$ whoami

Avishai Gonen

$ cat role.txt

Security enthusiast

$ cat focus.txt

CTFs got me into security and I never grew out of them. I spend my free time on challenge boxes, bug bounty, and reading source until something looks wrong. Occasionally that becomes a CVE. Mostly it just makes me better at this.

About

Portrait of Avishai Gonen

I work on web security: application and API bugs, authentication logic, and the request-handling code that sits in front of everything else. Lately that has meant the servers AI agents talk to, where the same old mistakes keep showing up in new places.

Most of my published work started the same way. Read how something was built, notice an assumption that does not hold, then check whether it actually matters.

I learned this through CTFs rather than coursework. Several hundred challenges across web exploitation, boot2root machines and crypto, all written up as I went.

  • Web & API exploitation
  • Bug bounty
  • CTF
  • AI & MCP tooling security
  • Android application security

Experience

Security Researcher

Pluto Security

May 2026 - Sep 2026 · Tel Aviv District, Israel (On-site)

  • Disclosed 24 CVEs in open-source AI and agent infrastructure, published through vendor and GitHub Security Advisories with public credit.
  • Focused on Model Context Protocol servers: DNS rebinding against local transports, authentication that fails open, and sandbox escapes leading to remote code execution.
  • Built MCP Binder, an open-source lab for reproducing MCP DNS rebinding attacks end to end.

Education

Bachelor of Science - BS, Computer Science

Jerusalem College of Technology

Mar 2018 - May 2024 · Israel · Grade 98

  • Completed the degree during high school.
  • Graduated on the Rector's List.

Vulnerability Research

24 published CVEs, disclosed through GitHub Security Advisories. Each entry links to its advisory and the fixed version; technical writeups are added as each disclosure clears.

CVE-2026-61559 9.6critical

@zereight/mcp-gitlab vulnerable to server-side request forgery

Unvalidated user-controlled URLs in the GitLab MCP server let an attacker make the host issue requests to arbitrary destinations, reaching internal services.

CWE-918
@zereight/mcp-gitlabaffects >= 0.0.1, < 2.1.272026-09-15

Bug Bounty

HackerOne

@avishaigonen

Web application and MCP server vulnerabilities.

YesWeHack

@avishaigonen

Bug bounty across public and private programmes.

Intigriti

@avishaigonen_pluto

Vulnerability research performed through Pluto Security.

Publications

GraphQL Injection

DigitalWhisper Magazine · DW177Magazine

Analysis of GraphQL injection vectors: how introspection and resolver mishandling create exploitable paths, the attack chains that follow, and the real-world weaknesses behind them.

The Notebook Backdoor: jupyter-mcp-server Vulnerabilities

Pluto Security Research2026-08-27Blog

Two CVEs in jupyter-mcp-server chain into a zero-click hijack of any live Jupyter notebook connection.

Vicious Circle: Owning CircleCI's MCP Server With a Filename and a DNS Record

Pluto Security Research2026-07-29Blog

Chaining a filename and a DNS record to take over CircleCI's MCP server.

Projects

MCP Binder

JavaScript

Research framework for turning MCP DNS rebinding into a live attack lab. Scans local MCP servers from a Chrome extension, drives a real DNS rebinding attack through your own VM and DNS zone, captures the MCP session, and operates it from a token-protected dashboard.

mcpdns-rebindingresearch-tooling

Time Side-Channel Attack

C++

Academic project implementing time side-channel attacks: password-verification timing, defeating artificial random delays with statistics, and ECDSA key extraction. Runs against ESP32 and Arduino hardware, with a written report.

side-channelcryptoembedded

WordPress Vulnerability Lab

Python

A Docker-based lab for standing up WordPress with arbitrary plugin sets and versions, so vulnerability research can be reproduced locally against a target you control.

labdockerweb

CTF Writeups

Jekyll2 stars

Writeups across HackTheBox, TryHackMe, OverTheWire, root-me, webhacking.kr, pwnable.kr and more, published as a Jekyll site with its own search.

ctfwriteupsjekyll

Mossad CTF

HTML

A CTF challenge authored during the third year of my BSc, covering network security and exploitation.

ctfauthoring

Telegram News Bot

Python1 stars

Telegram bot that translates and forwards messages between channels.

pythonautomation

Contact

Open to vulnerability research roles, collaboration and disclosure coordination.