flaws in electronic voting machines, which resulted in the Secretary of State decertifying the systems and issuing provisional recertification.
Achievements
- Held posts at University of California, Berkeley
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