CV
Education
- BS/MS in Cybersecurity, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Expected Graduation: May 2028
GPA: 3.84 Dean’s List (Fall 2024, Spring 2025) - Member of RITSEC (Cybersecurity Club – Vulnerability Research, Reversing, Penetration Testing)
- RIT Wrestling Affiliate
- Advanced Regents Diploma with Honors & Pre-University Program, Cicero North Syracuse High School / Syracuse University (STEP), Graduated June 2024
- Weighted GPA: 99.4/100
- Wrestling Team Captain
Work experience
- May 2025 – Aug 2025: Penetration Testing Intern
- Coalfire
- Performed real-world cyberattacks to uncover security flaws
- Assisted in ethical hacking engagements, vulnerability exploitation, and reporting
- Contributed to securing networks and applications against advanced persistent threats
Research & Projects
- June 2025 – Aug 2025: AI Integrated IDE Security Assessment
- Conducted comprehensive security assessment of AI-integrated IDEs
- Rigorously tested for prompt injection, editor-specific vulnerabilities, and inappropriate MCP server access
- Discovered and documented various vulnerabilities including:
- Arbitrary File Exfiltration
- File System Embedding into System Prompt
- Lack of Request Throttling (DoS vulnerability)
- Dozens of successful Prompt Injection Attempts
- Detailed findings and methodology available in full write-up
- Feb 2025 – June 2025: Pwn College V8 Quarterly Quiz
- Completed pwn.college V8 Quarterly Quiz (Username: ziarashid)
- Learned V8 internals including HeapObjects, Maps, Turbofan structure
- Explored compiler architecture including Turbofan’s sea of nodes, feedback vectors, typing
- Studied V8 sandbox fundamentals including pointer compression cage, trusted pointer tables, code pointer tables
- Mastered key exploitation concepts including FakeObject and AddrOf construction and utilization
- Nov 2024 – Present: Compiler & Browser Research
- Implemented custom programming language with LLVM backend for compiler research
- Studied LLVM IR creation and optimization mechanisms, gaining experience in multiple LLVM passes
- Experimented with JavaScript’s V8 engine for exploitation and compiler research
- Studied Chromium codebase and completed custom V8 CTF challenges
- Aug 2024 – Dec 2024: Kernel and OS for Fuzzing & Vulnerability Research
- Built minimalistic operating system and custom kernel designed for fuzz testing with LibAFL’s QEMU mode
- Developed specialized fuzzing harness to detect vulnerabilities in Google’s KVMCTF
- Focused on hypervisor security, guest-to-host escape detection, and virtualized environment weaknesses
Competitions
- CTF Competitions: Created and solved various challenges with ‘Squid Proxy Lovers’ and ‘:’
- Google CTF 2025: 3rd Place
- DEFCON 2025 Quals: 10th Place
- Red/Blue Team Competitions: Competed in defensive cybersecurity events
- Hivestorm 2024 (University of Texas San Antonio)
- UB Lockdown (University of Buffalo)
- IRSEC (RIT)
- Focused on network defense, incident response, and threat mitigation
Skills
- Programming Languages: C++, C, LLVM, JavaScript, Python, x86_64 Assembly, Java, SQL
- Tools & Technologies: LLVM, V8, Turbolizer, IDA, LibAFL, pwntools, BurpSuite, Gen-AI
- Security Research: Vulnerability research, penetration testing, reverse engineering, fuzzing
- Compiler Security: LLVM IR optimization, instruction selection, IR transformations
- Browser Exploitation: V8 engine internals, sandbox bypass techniques, JavaScript exploitation
Publications
coming soon…
Service and leadership
- RITSEC Cybersecurity Club Member
- RIT Wrestling Affiliate
- High School Wrestling Team Captain