Sidharth M

Sidharth M

Cybersecurity Researcher & Web Application Penetration Tester

sidharthmannikoth@gmail.com·Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
linkedin.com/in/msidharth·github.com/ERROR-SIDDH·5idharth.pages.dev

Summary

Cybersecurity professional pursuing BTech in CS&E (Cybersecurity) at VIT Chennai. Experienced in web application penetration testing (VAPT), network security, firewall hardening, and cloud-native threat research. Government-level security intern at Cyber Dome, Kerala Police. Published in 3 peer-reviewed journals & books. Vice Chair at ACM VIT Chennai. Proficient in OWASP Top 10, Burp Suite, Nessus, Nmap, Kali Linux, Docker, OPNsense, and CIS Benchmark compliance.

Education

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Chennai2024 – 2028

BTech — Computer Science & Engineering (Cybersecurity)

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Experience

Cyber Dome, Kerala PoliceMay 2025 – Present

Kozhikode, Kerala, India · Government Cybersecurity Division

Community VolunteerAug 2025 – Present
  • Continued contributions to cybersecurity threat analysis, community security awareness programs, and operational security support.
Security InternMay 2025 – Jul 2025 (3 months)
  • Performed phishing campaign analysis — mapped attacker TTPs, identified malicious infrastructure, and contributed to threat detection improvements.
  • Deployed and configured OPNsense next-generation firewalls; documented firewall rule bypass techniques for internal red-team research.
  • Supported red teaming exercises and network reconnaissance to identify security gaps.
ACM VIT Chennai2024 – Present

VIT Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Vice ChairOct 2025 – Present
  • Elected Vice Chair; lead chapter strategy, manage website security posture, and oversee technical operations for a 200+ member student tech community.
Membership Chair & Web Lead2024 – Oct 2025
  • Managed and hardened the ACM VIT Chennai website; led technical event operations and membership onboarding.
VIT Chennai — SCOPE (SRIP 2025)May – Jul 2025

Research Intern

Supervisor: Dr. T. Subbulakshmi · VIT Chennai

  • Built a comprehensive cloud-native attack dataset and ML categorization model to classify cloud security threats.
  • Bridged threat intelligence with machine learning; research culminated in a peer-reviewed IJCNC publication.

Publications

Analysis and Visualization of Cloud Native Attacks in a Secure Testbed2026

Subbulakshmi T, Adithyan P, Sidharth M, Arun Santhosh R A

International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications (IJCNC), Vol. 18, No. 2 · aircconline.com

Setting Up A Security Testbed In Windows Using DockerJul 2025

T. Subbulakshmi, Aditya Kushwaha, Sidharth M

Open Source For You (OSFY) Magazine · opensourceforu.com

Next Generation Firewall: A Comprehensive Analysis and Practical ApplicationsBook Chapter

Brindha Subburaj, Subbulakshmi T, Sidharth M

IGI Global · igi-global.com

  • In-depth technical exploration of NGFW architectures, deep packet inspection, and enterprise deployment strategies.

Projects

EchoVault: Real-Time Transcription Service2026

Docs: error-siddh.github.io

  • Built EchoVault, a full-stack real-time transcription system that captures live microphone audio, performs on-device AI transcription, and streams results to a collaborative web dashboard.
  • Engineered a modular Python + FastAPI backend with WebSocket telemetry (mic levels, CPU/RAM/GPU stats, model loading state), robust audio resampling pipeline, and REST-based control plane for production-style operability.
  • Integrated multi-model AI pipeline: faster-whisper for speech-to-text, ECAPA-TDNN for speaker footprinting, and Qwen 0.5B for offline meeting summarization with post-session assistant workflow.
  • Developed a modern Next.js 15 + React 19 frontend with real-time transcript feed (WebSockets/SSE), room-based live updates, and MongoDB-backed stateless memory to preserve transcript context across backend restarts.
  • Technologies: Python, FastAPI, faster-whisper, ECAPA-TDNN, Qwen, WebSockets, SSE, Next.js, React, Tailwind CSS, ShadCN, MongoDB, Linux, NVIDIA GPU telemetry (nvidia-smi), psutil, librosa.
CIS Benchmark Hardening Toolkit — Level 12025 – 2026

Docs: error-siddh.github.io

  • Modular Bash toolkit implementing CIS Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Level 1 hardening across authentication, SSH, filesystem, kernel/network sysctl, logging, firewall (UFW + iptables), AppArmor, and sudo controls.
  • Firewall module implements defence-in-depth: SSH brute-force rate limiting, anti-spoofing (RFC 1918 drops), scan protection (NULL/XMAS/FIN/non-SYN drops), ICMP hardening, and strict outbound allowlist.
  • Compliance validator runs 73 CIS controls, generating PASS/FAIL/WARN HTML dashboard — achieved 73% compliance score (54 PASS) with auto-rollback on failure.
  • Technologies: Bash, UFW, iptables, auditd, rsyslog, AppArmor, Linux (Ubuntu 22.04).
AEGIS ExamLab — Secure Proctored Exam Platform2025

GitHub: github.com/ERROR-SIDDH/AEGIS · Docs: error-siddh.github.io/AEGIS/ · Live: aegis-gules.vercel.app

  • Production-ready, open-source examination management platform built on Next.js 14 + MongoDB; deployed via Docker on Vercel.
  • Enforced 5-point server-side validation chain: PC approval → student mapping → exam assignment → status check → duplicate submission guard.
  • AI-powered question bank using Google Genkit (Gemini) — auto-classifies difficulty, generates semantic tags, supports LaTeX and code rendering.
  • Real-time PC telemetry: heartbeat polling every 15 seconds with liveStatus tracking (Online → Attempting → Finished); full admin audit logging.
  • Technologies: Next.js 14, TypeScript, MongoDB, Google Genkit, Docker, Tailwind CSS, Vercel.
DDoS Visual Forensic Analysis2022

Docs: error-siddh.github.io

  • Conducted comprehensive forensic analysis of a volumetric UDP flood attack (152k+ PPS) targeting a FiveM gameserver.
  • Stream-parsed and analyzed over 18.3 million packets from raw binary PCAP data using Python (dpkt).
  • Developed an automated data pipeline to compute traffic metrics, detect IP spoofing through TTL analysis, and perform geo-enrichment via MaxMind GeoLite2.
  • Created interactive visual synthesis using Plotly and Folium to map global botnet distribution, attack origin clusters, and temporal protocol shifts.
  • Technologies: Python, PCAP analysis, dpkt, MaxMind GeoLite2, Plotly, Folium.

Skills

Security disciplines
Web Application Penetration Testing (WAPT/VAPT), Network Penetration Testing, Red Teaming, Phishing Analysis, OSINT, Threat Detection, Threat Intelligence, Firewall Bypass, Network Reconnaissance, Attack Simulation, Zero Trust, CIS Benchmark Compliance, Linux Hardening, Information Security.
Security tools
Burp Suite, Nessus, Nmap, Wireshark, TCPDump, Hydra, VirusTotal, Kali Linux, Fortinet, OPNsense, UFW, iptables, auditd, AppArmor, Cisco Packet Tracer.
Frameworks & standards
OWASP Top 10, OWASP Testing Guide, CIS Benchmarks (L1), Zero Trust Architecture, Site-to-Site VPN, SSH Hardening.
Development
Python, C, C++, SQL/MySQL, Bash, TypeScript, Next.js, MongoDB, Flask, Nginx, Docker, Git, Cloudflare.
OS & platforms
Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Windows, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages.

Credentials