Security researcher · nu1lptr
Shengtuo Hu
I read LLVM IR so you don't have to. I feed protocols strange inputs and watch what breaks. I find bugs before they find you. I am a null pointer. Please don't dereference me. Segmentation fault (core dumped). Just kidding. I pop Hack The Box machines on weekends. Still compiling. Ask me again in a minute. My other debugger is a long bike ride. I stay up late for the Milky Way. I check the weather for clouds, not rain. I chase golden hour on the weekends. Some nights I'm fuzzing protocols, others I'm chasing the Milky Way.
At Palo Alto Networks; Ph.D. from Michigan. Program analysis with LLVM, fuzzing, and network protocols.
Writing
2026
Projects
Who am I?
My name is Shengtuo Hu. I am currently working at Palo Alto Networks ByteDance Meta! Earlier on Sep 2022, I obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, supervised by Prof. Z. Morley Mao. Before coming to UMich, in 2016, I received my B.Eng. in Software Engineering from Tongji University in Shanghai, China. After that, I was fortunate to work as a research assistant for Prof. Daniel Xiapu Luo at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
I have a great passion for cybersecurity and have always considered myself a fast learner and a hands-on person. Recently, I am generally interested in program analysis (LLVM), fuzzing, and network protocols (e.g., HTTP/2, HTTP/3, QUIC). During the Ph.D. journey, my main focus is vulnerability discovery and security enhancement regarding distributed and networked systems, like Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV).