Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher

MIT Lincoln Laboratory•Lexington, MA

5d•$100,200 - $150,000

About The Position

The Cyber System Assessments Group performs software and hardware reverse engineering, vulnerability research and discovery, and system exploitation. We develop and prototype cutting-edge capabilities for our operational partners in the U.S. government. We look for, find, and demonstrate cyber vulnerabilities so that vulnerabilities in U.S. systems can be corrected, and so that vulnerabilities in other systems are better understood. Top U.S. Government leadership relies on us for our expert guidance, and our technical role with our U.S. Government sponsors is considered essential to the success of their missions. When you join our team as a Cyber System Exploitation Researcher, you'll be contributing to the development of cyber security tools and techniques. You'll be reverse engineering and exploiting software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and critical to the defense of our nation. Your main areas of research will include cyber tool prototyping and technical analysis of offensive or defensive cyber tools and systems, automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, software protection mechanisms, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation. Once you’re on our team, you will communicate your research to non-domain experts through your writing, public presentations, and hand-on training sessions.

Requirements

BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related discipline
Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain a Secret level DoD security clearance.
Must be eligible and willing to apply for a Top Secret SCI level DoD security clearance and be able to maintain this clearance level once obtained.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Version Control Systems (Git)
Familiarity with Dissassemblers/Decompilers (Ghidra, IDAPro)
Familiarity with Debuggers (WinDbg, GDB)
Familiarity with Programming Languages (C/C++, Python)
Familiarity with Infrastructure/Container Provisioning/Orchestration Systems (Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker)
Familiarity with Network Protocol Analysis (Wireshark, Tcpdump)
Familiarity with Emulator/Virtualization Technologies (VMWare, QEMU)
Familiarity with Operating System Internals
Familiarity with Reverse Engineering of Embedded Systems Firmware, Malicious Code, Mobile Applications, and More
Familiarity with Vulnerability Assessment
Familiarity with Statistics and Metrics
Familiarity with SAT/SMT Solvers
Familiarity with Symbolic Execution
Familiarity with Data-flow Analysis for Compiled Binaries
Familiarity with Binary Intermediate Representations
Familiarity with Binary Translation
Familiarity with Compiler Construction
Familiarity with Anti-debugging/Anti-instrumentation Techniques
Familiarity with Network and Host Security Products

Responsibilities

Perform software and hardware reverse engineering, vulnerability research and discovery, and system exploitation.
Develop and prototype cutting-edge capabilities for operational partners in the U.S. government.
Look for, find, and demonstrate cyber vulnerabilities.
Contribute to the development of cyber security tools and techniques.
Reverse engineer and exploit software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and critical to the defense of our nation.
Conduct cyber tool prototyping and technical analysis of offensive or defensive cyber tools and systems.
Perform automated vulnerability discovery.
Engage in reverse engineering.
Analyze software protection mechanisms.
Conduct static analysis.
Perform dynamic instrumentation.
Communicate research to non-domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hand-on training sessions.