Getting into Vulnerability Research
VR can be quite broad, so there's no one size fits all answer. However at their core, the technical skills you need like reverse engineering are all about problem solving, curiosity and lateral thinking. VR can suit people from any educational background, if they can exhibit these skills. Check out our challenges further on to see if you might have some of the soft skills that make for a great vulnerability researcher!
Generally speaking, interviewers will be looking for you to demonstrate knowledge and skills in some of the following:
Reverse engineering and experience with associated tools such as debuggers (e.g. GDB) and disassemblers (e.g. IDA Pro or Binary Ninja).
An understanding of techniques for vulnerability discovery and exploitation, as well as an understanding of different types of vulnerabilities and how they could be mitigated. Example topics include fuzzing, vulnerability classes, and mitigation bypasses
Programming, both to gain an understanding of what code is doing and so you can write your own tools and exploits.
Challenges
Check out our Challenges page. Challenges are designed to see if you enjoy thinking in the way that vulnerability researchers think. They’re meant to be tricky so don’t panic if you can’t find solutions straight away!
Be sure to include the solutions to any challenges you've solved in your application to us!