About Me

I'm a passionate security researcher @CrowdStrike working on intelligence gathering techniques for Internet-facing web assets. Previously, I was part of the AppSec team @CISPA. I completed my PhD in computer science from Saarland University, where I graduated with the highest praise. I am interested in the broad intersection of web security, program analysis (SAST/DAST) and AI, particularly agentic crawlers, application scanning, and client-side / browser security.

Want to know more? Check out my public projects on GitHub or my recent publications.
Publications

2025
- In the DOM We Trust: Exploring the Hidden Dangers of Reading from the DOM on the Web, ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), Taipei, Taiwan, October 2025.
- Permission Rationales in the Web Ecosystem: An Exploration of Rationale Text and Design Patterns, International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Yokohama, Japan, April 2025.
- Exploration of the Dynamics of Buy and Sale of Social Media Accounts, ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Oct 28-31, 2025.
- Do (Not) Follow the White Rabbit: Challenging the Myth of Harmless Open Redirection, Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium, CA, USA, Feb 24-28, 2025.
- YuraScanner: Leveraging LLMs for Task-driven Web App Scanning, Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium, CA, USA, Feb 24-28, 2025.
- CHARON: Polyglot Code Analysis for Detecting Vulnerabilities in Scripting Languages Native Extensions, 10th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, Venice, July 2025.
2024
- The Great Request Robbery: An Empirical Study of Client-side Request Hijacking Vulnerabilities on the Web, 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P'24), CA, USA, May 20-23, 2024.
2023
- It's (DOM) Clobbering Time: Attack Techniques, Prevalence, and Defenses, 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P'23), CA, USA, May 23-26, 2023.
2022
- The State of the SameSite: Studying the Usage, Effectiveness, and Adequacy of SameSite Cookies, 43rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P'22), CA, USA, May 22-26, 2022.
2021
- Where We Stand (or Fall): An Analysis of CSRF Defenses in Web Frameworks, 24th International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions and Defenses (RAID'21), San Sebastian, Spain, October 6-8, 2021.
- JAW: Studying Client-side CSRF with Hybrid Property Graphs and Declarative Traversals, 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'21), Virtual Event, August 2021.
2020
- Cross-Origin State Inference (COSI) Attacks: Leaking Website States through XS-Leaks, The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS'20), San Diego, California, February 2020.
Community Services

- Program Committee
- Artifact Evaluation Committee
- Web Chair
- External Reviewer
  • IEEE S&P (2023, 2022)
  • Usenix Security (2022, 2021, 2020)
  • IEEE Euro S&P (2022, 2020)
  • ACSAC (2022, 2021)
  • WebConf (2021, 2020)
  • ACM TOSEM (2022)
  • Asia CCS (2022, 2020)
  • DIMVA (2020) [ Link]
- Hiring Committee
  • CISPA hiring committee 2020
Personal Projects

CHARON polyglot static analysis engine logo
CHARON is polyglot static analysis engine for detecting vulnerabilities in scripting languages native extensions.

STORK open redirect vulnerability framework logo
STORK is a framework that includes a comprehensive catalog of vulnerability indicators for open redirects. It can search indicator patterns in public sources, such as Internet Archive and Google Dorks.

DOMC-BT DOM Clobbering browser testing platform logo
DOMC-BT is an open-source browser testing platform for DOM Clobbering. The repository also hosts an attack payload generation service and a wiki containing clobbering techniques and defenses.

TheThing DOM Clobbering static-dynamic analysis tool logo
TheThing is a static-dynamic security analysis tool for the detection of DOM clobbering vulnerabilities. TheThing can be used for analyzing the client-side of web applications.

SameSite-WIKI SameSite cookies wiki logo
SameSite-WIKI is an online service with all you need to about the adequacy and effectiveness of SameSite policies against XS attacks, like CSRF and XS-Leaks.

JAW client-side CSRF analysis framework logo
JAW is a hybrid, scalable framework to analyze client-side JavaScript programs for the detection of client-side CSRF vulnerabilities. JAW can be used to conduct interactive and exploratory analysis of JavaScript code.

Basta-COSI cross-site information leakage detection framework logo
Basta-COSI is a framework for detecting cross-site information leakage vulnerabilities (XS-Leaks). It is released as a part of the ElasTest Security Service (ESS).
Selected Talks

- Breaking the Web’s Invisible Walls: Studying Emerging Client-Side Vulnerabilities at Scale
TU Wien CySec Center, Vienna, Oct 2024.
- Arrive at the New by Revisiting the Old, Interview Podcast, KASTEL
Scholarly Communication (Episode 221) , Dec, 2024.
- Security Testing at Scale: Studying Emerging Client-side Vulnerabilities in the Modern Web
EPFL SuRI, Switzerland, July 2024.
- In the Same Site We Trust: Navigating the Landscape of Client-side Request Hijacking on the Web
@OWASP Global AppSec'24, Lisbon, June 2024.
- The Great Request Robbery: An Empirical Study of Client-side Request Hijacking Vulnerabilities on the Web
@IEEE S&P'24, San Francisco, May 2024.
- It's (DOM) Clobbering Time: Attack Techniques, Prevalence, and Defenses
@IEEE S&P'23, San Francisco, May 2023.
- Everything You Wanted to Know About DOM Clobbering (But Were Afraid to Ask)
RuhrSec, Bochum, May 2023.
- TESTABLE: Testability Pattern-driven Web Application Security and Privacy Testing
@Projects to Policy Seminar, Brussels, June 2022.
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Client-side CSRF (But Were Afraid to Ask)
@OWASP AppSec EU, June 2022.
- The State of the SameSite: Studying the Usage, Effectiveness, and Adequacy of SameSite Cookies
@IEEE S&P'22, May 2022.
- Where We Stand (or Fall): An Analysis of CSRF Defenses in Web Frameworks
@RAID'21, Oct 2021.
- JAW: Studying Client-side CSRF with Hybrid Property Graphs and Declarative Traversals
@USENIX Security'21, Aug 2021.
- JAW: Client-side CSRF (extended version)
@Stanford SecLunch, Stanford University, Feb 2021.
- A Framework for Testing Web Applications for Cross-Origin State Inference (COSI) Attacks
@Polytechnic University of Madrid, June 2019.
- From Zero to Hero: Everthing about Nova and OpenStack Instance Migrations, IUST Cloud Computing Center
@University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Jan 2017.
- Mastering Web Development with Laravel 5, Hackathon Talk
@University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Feb 2016.
- Heuristic Search: Where We Try to Choose Smartly
@University of Science and Technology, Tehran, May 2014.
Media Coverage

- Arrive at the New by Revisiting the Old, Interview Podcast, KASTEL
Scholarly Communication (Episode 221) , Dec, 2024.
- Request Forgery: In the SameSite We Trust, Interview Podcast, OWASP Global AppSec Lison, Portugal
ITSP Magazine, Episode 79, June, 2024.
- Under the Radar, Interview with
CISPA Corporate Communications , Dec, 2022.
- It's All About Who's Asking? Interview with
CISPA Corporate Communications , Aug, 2021.
- SameSite Cookies: Are We on the Same Site? Interview with
CISPA Corporate Communications , Aug, 2021.
Education

- [Aug 2019 - Aug 2024] PhD on Computer Science, Saarland University (Germany). [ Thesis]
- [Sept 2017 - July 2019] Double MSc. on Computer Science - Erasmus, UPM - TUK (Germany/Spain).
- [Sept 2013 - July 2017] BSc. on Software Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology.
Professional Experience

- [Nov 2024 - Present] Senior Engineer - Security Research @CrowdStrike, Germany. [ Webpage]
- [Aug 2019 - Nov 2024] Security Researcher @CISPA, Saarland. [ Webpage]
- [Sept. 2018 - Aug 2019] Security Intern R&D @IMDEA Software, Madrid. [ Webpage]
- [Sept. 2018 - July 2019] Full Stack Web Developer, @Brooktec, Madrid. [ Webpage]
Security Advisories

2025

- OBB-4009615 [ Link]

- OBB-4009613 [ Link]

- OBB-4009612 [ Link]

- OBB-4009610 [ Link]

- OBB-4009609 [ Link]

2023

- Made it to MSRC 2023 Q2 Leaderboard, Microsoft Security, July 2023 [ Link]

- Reported XSS Vulnerability in Microsoft Azure (MSRC-79059 VULN-097970), Acknowledgement Entry: 31 May 2023 (3,000$ Bounty) [ Link]

- Created OWASP DOM Clobbering Prevention Cheat Sheet [ Link]

2022

- W3C proposal for an opt-in CSP / feature policy flag to disable DOM Clobbering [ Link]

- OWASP CheatsheetSeries: Contributions to CSRF and XS-Leaks cheat sheets [ Link 1] [ Link 2]

- Disclosed DOM Clobbering exploits for 44 popular websites, including:
  • GitHub, Trello, Fandom, Vimeo, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, WikiBooks and AliExpress [ Link]
  • Arbitrary client-side code execution, request forgery and open redirects

- DOMPurify sanitizer: added patch for DOM Clobbering protection via SANITIZE_NAMED_PROPS config [ Link]

2021

- Large-scale notification campaign to 11,418 websites with the assistance of the national CSIRT (Germany):
  • insecure usage of SameSite cookie policy that could lead to pervasive monitoring and isolation policy downgrades [ Link]
- Reported a widespread Single Sign-On IdP abuse to bypass SameSite cookies leveraging Lax+POST
  • Google, Facebook, Linkedin, GitHub, Microsoft, and VK [ Link]

- Disclosed RFC violations of SameSite cookie behaviours in same-site and cross-site request context to browser vendors [ Link]

- Reported multiple CSRFs by forging state-chaning POST and replaying GET requests
  • PayPal, IMDB, Fandom, iLovePDF, Mailchimp, Brilio, Pixiv, and Meetup [ Link]
- User deanonymization XS-Leaks in eight popular websites leveraging window properties and postMessage side-channel leaks
  • Blogger, Tumblr, Twitch, AliExpress, Office365, Tokopedia, Ebay, and SoundCloud [ Link]
- Disclosed SSC inter/intra page inconsistency security risks and misconfigurations to multiple high-profile websites:
  • GitHub, CNN, Yahoo, Office365, and Vimeo[ Link]

- Critical CSRF validation vulnerabilities in CakePHP (v4.0), Vert.x-Web (v4.0.1), and Play (v2.8.1) web frameworks [ Link]

2020

- Reported client-side CSRF vulnerabilities in seven stand-alone web applications of the Bitnami Catalog
  • Kibana, SuiteCRM, SugarCRM, Shopware, Odoo, Neos, and Modx [ Link]

- Reported reflected XSS vulnerability in Modx 2.7.3 [ Link]

2019

- Multiple XS-Leak attack vectors on 58 high-profile sites of the Alexa top 500, e.g,:
  • Imgur: User deanonymization XS-Leak [ Link]
  • Amazon: user state leakage via JS errors thrown on DOM window object and CSP violations [ Link]
  • HotCRP: reviewer deanonymization via events fired XS-Leak based on HTTP status code [ Link]
  • Linkedin: user deanonymization based on frame count and CSP violations XS-Leak [ Link]
  • Pinterest: SSO detection via CSP XS-Leak [ Link]
  • IMDB: deanonymize celebrity accounts via the URL account handle and the events XS-Leak [ Link]
Academic Service

- Advisor, CySec Projects, Saarland University.
  • Summer 2021, Multi-Container Crawling SaaS for Security Testing. [ Webpage]
  • Winter 2020/2021, Static Analysis and Detection of Client-side Vulnerabilities. [ Webpage]
  • Summer 2020, Studying the Robustness of Client-side HTML Sanitizers. [ Webpage]
- Advisor, BSc. Thesis, Detecting Client-Side XSS via Code Property Graphs, Saarland University, Summer 2021 [ Webpage]
- Advisor, Seminar, Joint Advances in Web Security, Saarland University.
  • Winter 2021/2022, Cross-Site Leaks and CSRF Topics. [ Webpage]
  • Winter 2019/2020, postMessage Communications in Web. [ Webpage]
- Web Chair, Secure Web Developments (Dr. Giancarlo Pellegrino), Saarland University.
- Teaching Assistant, Microprocessor and Assembly (Dr. Peyman Kabiri), Iran University Of Science and Technology
Volunteer Experience

- EMA Member, Erasmus Mundus Association, Germany, August 2017. [ Webpage]
- ACM Professional Member, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, October 2021.
[ Certificate] [ Webpage]
- Inspiring Career Talk, Great Leaders Trust Themselves...And You. @UPM, Madrid, Nov 2018.
[ Slides]
Honors & Awards

- Distinguished paper award, EuroSP'25, Venice, Italy, July 2025. [ Webpage] [ Certificate]
- Best paper award, SIG CHI 2025, Yokohama, Japan, April 2025. [ Webpage] [ Certificate]
- Distinguished paper award, IEEE S&P 2024, San Francisco, May 2024. [ Webpage]
- Accomplished 2nd place at CSAW'23 Europe Applied Research Competition, Grenoble INP - Esisar, Valence, France, Nov 2023. [ Webpage]
- Distinguished paper award, IEEE S&P 2023, San Francisco, May 2023. [ Webpage]
- Best MSc. thesis award, EMSE, Polytechnic University of Madrid, 2019. [ Webpage]
- Been awarded the prestigious Erasmus Mundus scholarship for academic excellence, Italy, 2017. [ Webpage]
- Selected in IR2017 Special Talents Framework, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, 2017. [ Webpage]
- Nominated, selected and awarded as an outstanding BSc. student of 2013-2017 for 4 consecutive years, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, 2013-2017.
- Placed in top 1% of the highly competitive nation-wide university entrance exam, Tehran, 2013.