Wenkai Li is a first-year Ph.D student at the School of Cyberspace Security, Hainan University, supervised by Prof. Simon Xiaoqi Li(李晓琦). Previously, he received his Master degree at Hainan University advised by Prof. Simon Xiaoqi Li, during that time he also experienced a year of joint training program with Tencent Keen Security Lab, supervised under Tencent Security Researcher Sen Nie. His research lies in smart contract security and malicious behavior analysis, focusing on enhancing blockchain security through software and data analytics. He is also exploring the integration of artificial intelligence, such as graph neural networks and large language models.

🎓 Education & Experiences

• Ph.D. Student, Hainan University, Haikou
  09/2024 - Present
• Joint Training, Tencent Keen Security Lab, Shanghai
  09/2023 - 09/2024
• Master Degree in Hainan University, Haikou
  09/2021 - 07/2024
• Bachelor Degree in Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang

📝 Selected Publications | More in Google Scholar

• Sweeping the Blockchain: Unmasking Illicit Accounts in Web3 Scams

  Wenkai Li, Zhijie Liu, Xiaoqi Li
  Black Hat Asia, 2025 (BlackHat'25)

• SCALM: Detecting Bad Practices in Smart Contracts through LLMs

  Zongwei Li, Xiaoqi Li, Wenkai Li, Xin Wang
  The 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2025 (AAAI'25)

• Guardians of the Ledger: Protecting Decentralized Exchanges from State Derailment Defects

  Zongwei Li, Wenkai Li, Xiaoqi Li, Yuqing Zhang
  IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 2024 (TRel'24)

• COBRA: Interaction-Aware Bytecode-Level Vulnerability Detector for Smart Contracts

  Wenkai Li, Xiaoqi Li, Zongwei Li, Yuqing Zhang
  The 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, 2024 (ASE'24)

• StateGuard: Detecting State Derailment Defects in Decentralized Exchange Smart Contracts

  Zongwei Li, Wenkai Li, Xiaoqi Li, Yuqing Zhang
  The 33rd ACM International World Wide Web Conference, 2024 (WWW'24)

• DeFiTail: DeFi Protocol Inspection through Cross-Contract Execution Analysis

  Wenkai Li, Xiaoqi Li, Yuqing Zhang, Zongwei Li
  The 33rd ACM International World Wide Web Conference, 2024 (WWW'24)

• GasTrace: Detecting Sandwich Attack Malicious Accounts in Ethereum

  Zekai Liu, Xiaoqi Li, Hongli Peng, Wenkai Li
  The 21st IEEE International Conference on Web Services, 2024 (ICWS'24)

• AuthROS: Secure Data Sharing Among Robot Operating Systems Based on Ethereum

  Shenhui Zhang, Wenkai Li, Xiaoqi Li, Boyi Liu
  The 22nd IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability, and Security, 2022 (QRS'22)

• Security Analysis of DeFi: Vulnerabilities, Attacks and Advances

  Wenkai Li, Jiuyang Bu, Xiaoqi Li, Xianyi Chen
  The IEEE International Conference on Blockchain, 2022 (ICBC'22)

• A Survey of DeFi Security: Challenges and Opportunities

  Wenkai Li, Jiuyang Bu, Xiaoqi Li, Hongli Peng, Yuanzheng Niu, Yuqing Zhang
  Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences, 2022 (JKSU'22)

🎖️ Honors and Awards

• Gold Medal, The 50th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, Switzerland, 2025.
• Excellent Paper Award, Journal of Information Security Research, 2024.
• Excellent Thesis Award, Hainan University, 2024.
• Excellent Academic Report Award, Hainan University, 2024.
• ACM Travel Grant, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2024.

🧑‍🎨 Teaching Experience & Services

• Vulnerability Analysis and Penetration Test (Semester 1/2, 2021-2024, Teaching assistant)
• Network Attack and Defense Technology (Semester 1, 2022/23, Teaching assistant)
• (Co-)Reviewer of TIFS, TDSC, IJCAI, TSE, TSC, TOIT, TNSM, Information Science, ESE, IEEE Access, SPB, SCN, BCRA, BigDIA, JEMT, et al.
• (Co-)Vulnerabilities Founder (CVE-2023-{36979~36980}, CVE-2023-{47033~47035}, CVE-2024-{51167~51174})

🧩 Misc

• U.S. Patent, A Vulnerability Detection Method and Device and Storage Medium for Smart Contracts, US 12093399 B1, 2024.
• China Patent, 一种智能合约的漏洞检测方法和装置、存储介质, ZL 2023 1 0584937.7, 2024.
• China Patent, 一种区块链去中心化金融的安全检测方法和装置, ZL 2023 1 1448701.7, 2024.
• Software Copyright, Interactive Perception Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection Software V1.0, 2023SR1384723, 2023.
• Software Copyright, State Defect-aware Smart Contract Detection Software V1.0, 2024SR0268508, 2024.
• Software Copyright, Malicious Behavior Detection Software for Decentralized Financial Protocols V1.0, 2024SR0384256, 2024.
• Software Copyright, Silver Boat Travel Alipay Applet APP V1.0, 2020SR0626928, 2020.
• National Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2020-2021.
• ‘Internet’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, 2020.
• etc.