The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) is a top venue that fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of computer, network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of practical security technologies.

Technical papers and panel proposals are solicited. Authors are encouraged to write the abstract and introduction of their paper in a way that makes the results accessible and compelling to a general computer-security researcher. All submissions will be reviewed by the Program Committee and accepted submissions will be published by the Internet Society in the Proceedings of NDSS 2023. The Proceedings will be made freely accessible from the Internet Society web pages. Furthermore, permission to freely reproduce all or parts of papers for noncommercial purposes is granted provided that copies bear the Internet Society notice included in the first page of the paper. The authors are therefore free to post the camera-ready versions of their papers on their personal pages and within their institutional repositories. Reproduction for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and requires prior consent.

Paper Submission Information

NDSS will have two review cycles in 2023: a Summer submission period and a fall submission period. The full list of important dates for each session is listed below. All submissions must be received by 11:59 PM AoE (UTC-12) on the day of the corresponding deadline.

For each submission to one of the two review cycles, one of the following decisions will be made:

    Accept: Papers in this category will be accepted for publication in the proceedings and presentation at the conference.
    Minor Revision: Papers in this category will be accepted for publication in the proceedings and presentation at the conference, if and only if they undergo a minor revision and the revision is determined satisfactory by their shepherd(s).
    Major Revision: Papers in this category are considered promising but need additional work (e.g., new implementations, experiments, and/or proofs). Authors may choose to revise and resubmit such papers to NDSS 2023, with appropriate revisions and within about 45 days after notification (see specific deadlines below). The revision and second-review of “Major Revision” papers will be based on a list of “revision tasks” clearly specified by the original reviewers and conveyed to authors in the notification. A revised paper will be accepted to NDSS 2023, if it satisfactorily fulfills the revision tasks. A paper may undergo at most one major revision for NDSS 2023.
    Reject: Papers in this category are not allowed to be resubmitted to NDSS 2023.

Authors of accepted papers must ensure that their papers will be presented at the conference.

Areas/Topics of Interest

Submissions are solicited in, but not limited to, the following areas:

    Anti-malware techniques: detection, analysis, and prevention
    Cyber-crime defense and forensics (e.g., anti-phishing, anti-blackmailing, anti-fraud techniques)
    Security for future Internet architectures and designs (e.g., Software-Defined Networking)
    Implementation, deployment and management of network security policies
    Integrating security in network protocols (e.g., routing, naming, and management)
    Cyber attack (e.g., APTs, botnets, DDoS) prevention, detection, investigation, and response
    Software/firmware analysis, customization, and transformation for systems security
    Privacy and anonymity in networks and distributed systems
    Security and privacy for blockchains and cryptocurrencies
    Public key infrastructures, key management, certification, and revocation
    Security for cloud/edge computing
    Security and privacy of mobile/smartphone platforms
    Security for cyber-physical systems (e.g., autonomous vehicles, industrial control systems)
    Security for emerging networks (e.g., home networks, IoT, body-area networks, VANETs)
    Security for large-scale, critical infrastructures (e.g., electronic voting, smart grid)
    Security and privacy of systems based on machine learning and AI
    Security of Web-based applications and services (e.g., social networking, crowd-sourcing)
    Special problems and case studies: e.g., tradeoffs between security and efficiency, usability, cost, and ethics
    Usable security and privacy
    Trustworthy Computing software and hardware to secure networks and systems

A special note on “fit” for all submissions: NDSS is primarily a venue focusing on network and systems security. As such, the Program Committee will be looking for papers that have a clear relation to real systems and applications. For instance, a paper that makes significant contributions in an area such as cryptography but that fails to demonstrably tie those advances to real systems is unlikely to be accepted.