Malware Analysis Intern - Summer 2027

Carnegie Mellon University•Pittsburgh, PA

14h•Onsite

About The Position

The Malware Analysis Intern will work within the Threat Analysis Directorate of CERT, collaborating with security experts focused on analyzing, assuring, and countering software systems in support of national security. The intern will assist the Malware Analysis Team and develop tools to automate malware analysis. The work involves researching and analyzing complex problems using AI and traditional reverse-engineering methods, analyzing malware samples and families, and developing tools to help responders address sophisticated and novel threats. The role contributes to tool development and automation, malware analysis and reverse-engineering capability development, program analysis research, and emerging-threat analysis. It is based onsite at Carnegie Mellon University's Pittsburgh office five days per week.

Requirements

Be enrolled in a degree-granting program.
Be willing to travel to various locations to support the SEI's mission, including within the SEI and CMU community.
Be eligible to work in the United States without visa sponsorship and be subject to a background check.
Have the ability to think critically and solve problems.
Be familiar with a low-level programming language such as C or C++.
Be familiar with a scripting language such as Python.
Have basic knowledge of common cybersecurity tools, such as system and network monitoring tools (e.g., Microsoft Sysinternals).
Be able to collaborate internally and externally with professional engineers and researchers.
Be willing to learn new technologies with cross-functional teams.
Be organized and detail-oriented, with the capacity to clearly document and communicate findings.

Nice To Haves

Experience with static binary or malware analysis.
Experience with technical writing.
Research experience.
Experience with debugging.

Responsibilities

Assist members of the Malware Analysis Team.
Develop tools that drive automation in the malware analysis process.
Research and analyze complex problems using AI and traditional reverse-engineering methods.
Analyze malware samples or families to understand them thoroughly.
Develop tools to help responders address sophisticated, novel threats.
Contribute to tool development and automation, malware analysis and reverse-engineering capability development, program analysis research, and emerging-threat analysis.
Perform binary analysis using reverse-engineering tools such as Ghidra and IDA Pro across a variety of microprocessor architectures.
Develop scripts and tools to automatically extract key indicators.
Design and prototype new analysis tools.
Analyze and document complex security threats.