Martin Smolár

Martin Smolár

Malware Researcher


Education? Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

Position and history at ESET? I joined ESET as a Junior Malware Analyst in 2017.

Favorite activities?Spending time with my family and friends, hiking, various sports.

When did you get your first computer and what kind was it? Around 2003.  It was some machine with Windows XP, 128 MB RAM and GeForce 2 graphics card.

Favorite computer game/activity?Counter-Strike 1.6/Global-Offensive, reverse engineering.


6 articles by Martin Smolár

ESET research

Bootkitty: Analyzing the first UEFI bootkit for Linux

Bootkitty: Analyzing the first UEFI bootkit for Linux

ESET research

Bootkitty: Analyzing the first UEFI bootkit for Linux

ESET researchers analyze the first UEFI bootkit designed for Linux systems

Martin Smolár and Peter Strýček27 Nov 202413 min. read


ESET research

BlackLotus UEFI bootkit: Myth confirmed

BlackLotus UEFI bootkit: Myth confirmed

ESET research

BlackLotus UEFI bootkit: Myth confirmed

The first in-the-wild UEFI bootkit bypassing UEFI Secure Boot on fully updated UEFI systems is now a reality

Martin Smolár01 Mar 202333 min. read


ESET research

When "secure" isn't secure at all: High-impact UEFI vulnerabilities discovered in Lenovo consumer laptops

When "secure" isn't secure at all: High-impact UEFI vulnerabilities discovered in Lenovo consumer laptops

ESET research

When "secure" isn't secure at all: High-impact UEFI vulnerabilities discovered in Lenovo consumer laptops

ESET researchers discover multiple vulnerabilities in various Lenovo laptop models that allow an attacker with admin privileges to expose the user to firmware-level malware

Martin Smolár19 Apr 202229 min. read


ESET research

UEFI threats moving to the ESP: Introducing ESPecter bootkit

UEFI threats moving to the ESP: Introducing ESPecter bootkit

ESET research

UEFI threats moving to the ESP: Introducing ESPecter bootkit

ESET research discovers a previously undocumented UEFI bootkit with roots going back all the way to at least 2012

Martin Smolár and Anton Cherepanov05 Oct 202115 min. read


ESET research

Hungry for data, ModPipe backdoor hits POS software used in hospitality sector

Hungry for data, ModPipe backdoor hits POS software used in hospitality sector

ESET research

Hungry for data, ModPipe backdoor hits POS software used in hospitality sector

Backdoor authors show deep knowledge of the targeted POS software, decrypting database passwords from Windows registry values

Martin Smolár12 Nov 202016 min. read


ESET research

No “Game over” for the Winnti Group

No “Game over” for the Winnti Group

ESET research

No “Game over” for the Winnti Group

The notorious APT group continues to play the video game industry with yet another backdoor

Mathieu Tartare and Martin Smolár21 May 202014 min. read