Diwen Xue

About me

I am a fifth year PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Michigan. My research focuses on areas where the privacy, security and availability implications of networked systems affect users in the real world. I conduct Internet measurements at scale, use those observations to refine threat models, and build countermeasures to safeguard users’ communication on this increasingly adversarial Internet.

Download my CV Here

I am in the academic job market!

Publications

[CCS ’25] Fingerprinting Deep Packet Inspection Devices by their Ambiguities

@inproceedings{Xue2025DPI,
	author = {Diwen Xue and Armin Huremagic and Wayne Wang and Ram Sundara Raman and Roya Ensafi},
	title = {{Fingerprinting Deep Packet Inspection Devices by their Ambiguities}},
	booktitle = {ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)},
	year = {2025},
	address = {Taipei, Taiwan}
}

Diwen Xue, A. Huremagic, W. Wang, R. Sundara Raman, and R. Ensafi
In: ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2025.

[PETS ’25] Blocking-Resistant Communication Using Push Notifications

@inproceedings{Kumar2025CenPush,
	author = {Piyush Kumar and Diwen Xue and Aaron Ortwein and Cecylia Bocovich and Harry and Roya Ensafi},
	title = {{CenPush: Blocking-Resistant Communication Using Push Notifications}},
	booktitle = {Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETS 2025)},
	year = {2025},
	address = {Washington, DC, United States},
	publisher = {Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium Advisory Board},
}

P. Kumar, Diwen Xue, A. Ortwein, C. Bocovich, Harry, and R. Ensafi
In: Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2025.

[NDSS ’25] The Discriminative Power of Cross-layer RTTs in Fingerprinting Proxy Traffic

@inproceedings{Xue2025Timing,
	author = {Diwen Xue and Robert Stanley and Piyush Kumar and Roya Ensafi},
	title = {{The Discriminative Power of Cross-layer RTTs in Fingerprinting Proxy Traffic}},
	booktitle = {Network and Distributed System Security},
	publisher = {The Internet Society},
	year = {2025}
}

Diwen Xue, R. Stanley, P. Kumar, and R. Ensafi
In: Network and Distributed System Security Symposium 2025.

[FOCI'25] Is Custom Congestion Control a Bad Idea for Circumvention Tools?

@inproceedings{Wang2025Congestion,
	author = {Wanye Wang and Diwen Xue and Piyush Kumar and Ayush Mishra and Anonymous and Roya Ensafi},
	title = {{Is Custom Congestion Control a Bad Idea for Circumvention Tools?}},
	booktitle = {Free and Open Communications on the Internet},
	year = {2025},
	publisher = {Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies}
}

W. Wang, Diwen Xue, , P. Kumar, A. Mishra, Anonymous, and R. Ensafi
In: Free and Open Communications on the Internet 2025.

[USENIX'24] Fingerprinting Obfuscated Proxy Traffic with Encapsulated TLS Handshakes

@inproceedings {Xue2024TLSinTLS,
	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},
}

Diwen Xue, M. Kallitsis, A. Houmansadr, and R. Ensafi
In: USENIX Security Symposium 2024.

[USENIX'24] Bridging Barriers: A Survey of Challenges and Priorities in the Censorship Circumvention Landscape

@inproceedings {Xue2024CircumventionSurvey,
	author = {Diwen Xue and Anna Ablove and Reethika Ramesh and Grace Kwak-Danciu and Roya Ensafi},
	title = {{Bridging Barriers: A Survey of Challenges and Priorities in the Censorship Circumvention Landscape}},
	booktitle = {33st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24)},
	year = {2024},
	address = {PHILADELPHIA, PA},
	publisher = {USENIX Association},
}

Diwen Xue*, A. Ablove*, R. Ramesh, G. Kwak-Danciu and R. Ensafi
In: USENIX Security Symposium 2024.

[PETS'24] Attacking Connection Tracking Frameworks as used by Virtual Private Networks

@inproceedings {MixonBaca2024,
	author = {Benjamin Mixon-Baca and Jeffrey Knockel and Diwen Xue and Tarun Ayyagari and Deepak Kapur and Roya Ensafi and Jedidiah R. Crandall},
	title = {{Attacking Connection Tracking Frameworks as used by Virtual Private Networks}},
	booktitle = {Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETS 2024)},
	year = {2024},
	address = {Bristol, United Kingdom},
	publisher = {Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium Advisory Board},
}

B. Mixon-Baca, J. Knockel, Diwen Xue, T. Ayyagari, D. Kapur, R. Ensafi and J. Crandall
In: Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2024.

[FOCI'23] The Use of Push Notification in Censorship Circumvention

@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}
}

Diwen Xue, and R. Ensafi
In: Free and Open Communications on the Internet 2023.

[IMC'22] TSPU: Russia’s Decentralized Censorship System

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

Diwen Xue, B.Mixon-Baca, ValdikSS, A. Ablove, B. Kujath, J. Crandall, and R. Ensafi
In: Internet Measurement Conference 2022.

[USENIX'22] OpenVPN is Open to VPN Fingerprinting

@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},
}

Diwen Xue, R. Ramesh, A. Jain, M. Kallitsis, J. Halderman, J. Crandall, and R. Ensafi
In: USENIX Security Symposium 2022.
Distinguished paper award 🏆
First Prize winner of the 2022 USENIX/Meta Internet Defense Prize 🏆

[NDSS'22] VPNalyzer: Systematic Investigation of the VPN Ecosystem

@inproceedings{Ramesh2022VPNalyzer,
author = {Reethika Ramesh and Leonid Evdokimov and Diwen Xue and Roya Ensafi},
title = {{VPNalyzer: Systematic Investigation of the VPN Ecosystem}},
booktitle = {Network and Distributed System Security},
publisher = {The Internet Society},
year = {2022},
url = {https://dx.doi.org/10.14722/ndss.2022.24285}
}

R. Ramesh, L. Evdokimov, Diwen Xue, and R. Ensafi
In: Network and Distributed System Security Symposium 2022.

[IMC'21] Throttling Twitter: An Emerging Censorship Technique in Russia

@inproceedings{Xue2021Throttling,
author = author = {Xue Diwen and Ramesh Reethika and ValdikSS and Leonid Evdokimov and Andrey Viktorov and Arham Jain and Eric Wustrow and Simone Basso and Roya Ensafi},
title = {{Throttling Twitter: An Emerging Censorship Technique in Russia}},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21st ACM Internet Measurement Conference},
year = {2021},
address = {Virtual Event},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}
}

Diwen Xue, R. Ramesh, ValdikSS, L. Evdokimov, A. Viktorov, A. Jain, E. Wustrow, S. Basso, and R. Ensafi
In: Internet Measurement Conference 2021.
Recognized as the Highest Scoring Short Paper at IMC'21 🏆