Official website of Uddhav P. Gautam
Uddhav P. Gautam: Linux systems research, observability, and security.
I am Uddhav P. Gautam, a PhD Candidate in Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech and founder of RGR Innovate LLC. This site is the central place for my research profile, publications, software work, technical writing, and contact information.
My work focuses on Linux kernel instrumentation, eBPF observability, Android and IoT security, and software engineering. At Virginia Tech I work with Haining Wang and Randy Marchany, and I also bring more than a decade of mobile and platform engineering experience.
Current track
Kernel tracing overhead and system measurement
Affiliation
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Focus
Kernel, eBPF, security
Software
RGR Innovate LLC
Research agenda
Where the work concentrates
The common theme is straightforward: understand low-level system behavior, measure it carefully, and improve it without ignoring overhead or deployment constraints.
Computer Security
System and platform security work across Android, Linux, IoT, and defensive instrumentation.
eBPF and Linux Kernel
Kernel tracing, observability, benchmarking, and overhead-aware instrumentation using eBPF.
Embedded and IoT Security
Applied systems work grounded in careful measurement and solid engineering.
Bluetooth Low Energy Security
Applied systems work grounded in careful measurement and solid engineering.
System Performance
Performance analysis, bottleneck discovery, and runtime tuning guided by measurement.
Network Security
Security analysis for networking paths, protocols, and connected devices.
Current work
Current projects
ZeroDown
A zero-downtime IoT policy enforcement framework for MCU-class devices with OTA policy updates, runtime toggling, and embedded uBPF execution.
ActiveBlueSentry
An application-layer BLE security framework combining FSM enforcement and runtime eBPF policies for embedded-device threat detection.
ActiveeBPF tracing overhead analysis
Kernel observability work on reducing tracing overhead and improving measurement quality under real workloads.
Published and ongoingKernel protobuf firewall prototypes
Application-layer firewall and protobuf parsing work in the Linux kernel using custom kfunc support and TC-based enforcement.
PrototypeResearch-to-product engineering
Through RGR Innovate LLC, I also build and maintain software around selected ideas, with attention to reliability, usability, and security.
Applied systemsRecent updates
Selected highlights
Submitted manuscript: ZeroDown, a zero-downtime IoT policy enforcement framework for MCU-class devices
Manuscript update: BlueSentry, a runtime eBPF policy framework for BLE security on embedded devices
1st place Complete Societal Award, UA Little Rock (2017)
1st place Societal Impact Award, UA Little Rock (2017)
2nd place Personal Achievement Award, UA Little Rock (2017)
Latest writing
Implementation notes, systems lessons, and technical walkthroughs
September 05, 2025
Software Design & Quality
Software Design and Quality Software Design and Quality Assignments Software Quality Attributes Robert Glass does not include all of the quality attributes that are in...
Read articleFebruary 12, 2025
PID Reuse Can Cause Supervisor Confusion
The power of pidfd PID Reuse Can Cause Supervisor Confusion In a traditional PID-based system, the supervisor tracks processes by their PID, leading to potential race ...
Read articleFebruary 09, 2025
List All Tracepoints of Your System
List all tracepoints of your system From inside qemu, start a python based webserver, go to qemu, make qemu-run root@q:/linux-dev-env# python3 -m http.server 52223 --d...
Read articleCollaboration
Interested in research, software work, or collaboration?
A good place to start is the research page, then publications, software, and writing.