Chris Valasek

Prior to his current employment, he worked for:

• IOActive
• Coverity
• Accuvant
• IBM

Valasek holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from University of Pittsburgh. He currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Valasek has publicly demonstrated many security vulnerabilities, with particular focus on Microsoft Windows heap exploitation.

His 2009 presentation "Practical Windows XP/2003 Heap Exploitation"{{cite journal |last=McDonald |first=John |last2=Valasek |first2=Chris |date=2009-07-25 |title=Practical Windows XP/2003 Heap Exploitation |url=http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-usa-09/MCDONALD/BHUSA09-McDonald-WindowsHeap-PAPER.pdf |journal=Black Hat Briefings |pages=84 |access-date=2017-03-01 |via=Black Hat Briefings}} 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"{{cite journal |last=Valasek |first=Chris |date=2010-07-25 |title=Understanding the Low Fragmentation Heap |url=http://illmatics.com/Understanding_the_LFH.pdf |journal=Illmatics.com |pages=86 |access-date=2017-03-01 |via=Black Hat Briefings}} demonstrated ways to circumvent vendor mitigations to the approaches outlined in his prior work.

In 2013, he and Charlie Miller demonstrating a number of attack vectors against ECUs in automotive control networks.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/|title=Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks--With Me Behind The Wheel (Video)|date=2013-07-24|author=Andy Greenberg|author-link=Andy Greenberg|magazine=Forbes}} 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.{{cite journal |last=Miller |first=Charlie |last2=Valasek |first2=Chris |title=A Survey of Remote Automotive Attack Surfaces |url=http://illmatics.com/remote%20attack%20surfaces.pdf |journal=Black Hat USA 2014 |pages=92 |access-date=2017-03-01 |via=Black Hat Briefings}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2014/08/car-hacking-chart/|title=How Hackable Is Your Car? Consult This Handy Chart|date=2014-08-06|author=Andy Greenberg|magazine=Wired}}

Chris has been involved with the conference as part of the Summercon planning committee since 2003.{{Cite web |title=.:: Phrack Magazine ::. |url=https://phrack.org/issues/68/18 |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=phrack.org |quote=SummerCon enjoyed a stand in Pittsburgh for two years where Redpantz became a member of the planning committee and began to emcee.}} He is currently listed as Chairman Emeritus{{Cite web |title=ORGANIZERS – Summercon |url=https://www.summercon.org/organizers/ |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=www.summercon.org |quote=Chris Valasek Chairman Emeritus}} on the Summercon Organizer page.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/|title=Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It|author=Andy Greenberg|date=2015-07-21|magazine=Wired}}
• {{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/08/jeep-hackers-return-high-speed-steering-acceleration-hacks/|title=The Jeep Hackers Are Back to Prove Car Hacking Can Get Much Worse|author=Andy Greenberg|date=2016-08-01|magazine=Wired}}

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Category:Living people

Category:University of Pittsburgh alumni

Category:Computer security specialists

Category:1982 births