Ilfak Guilfanov

Ilfak Guilfanov (Russian: Ильфак Исмагилович Гильфанов, born 12 november 1966) is a Russian software developer, computer security researcher and blogger. He became well known when he issued a free hotfix for the Windows Metafile vulnerability on 31 December 2005.[1] His unofficial patch was favorably reviewed and widely publicized because no official patch was initially available from Microsoft.[2] Microsoft released an official patch on 5 January 2006.

Guilfanov was born in a small village in the Tatarstan Region of Russia in a Volga Tatar family.

He graduated from Moscow State University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.

He is the systems architect and main developer for IDA Pro[3], which is Hex-Rays' commercial version of the Interactive Disassembler Guilfanov created. A freeware version of this reverse engineering tool is also available.

Actually, he lives in Liège, Belgium.

He worked for DataRescue[4].

In 2005, Guilfanov founded Hex-Rays[5]. In 2020, the income of the company has eclipsed the mark of 20 million euros per year[6].

In 2022, a consortium of investors Smartfin, SFPIM and SRIW acquired Hex-Rays[7] for 81 million euros[8].

  1. ^ Lemos, Robert (February 21, 2006). "Beating Microsoft to the Patch". PC Mag. p. 111.
  2. ^ "GRC | M.I.C.E. Metafile Image Code Execution". Grc.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  3. ^ "Reverse Engineering Malware, Part 3: IDA Pro Introduction – Hackers-Arise". 2023-11-26. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  4. ^ "Madame de Maintenon tells us everything about IDA 9.0, subscriptions, ownership, and her new appearance". hex-rays.com. 2024-10-09. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  5. ^ "About us". hex-rays.com. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  6. ^ "Smartfin led consortium acquires Hex-Rays to accelerate product innovation efforts". Help Net Security. 2022-10-20. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  7. ^ Petrov, Alex (2022-10-19). "A consortium of investors acquires Hex-Rays – Hex Rays". hex-rays.com. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  8. ^ Verduyn, Ludwig (2023-09-29). "NIEUW – Russische Belg Ilfak Guilfanov casht 81 miljoen op Luikse malware specialist". De Rijkste Belgen (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-11-05.