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Security Researcher & Penetration Tester

Rakesh Mali.

Staff Engineer @ SonicWall / Bug Bounty Hunter / Ethical Hacker
OSCP CRTP OffSec Wireless 5+ Years
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Rakesh Mali
5+Years
50+Vulns
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Who I Am.

I'm Rakesh Mali — a Security Researcher and Penetration Tester with over 5 years of experience in ethical hacking. I currently serve as a Penetration Testing Staff Engineer at SonicWall, conducting advanced security testing and providing remediation strategies for enterprise network and cloud environments.

Previously at Fortinet, I worked as a Security Researcher performing Web, Mobile, Network, and API penetration testing — with hands-on experience in FortiDAST, external network pentests, REST API reviews, zero-day exploit PoC development in Python, and fuzzer/crawler research.

Beyond my corporate roles, I am an independent security researcher actively hunting bugs on HackerOne, Bugcrowd, and other platforms — responsibly disclosing critical vulnerabilities including account takeovers, OTP bypasses, OAuth misconfigurations, Blind XSS, CSRF exploits, and access token leakage.

I hold OSCP and CRTP certifications, and am also working on a short film focused on hacking and scams to help educate the public about cybersecurity risks.

5+Years Experience
50+Vulns Disclosed
3Certifications
8+Blog Posts

Experience.

Jan 2026 — Present
Penetration Testing Staff Engineer
SonicWall
Working as a Staff Engineer focusing on penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, and securing enterprise network and cloud environments. Conducting advanced security testing and providing remediation strategies across web, API, network, and cloud attack surfaces.
Web App PentestCloud SecurityNetwork AssessmentAPI Security
Mar 2021 — Jan 2026
Security Researcher & Penetration Tester
Fortinet
Skilled hacker with expertise across Web, Mobile, Network, and API penetration testing. Hands-on with FortiDAST for Fortinet product security testing. Conducted external network pentests, REST API security reviews, wrote zero-day exploit PoCs in Python for FortiCART, and engaged in research on fuzzer and crawler enhancements. Also scripted in Lua for Fortinet's scripting engine.
FortiDASTZero-Day ResearchPython ExploitsFuzzingLua Scripting
Ongoing — Independent
🐛
Independent Security Researcher
HackerOne · Bugcrowd · Other Platforms
Independently hunting and responsibly disclosing critical vulnerabilities across major global products. Published detailed writeups on Medium covering OTP bypasses, Blind XSS chains, OAuth misconfigurations, CSRF exploits, host header injection, access token leakage, and full account takeovers.
HackerOneBugcrowdResponsible DisclosureXSSCSRFOAuth

Certifications.

Writing.

HackerOne Bugcrowd Medium

Skills.

Web App Security
API Security Testing
Network Penetration Testing
Mobile App Security
Cloud Security
Wireless Security (OffSec)
FortiDAST
Burp Suite Pro
Python Exploit Dev
Fuzzing & Crawling
Active Directory Attacks
Bug Bounty Hunting
Ethical Hacking
Lua Scripting

Let's Talk
Security.

Whether it's a pentest engagement, security research collaboration, or bug bounty discussion — I'd love to hear from you.