Applied Vulnerability Research
Applied vulnerability research is original analysis of a technology you are about to depend on. Where a standard assessment checks a system against known issues, research goes after the ones nobody has found yet, in the product you are evaluating, the platform you are building on, or the component you have inherited. Our engineers have identified and disclosed vulnerabilities in widely deployed software under coordinated disclosure.
Security Engineering & Research — practice area
What the engagement covers
Technical analysis of third-party systems prior to adoption or investment.
Products under evaluation
Technology being considered for adoption or investment, analysed to establish what its security posture actually is rather than what its documentation and certifications assert.
Platforms and dependencies
Components your systems already rely on, where a weakness in the dependency becomes a weakness in everything built on top of it.
Proprietary and closed systems
Systems with no source available, analysed through reverse engineering where documentation and vendor assurances are otherwise the only evidence.
Protocols and implementations
Custom or embedded protocol implementations, analysed for the parsing and state-handling flaws that standard tooling has no signature for.
Exploitability analysis
For each weakness found, what it actually takes to reach and use it in your deployment, so a finding is not treated as a risk it is not.
How we do it
Scope is agreed in advance and documented in a statement of work before any work begins.
01
Target and objective definition
We agree the target, the depth of analysis, and what the research is for: an adoption decision, an investment position, or assurance over something already deployed.
02
Analysis
Reverse engineering, source review where it is available, and instrumented testing, directed by the attack surface the target actually presents rather than by a checklist.
03
Reporting and disclosure
Findings are documented with the technical detail needed to confirm them. Where a vulnerability affects a third-party product, coordinated disclosure with the vendor can be handled as part of the engagement.
What you receive
Written so findings can be assigned directly to the teams that will act on them.
Research report
Each weakness found, the analysis that led to it, and the technical detail required to reproduce and confirm it.
Exploitability assessment
What reaching each weakness requires in access, position, and effort, stated so the finding can be weighed against your actual deployment rather than in the abstract.
Decision summary
The research expressed as an answer to the question that prompted it, written for the people making the adoption or investment call rather than for engineers.
Also in Security Engineering & Research
Architecture consultancy and vulnerability research on technologies you depend on.
Security Architecture Review
Design-stage consultancy for engineering teams building new systems.
Frequently asked questions
- How does applied vulnerability research differ from a penetration test?
- A penetration test looks for known classes of vulnerability in a system you operate, within a fixed scope and timeframe. Applied vulnerability research looks for previously unknown vulnerabilities in a technology itself, usually one built by someone else. A test tells you whether your deployment is sound; research tells you whether the thing you are deploying is.
- Can you research a product we do not own or operate?
- Yes, and that is the common case: the product is under evaluation rather than deployed. Analysis works from the artefacts available, including compiled binaries and firmware, and the legal basis and any licence constraints are agreed before work begins.
- What happens if you find a vulnerability in a vendor's product?
- The finding is reported to you first, with the technical detail needed to act on it. Where it affects a third-party product, coordinated disclosure with the vendor can be handled as part of the engagement, on a timeline agreed with you. Our engineers have taken vulnerabilities in widely deployed software through coordinated disclosure to published CVEs.
Scoping this engagement
Send us the systems in scope and the outcome you need. We will respond with a proposed scope, timeline, and commercial terms.
Request a proposal