2nd Microarchitecture Security Conference (uASC '26)

Call for Contributions

Important Dates (AoE)

Papers

uASC solicits submissions of high-quality, original scientific papers presenting novel research on microarchitecture security (attacks and defenses). This also explicitly includes papers that provide cutting-edge insights with security implications under limited threat models (e.g., a high-impact high-profile attack on a trusted-execution environment on platforms that do not have a trusted-execution environment, outdated patch levels, unlikely system configurations). Like some other top conferences we also welcome and ask for reproducibility studies that provide an independent understanding of prior attacks and defenses. uASC has two paper tracks: the Rank A track, where the PC members attest that papers in this track are of typical rank A quality. All accepted papers are part of the proceedings.

Posters

High quality posters enable discussion of recent research results, deep interactions with interested attendees, a peek into ongoing work, and presentation of new crazy ideas. uASC welcomes the submission of posters on preliminary findings, ongoing work, or recently published work. Posters will be presented in a forum where attendees can mingle and interact. Poster submissions may contain an extended abstract of up to two pages in the µASC paper submission format along with a draft of the poster, which will be included in the conference proceedings. If the poster refers to a published paper, it must be referenced. At the conference, we will provide posters stands. Attendees can bring their printed posters up to size A0.

Talks

High quality talks enable discussion of recent open problems from practice and theory, give a peek into ongoing work, or to discuss crazy ideas. uASC welcomes the submission of talks and invites talks to also submit an extended abstract of up to two pages, which will be included in the conference proceedings.

Submissions

Full papers are limited to 20 pages in Springer LNCS format, including bibliography and appendices. Papers that do not follow this format may be rejected without review. All talks (with and without papers) are 20 minutes.

Submission Guidelines

uASC has a double-blind reviewing process for papers. All submitted papers must be appropriately anonymized. Author names and affiliations must be excluded from the paper. Furthermore, authors should avoid obvious self-references, and should cite their own previous work in third person, whenever necessary. Papers that are not properly anonymized risk being rejected without review.

All submitted papers must be original work and may not be under submission to another venue at the time of review. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to physically present the submitted work at the conference, for the paper to be included in the proceedings.

Authors are encouraged to submit code appropriately anonymized, using, e.g., https://anonymous.4open.science/.

Papers can be submitted using https://uasc25.hotcrp.com/.

Poster and talk submissions can be either anonymized or not anonymized.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest must be declared by authors and PC members. uASC generally considers all cases a conflict of interest where in hindsight an outstanding party might suspect that impartiality was not given. This includes (1) shared affiliations (2) advisor-advisee relations, (3) recent collaborators, (4) individuals involved in mutual funding decisions, or (5) close personal relationships. In case of a conflict of interest with the program chair, the program chair delegates the handling of the paper to the senior program chair (if not conflicted), to a non-conflicted steering committee member, or to a non-conflicted program committee member.

Ethical considerations

Submissions that describe experiments related to vulnerabilities in software or systems should discuss the steps taken to avoid negatively affecting any third-parties (e.g., in case of probing of network devices), and how the authors plan to responsibly disclose the vulnerabilities to the appropriate software or system vendors or owners before publication.

If you have any questions, please contact the program chairs at pc@uasc.cc.