About the Job: The company is a publicly funded research institute located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The institute is home to a diverse community of leading scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and researchers from around the globe, dedicated to transforming challenges into pioneering research and technology prototypes that advance society. This role is part of the company’s Cryptography Labs Hardware team.
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Key Responsibilities:
- Conduct hardware and firmware security assessments, utilizing both physical and logical attack techniques to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.
- Perform memory extraction from Flash, EEPROM, NOR/NAND, or other storage devices.
- Reverse engineer firmware and binaries using tools such as Ghidra, IDA Pro, Binary Ninja, or radare2 to uncover security weaknesses.
- Implement and automate custom test benches and toolchains for HW/SW analysis.
- Execute and analyze side-channel attacks (CPA, DPA, EM, timing, TVLA) and fault injection campaigns (voltage glitching, EMFI, laser) on embedded targets.
- Analyze secure boot, cryptographic primitives, and firmware protection mechanisms to identify design and implementation weaknesses.
- Interface with embedded systems through JTAG, SWD, UART, SPI, and similar debugging or communication protocols.
- Deliver clear, well-documented technical reports.
Required Qualifications:
- At least 5 years of hands-on experience in hardware or embedded system security, covering both physical and logical attack surfaces.
- Proven experience in performing firmware extraction and analysis (memory dumping, patching, and reconstruction).
- Familiarity with side-channel analysis and/or fault injection techniques (voltage glitching, EMFI, laser, etc.), and commercial platforms, such as ChipWhisperer or Riscure Inspector.
- Strong understanding of applied cryptography, secure protocol design, and embedded crypto implementations.
- Experience with embedded systems (ARM Cortex-M, RISC-V, STM32) and debugging interfaces (JTAG, SWD, UART, SPI).
- Advanced programming skills in Python, C, and assembly for hardware interfacing, and proficiency in Linux environments with build systems, cross-compilation, and version control (git).
- Solid knowledge of lab instrumentation such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, pulse generators, and reverse engineering tools and techniques (Ghidra, IDA Pro, Binary Ninja, radare2, ARM/RISC-V disassembly).
The company is committed to helping society overcome its biggest challenges through a rigorous approach to scientific discovery and inquiry, utilizing state-of-the-art facilities and collaboration with leading international institutions. Join us in forging new and disruptive breakthroughs across various fields including AI, advanced materials, autonomous robotics, cryptography, digital security, directed energy, quantum computing, and secure systems.
