Chris Valasek is a
computer security
Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...
researcher with
Cruise Automation, a self-driving car startup owned by
GM, and most recently known for his work in automotive security research.
Career
Prior to his current employment, he worked for:
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IOActive
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Coverity
Coverity is a proprietary static code analysis tool from Black Duck, Inc.. This product enables engineers and security teams to find and fix software defects.
Coverity started as an independent software company in 2002 at the Computer Systems L ...
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Accuvant
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IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
Education
Valasek holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
. He currently lives in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
.
Security Research
Microsoft Windows
Valasek has publicly demonstrated many security vulnerabilities, with particular focus on
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
heap exploitation.
His 2009 presentation "Practical Windows XP/2003 Heap Exploitation" at
Black Hat presented a novel approach to gaining elevated access in a Windows environment.
Later research, such as his 2010 paper "Understanding the Low Fragmentation Heap: From Allocation to Exploitation" demonstrated ways to circumvent vendor mitigations to the approaches outlined in his prior work.
Automotive Security
In 2013, he and
Charlie Miller demonstrating a number of attack vectors against
ECUs in automotive control networks. Together with Miller, they have produced a survey of remote attack surfaces in then-current model year automobiles, an important first step in establishing the state of the art of automotive security and safety research.
Summercon
Chris has been involved with the conference as part of the
Summercon planning committee since 2003. He is currently listed as Chairman Emeritus
on the Summercon Organizer page.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Valasek, Chris
Living people
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Computer security specialists
1982 births