Oliver Gasser

Dr. Oliver Gasser

Address
Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik
Saarland Informatics Campus
Campus E1 4
66123 Saarbrücken
Location
E1 4 - 528
Phone
+49 681 9325 3525
Fax
+49 681 9325 5719

Personal Information

I studied Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich. At TUM I also did my Ph.D. with the topic of "Evaluating Network Security Using Internet-wide Measurements" which I completed with "summa cum laude" under the supervision of Georg Carle. In 2020 I joined Anja Feldman's Internet Architecture research group at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics as a post-doc researcher.

Publications

2020
Feldmann, A., Gasser, O., Lichtblau, F., Pujol, E., Poese, I., Dietzel, C., … Smaragdakis, G. (2020a). The Lockdown Effect: Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internet Traffic. In IMC’20, 20th ACM Internet Measurement Conference. Virtual Event, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/3419394.3423658
[DOI]
[PuRe]
[BibTeX]
[pre-print version]
Links
[DOI]
[PuRe]
[BibTeX]
[pre-print version]
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BibTeX
@inproceedings{Feldmann_IMC2020, TITLE = {The Lockdown Effect: Implications of the {COVID}-19 Pandemic on Internet Traffic}, AUTHOR = {Feldmann, Anja and Gasser, Oliver and Lichtblau, Franziska and Pujol, Enric and Poese, Ingmar and Dietzel, Christoph and Wagner, Daniel and Wichtlhuber, Matthias and Tapiador, Juan and Vallina-Rodriguez, Narseo and Hohlfeld, Oliver and Smaragdakis, Georgios}, LANGUAGE = {eng}, ISBN = {9-781-4503-8138-3}, DOI = {10.1145/3419394.3423658}, PUBLISHER = {ACM}, YEAR = {2020}, MARGINALMARK = {$\bullet$}, DATE = {2020}, BOOKTITLE = {IMC'20, 20th ACM Internet Measurement Conference}, PAGES = {1--18}, ADDRESS = {Virtual Event, USA}, }
Endnote
%0 Conference Proceedings %A Feldmann, Anja %A Gasser, Oliver %A Lichtblau, Franziska %A Pujol, Enric %A Poese, Ingmar %A Dietzel, Christoph %A Wagner, Daniel %A Wichtlhuber, Matthias %A Tapiador, Juan %A Vallina-Rodriguez, Narseo %A Hohlfeld, Oliver %A Smaragdakis, Georgios %+ Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society External Organizations External Organizations Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations %T The Lockdown Effect: Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Internet Traffic : %G eng %U http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0007-0641-9 %R 10.1145/3419394.3423658 %D 2020 %B 20th ACM Internet Measurement Conference %Z date of event: 2020-10-27 - 2020-10-29 %C Virtual Event, USA %B IMC'20 %P 1 - 18 %I ACM %@ 9-781-4503-8138-3 %U https://labs.ripe.net/Members/oliver_gasser/the-lockdown-effect-implications-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-internet-traffic
Maghsoudlou, A., Gasser, O., & Feldmann, A. (2020). Reserved: Dissecting Internet Traffic on Port 0. In Extended abstract of a poster presented at Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM) 2020. Virtual Conference. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/2004.03653
(arXiv: 2004.03653)
[arXiv]
[PuRe]
[BibTeX]
[pre-print version]
Abstract
Transport protocols use port numbers to allow connection multiplexing on Internet hosts. TCP as well as UDP, the two most widely used transport protocols, have limitations on what constitutes a valid and invalid port number. One example of an invalid port number for these protocols is port 0. In this work, we present preliminary results from analyzing port 0 traffic at a large European IXP. In one week of traffic we find 74GB port 0 traffic. The vast majority of this traffic has both source and destination ports set to 0, suggesting scanning or reconnaissance as its root cause. Our analysis also shows that more than half of all port 0 traffic is targeted to just 18 ASes, whereas more than half of all traffic is originated by about 100 ASes, suggesting a more diverse set of source ASes.
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BibTeX
@inproceedings{Maghsoudlou_PAM2020, TITLE = {Reserved: {D}issecting Internet Traffic on Port 0}, AUTHOR = {Maghsoudlou, Aniss and Gasser, Oliver and Feldmann, Anja}, LANGUAGE = {eng}, URL = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2004.03653}, EPRINT = {2004.03653}, EPRINTTYPE = {arXiv}, YEAR = {2020}, MARGINALMARK = {$\bullet$}, ABSTRACT = {Transport protocols use port numbers to allow connection multiplexing on Internet hosts. TCP as well as UDP, the two most widely used transport protocols, have limitations on what constitutes a valid and invalid port number. One example of an invalid port number for these protocols is port 0. In this work, we present preliminary results from analyzing port 0 traffic at a large European IXP. In one week of traffic we find 74GB port 0 traffic. The vast majority of this traffic has both source and destination ports set to 0, suggesting scanning or reconnaissance as its root cause. Our analysis also shows that more than half of all port 0 traffic is targeted to just 18 ASes, whereas more than half of all traffic is originated by about 100 ASes, suggesting a more diverse set of source ASes.}, BOOKTITLE = {Extended abstract of a poster presented at Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM) 2020}, ADDRESS = {Virtual Conference}, }
Endnote
%0 Conference Proceedings %A Maghsoudlou, Aniss %A Gasser, Oliver %A Feldmann, Anja %+ Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society %T Reserved: Dissecting Internet Traffic on Port 0 : %G eng %U http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0006-0D13-7 %U http://arxiv.org/abs/2004.03653 %D 2020 %B The Passive and Active Measurement Conference %Z date of event: 2020-03-30 - 2020-03-31 %C Virtual Conference %X Transport protocols use port numbers to allow connection multiplexing on Internet hosts. TCP as well as UDP, the two most widely used transport protocols, have limitations on what constitutes a valid and invalid port number. One example of an invalid port number for these protocols is port 0. In this work, we present preliminary results from analyzing port 0 traffic at a large European IXP. In one week of traffic we find 74GB port 0 traffic. The vast majority of this traffic has both source and destination ports set to 0, suggesting scanning or reconnaissance as its root cause. Our analysis also shows that more than half of all port 0 traffic is targeted to just 18 ASes, whereas more than half of all traffic is originated by about 100 ASes, suggesting a more diverse set of source ASes. %K Computer Science, Networking and Internet Architecture, cs.NI %B Extended abstract of a poster presented at Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM) 2020
Feldmann, A., Gasser, O., Lichtblau, F., Pujol, E., Poese, I., Dietzel, C., … Smaragdakis, G. (2020b). A View of Internet Traffic Shifts at ISP and IXPs during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop. Virtual Workshop: IAB. Retrieved from https://www.iab.org/activities/workshops/covid-19-network-impacts-workshop-2020/
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BibTeX
@inproceedings{Feldmann_IABWorkshop2020, TITLE = {A view of Internet Traffic Shifts at {ISP} and {IXPs} during the {COVID}-19 Pandemic}, AUTHOR = {Feldmann, Anja and Gasser, Oliver and Lichtblau, Franziska and Pujol, Enric and Poese, Ingmar and Dietzel, Christoph and Wagner, Daniel and Wichtlhuber, Matthias and Tapiador, Juan and Vallina-Rodriguez, Narseo and Hohlfeld, Oliver and Smaragdakis, Georgios}, LANGUAGE = {eng}, URL = {https://www.iab.org/activities/workshops/covid-19-network-impacts-workshop-2020/}, PUBLISHER = {IAB}, YEAR = {2020}, MARGINALMARK = {$\bullet$}, BOOKTITLE = {COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop}, ADDRESS = {Virtual Workshop}, }
Endnote
%0 Conference Proceedings %A Feldmann, Anja %A Gasser, Oliver %A Lichtblau, Franziska %A Pujol, Enric %A Poese, Ingmar %A Dietzel, Christoph %A Wagner, Daniel %A Wichtlhuber, Matthias %A Tapiador, Juan %A Vallina-Rodriguez, Narseo %A Hohlfeld, Oliver %A Smaragdakis, Georgios %+ Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society Internet Architecture, MPI for Informatics, Max Planck Society External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations External Organizations %T A View of Internet Traffic Shifts at ISP and IXPs during the COVID-19 Pandemic : %G eng %U http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0007-6FA5-3 %D 2020 %B COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop %Z date of event: 2020-11-09 - 2020-11-13 %C Virtual Workshop %B COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop %I IAB %U https://www.iab.org/activities/workshops/covid-19-network-impacts-workshop-2020/

Previous publications

For an up-to-date full list of my publications please check my Google Scholar page

Research Interests

  • Internet-wide scanning of hosts and networks
  • Analysis and measurements in the Internet
  • Security of network protocols and their deployment
  • Analysis of network flow data
  • DNS deployment

Honours and Awards

 

Recent Talks

Reviewing Activity & Workshop / Conference positions

Teachings

At Saarland University / MPI:

At Technical University of Munich:

Recent Positions

February 2020 - now:
Postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany.

March 2017 - April 2017:
Visiting researcher at the University of Sydney, Australia.

May 2013 - May 2019:
Doctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.