↓ Skip to main content
Emanuel Mairoll

Emanuel Mairoll

Software Dev // Reverse Engineer // Human

Hello there! My name is Emanuel and I’m based in Zürich, Switzerland.

Currently I’m doing my MSc in Cyber Security at ETH Zürich, while working part-time as a research assistant at the ETH Network Security Group.

I’ve been writing code and hacking stuff for more than a decade. I am into CyberSec, Mobile Development, IoT, Electronics and all other related black magic. Here you can find all about me, and read about stuff I find worth sharing.

Feel free to take a look around!

Recent

IoT Mini Stories
·1507 words·8 mins
IoT Home Assistant ESPHome WLED Shelly
A collection of smaller home automation projects built on open source solutions from others. From magically opening entrance doors to RGB ambience behind every piece of furniture, and a standing desk that obeys Siri.
Mate CTF: The Greatest Birthday Present Ever Made
·1494 words·8 mins
CTF Birthday Hardware Security ESP32 Rowhammer Mate Friendship
My friends built me a custom CTF for my 26th birthday. It had QR codes hidden in birthday cards, physical flags at ETH, and an ESP32 “rowhammer” challenge. A tale of caffeine addiction and hardware security trauma.
HITCON 2025 – IMGC0NV
·2660 words·13 mins
Writeup CTF HITCON 2025 Web Security Python Pickle Polyglot
A writeup about exploiting an image converter service through path traversal and multiprocessing pickle deserialization. The solution required crafting a polyglot file that’s both a valid BMP image and a malicious pickle payload to achieve RCE.
EPFL CS412 CTF – HEAP-MEANU
·2696 words·13 mins
CTF EPFL CS412 Writeup PWN Heap House of Spirits
A writeup for EPFL CS412’s HEAP-MEANU challenge involving heap exploitation through one-byte overflow and constrained brute-force reading. Despite full protections and modern libc 2.39, achieved RCE using a House of Spirits like attack.
Heislberg: The Internet of Toilets
·3120 words·15 mins
IoT ESPHome MQTT Office Automation Toilets Questionable Life Choices
How I used an ESP, Magnets and Kubernetes and to solve the great toilet crisis of 2021. A tale of absolutely necessary workplace optimization.
The Internet of Entrance Doors
·2612 words·13 mins
IoT Home Assistant ESPHome BLE IOS Shortcuts Door Automation
How I taught my apartment’s entrance door to recognize me and open automatically. A surprisingly practical tale of BLE authentication, hidden ESPs, and the occasional accidental door opening while driving by.