Matteo Scarlata

I'm a cryptographer and freelance security consultant. I just finished my doctorate at ETH Zurich (Applied Cryptography Group). I like to analyse the security of real-world systems such as messengers, password managers and cloud storage. I study the theory behind them, and I'm pretty good at finding out when they're broken.

I'm currently looking for my next role — get in touch.

News

  1. 2026-10
    Defended my doctorate at ETH Zurich: How Not to Encrypt: An Anthology of Cryptographic Attacks.
  2. 2026-08
    Why Johnny Should Not Delegate Email Encryption to Gateways accepted at ACM CCS '26. With Andris Suter-Dörig and Kenny Paterson, we analysed four S/MIME and PGP email encryption gateways (SEPPmail, CipherMail, Cisco Email Security Appliance and Proton Mail Bridge) and found 29 practical attacks, from full message decryption to signature spoofing, plus a remote code execution in SEPPmail. Coordinated disclosure led to CVEs across vendors.
  3. 2026-08
    Zero Knowledge (About) Encryption at USENIX Security '26. With Giovanni Torrisi, Matilda Backendal and Kenny Paterson, we analysed four cloud-based password managers that promise “zero-knowledge encryption” and found 27 practical attacks, from password recovery to a 200,000x brute-force speedup, affecting 60M users and 300k+ businesses. We coordinated disclosure with the vendors; more at zkae.io.
  4. 2026-05
    Co-organized the Cryptographic Applications Workshop (CAW) at Eurocrypt '26 in Rome.
  5. 2026-05
    Invited talk at the King's College London research seminar.
  6. 2026-05
    Research visit at the University of Cambridge, hosted by Tobias Grosser.
  7. 2026-04
    Won a $32k bounty from the Ethereum Foundation's Poseidon Cryptanalysis Initiative for a 3-element collision, with Simon-Philipp Merz, Alex Rodriguez and Izan Beltran Ferreiro.
  8. 2026-03
    Presented Zero Knowledge (About) Encryption at Real World Crypto '26 with Giovanni Torrisi (video).
older news
  1. 2025-10
  2. 2025-05
    Moderated the Cryptographic Applications Workshop (CAW) at Eurocrypt '25 in Madrid.
  3. 2025-04
    Invited talk at Apple.
  4. 2025-04
    Talks with industry partners at the Zurich Information Security and Privacy Center (ZISC).
  5. 2025-03
    Presented Breaking and Fixing Content-Defined Chunking at Real World Crypto '25 with Kien Tuong Truong (video).
  6. 2024-08
    Presented MFKDF: Multiple Factors Knocked Down Flat at USENIX Security '24 (video).
  7. 2024-04
    Invited talk at Zühlke.
  8. 2024-04
    Research visit at Cornell Tech.
  9. 2023-08
  10. 2023-08
    Three Lessons From Threema at USENIX Security '23.
  11. 2023-08
    Talk at CCC Camp 2023 with Kien Tuong Truong (video).
  12. 2023-03
    Presented Three Lessons From Threema at Real World Crypto '23 in Tokyo (video).
  13. 2022-08
    Research visit at UC San Diego.
  14. 2021-09
    Security engineering internship at Google.

Recent publications full list on DBLP

  1. 2026
    Why Johnny Should Not Delegate Email Encryption to Gateways
    Andris Suter-Dörig, Matteo Scarlata and Kenneth G. Paterson. ACM CCS 2026. (full version)
  2. 2026
    Zero Knowledge (About) Encryption: A Comparative Security Analysis of Three Cloud-based Password Managers
    Matteo Scarlata, Giovanni Torrisi, Matilda Backendal and Kenneth G. Paterson. USENIX Security 2026. zkae.io (full version)
  3. 2025
    Breaking and Fixing Content-Defined Chunking
    Kien Tuong Truong, Simon-Philipp Merz, Matteo Scarlata, Felix Günther and Kenneth G. Paterson. ACM CCS 2025. (full version)
  4. 2024
    MFKDF: Multiple Factors Knocked Down Flat
    Matteo Scarlata, Matilda Backendal and Miro Haller. USENIX Security 2024. (full version)
  5. 2023
    When Messages Are Keys: Is HMAC a Dual-PRF?
    Matilda Backendal, Mihir Bellare, Felix Günther and Matteo Scarlata. CRYPTO 2023. (full version)
  6. 2023
    Three Lessons From Threema: Analysis of a Secure Messenger
    Kenneth G. Paterson, Matteo Scarlata and Kien T. Truong. USENIX Security 2023. (full version)

Theses

  1. 2026
    How Not to Encrypt: An Anthology of Cryptographic Attacks
    Doctoral thesis, ETH Zurich (Diss. ETH No. 32483).
  2. 2020
    Post-Compromise Security and TLS 1.3 Session Resumption
    MSc thesis, ETH Zurich. Advised by Kenneth G. Paterson and Benjamin Dowling.

Talks

  1. 2026
    Zero Knowledge (About) Encryption: A Comparative Security Analysis of Three Cloud-based Password Managers, with Giovanni Torrisi. Real World Crypto 2026. video
  2. 2025
    Breaking and Fixing Content-Defined Chunking, with Kien Tuong Truong. Real World Crypto 2025. video
  3. 2024
    MFKDF: Multiple Factors Knocked Down Flat. USENIX Security 2024. video
  4. 2023
    If it ain't broken, do fix it, with Kien Tuong Truong. CCC Camp 2023. video
  5. 2023
    Three Lessons From Threema: Analysis of a Secure Messenger. Real World Crypto 2023. video

Invited talks at the King's College London research seminar (2026), Apple (2025) and Zühlke (2024), and talks with industry partners at the Zurich Information Security and Privacy Center (ZISC, 2023 & 2025).

Experience & teaching

  1. 2025–
    Freelance security consultant
  2. –2026
    Doctoral researcher, Applied Cryptography Group, ETH Zurich. Supervisor: Kenneth G. Paterson
  3. 2021
    Security Engineering Intern, Google
  1. research visits
    University of Cambridge (Tobias Grosser, 2026), Cornell Tech (2024), UC San Diego (2022)
  2. teaching
    Led the Applied Cryptography labs and the Network Security exercise sessions at ETH Zurich (2022–2025); lectured on TLS in Network Security (2025)
  3. service
    Co-organizer of the Cryptographic Applications Workshop (CAW) at Eurocrypt 2026; moderator at Eurocrypt 2025

Elsewhere

I also play CTFs and go to hacker events (DEF CON 29, DEF CON 30, CCC Camp 2023, the 39th Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, and WHY 2025). I keep a todo list and a cocktail menu.