Mathias Payer
Research Scientist at EPFL
Lausanne, Vaud, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolMathias Payer is a research scientist and professor leading the HexHive group, with 13 years of experience focused on system and software security, low-level binary rewriting, and memory-corruption defenses. Trained at ETH Zurich (Dr. sc. ETH, 2012) and shaped by a postdoc in Dawn Song’s BitBlaze group, he builds practical defenses that protect applications even when vulnerabilities exist, often via binary translation and software-based fault isolation. He has a hands-on track record of open-source prototype implementations and founded Purdue’s b01lers CTF team, reflecting both deep research and offensive security practice. Based in Lausanne, his work uniquely blends compiler-style code transformations with exploit analysis to enforce integrity for critical data like code pointers. Colleagues know him for turning low-level theory into usable tools and for an unconventional focus on defending live binaries rather than just static code.
13 years of coding experience
Gymnasium LiechtensteinMaster of Science ETH (M.Sc.), Computer Science (System Software), Master of Science ETH (M.Sc.), Computer Science (System Software) at ETH Zurich
Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, German
Stackoverflow
41reputation
5kreached
1answer
1question
Github Skills (100)
computer-science10
science10
kotlin10
bsc10
signal10
ranking10
brainfuck10
react10
x86-649
messenger9
elf9
rewriting9
assembly9
apl9
llvm-ir9
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
HexHive/printbf
Dec 2015 - Mar 2020
Brainfuck interpreter inside printf
Contributions:28 commits, 4 PRs, 19 pushes in 4 years 3 months
brainfuck-interpreterprintfinterpreterbrainfuck
HexHive/thesis_template
Dec 2019 - Jan 2023
Template for EPFL (BSc, MSc, or doctoral) theses and semester projects
Contributions:20 commits, 1 PR, 13 pushes in 3 years 1 month
bsctemplatesemesterthesesepfl
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