Vadim BelousVadim Belous

Comfortable across Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Gentoo GNU/Linux, Arch Linux, including Russian government-certified distros (RedOS, AltLinux, Astra Linux). During a red team engagement I also built my own distribution from scratch for an embedded system required to operate in an air-gapped environment. Fairly proficient on the command line (awk, sed, jq, yq, nroff). I study Linux systems programming from the books by Michael Kerrisk and Kaiwan N. Billimoria. I work with qemu, gdb, pwndbg, strace, ltrace, pwntools, lief, and debug the kernel (kernel debugging), kernel modules and user-space programs. I've had experience writing USB device drivers in Python.

I build production-grade pipelines (CI/CD/CD) from scratch in GitLab and Jenkins. In my work I apply SSDLC (Secure Software Development Lifecycle), Progressive Delivery (blue-green, canary), Infrastructure as Code, Policy as Code, Compliance as Code and Diagrams as Code (for architecture diagrams). I have strong command of Linux, Systemd, Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Helm, Kustomize, Vault, Nexus, OpenSearch, Proxmox, Nginx, Prometheus, Grafana, Terraform, S3 (MinIO, Garage), LocalStack, including the security tools I use as part of DevSecOps practices. I automate routine tasks with Python (Paramiko, httpx, Selenium, Appium). I regularly refresh my knowledge and study new tooling. I share my accumulated security expertise with colleagues.

Completed the full PortSwigger Web Security Academy, earned the BSCP certification, and finished the WAPT (Web Application Penetration Testing) course by Codeby. I have commercial experience testing web and mobile applications in both black-box and white-box modes. I use third-party tooling and write my own Python tools and scripts to automate attacks and demonstrate impact. In my free time I solve HackTheBox challenges in the Web and Mobile categories, plus exercises on PentesterLab.

Experienced with DevSecOps practices such as Container Security, Shift Left, Secure by Default and Zero Trust. I perform thorough hardening of Linux, web servers, container environments, databases and mobile devices, and integrate SAST, Secret Scan, SCA, DAST and ASPM tooling into pipelines. Bring extensive experience conducting infrastructure security audits and producing detailed reports.

I desolder flash-memory chips (I have a Quick SMD Rework Station 2008) and obtain firmware by dumping it or intercepting OTA updates. On production devices I have experience bypassing firmware integrity checks, kernel integrity checks and kernel-module loading restrictions. I have also decrypted an encrypted root partition protected by software that derives the decryption key from unique hardware identifiers. I emulated the obtained firmware with qemu, debugged it, and found misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. I also reverse-engineered proprietary components (executables, libraries, kernel modules). I have experience with a logic analyzer and SDR.

With Frida, Renef and LSPosed hooks I bypass SSL Pinning and RASP checks such as Anti-Tampering, Anti-root/Anti-Jailbreak and Anti-Emulator. I have expertise in reverse engineering Flutter apps and rootless debugging via gadget injection into the APK. To achieve the goals above I actively use Apktool, Apkleaks, MobSF, Jadx, ByteCodeViewer, PCAPdroid, Proxyman, mitmproxy, Burp Suite Pro, Caido, reFlutter, blutter, Ghidra, Frida Gadget, Renef Gadget and LIEF. When testing mobile apps I follow the OWASP MASTG methodology.