// cybersecurity researcher

Sooraj
Balasubramaniyan

Penetration Testing · Vulnerability Research · Bug Bounty

I break things to understand how they work, then document what I find. Ranked top 8% on TryHackMe, active bug bounty hunter on HackerOne, and published room contributor. Building offensive security skills one exploit at a time.

Who I Am

I'm a self-taught cybersecurity researcher based in Kerala, India. My journey into security started with a curiosity about how systems fail — and turned into a full commitment to offensive security, vulnerability research, and penetration testing.

With 4+ years in technical support and implementation for US-based SaaS clients, I understand enterprise environments from the inside. Now I apply that knowledge to find and exploit weaknesses in them. I run the Garuda Vault security research brand and create content to make cybersecurity accessible to beginners.

Top 8% TryHackMe Global
88+ Rooms Completed
1 Published THM Room
4+ Years in Tech

What I've Built & Broken

TryHackMe Room

Gone Dark — Linux Forensics Challenge

Authored and published an original beginner-level Linux forensics room on TryHackMe under the Garuda Vault brand. Designed the vulnerable environment from scratch, built the scenario, and wrote guided documentation.

LinuxForensicsTryHackMeGaruda Vault
Bug Bounty

Web Application Security Research

Active bug bounty hunter on HackerOne (garudavault). Conducting web application security assessments on production targets — identifying IDOR vulnerabilities, unauthenticated data exposure, and API misconfigurations.

Burp SuiteHackerOneIDORAPI TestingProjectDiscovery
Incident Response

Malware Recovery & Digital Forensics

Conducted a full infected hard drive recovery for a small business. Performed forensic imaging (dd/gzip), malware scanning with ClamAV (Sality, Pioneer, Ramnit), read-only evidence mounting, drive sanitization, and delivered SOPs.

ClamAVddKali LinuxForensicsSOP Writing
Offensive Security

TryHackMe Attack Chains

Completed advanced rooms including full attack chains: reverse shells, credential brute-forcing, SSRF exploitation, webshell deployment, hash cracking, PAM abuse, PHP cookie forgery, and Python oracle attacks.

Reverse ShellsSSRFPriv EscHash CrackingWireshark

What I Work With

Offensive Security
Penetration Testing Vulnerability Assessment Web App Security Network Exploitation Privilege Escalation Active Directory Attacks OSINT
Tools & Platforms
Burp Suite Nmap Wireshark Nessus Metasploit Wazuh ClamAV Kali Linux ProjectDiscovery Suite
Programming & Scripting
Python C PHP Bash
Systems & Infrastructure
Linux Administration Windows Administration Windows Active Directory Virtual Machines Git / GitHub TCP/IP & Networking

Credentials & Training

Practical Network Penetration Tester (PNPT)
TCM Security
In Progress
Ethical Hacking and Fundamentals
TCM Security
2022
Learn Hacking Through Programming (LAHTP)
Selfmade Ninja Academy
2024
Fundamentals of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
IBM on Coursera
2024
AI Essentials
Intel on Coursera
2024
Introduction to Networking
NVIDIA on Coursera
2024
Introduction to Cybersecurity
Infosys Springboard
2024

Writing & Teaching

Get In Touch

Open to cybersecurity roles, collaboration on security research, or just a conversation about breaking things.

soorajcodes@gmail.com