Hey, I'm Shaheer Yasir, better known in the infosec community as Maverick a 19-year-old Red Team Operator and Offensive Cloud Security Professional based in Pakistan.

if you're reading this and thinking "wait, I didn't even know who you were until right now," cheers to you. Welcome aboard. I'm just another guy in the trenches sharing what I've learned so far, hoping it helps someone else move faster anyways. I'm fully committed to the offensive side emulating advanced adversaries, chaining sophisticated attacks, bypassing modern defenses, and relentlessly evolving my tradecraft. I've been in cybersecurity for nearly 4 years, but a few months ago I made a deliberate shift transitioning from network penetration testing to full-spectrum red teaming. The move felt natural : pentesting gave me strong foundations in finding and exploiting vulnerabilities across networks, systems, and applications, but red teaming opened up the bigger picture persistent operations, stealthy lateral movement, evasion at scale, living-off-the-land techniques, and thinking like a real threat actor over weeks or months, not just scoped engagements. That transition has been fuel. It's pushed me deeper into creative exploitation, cloud compromise chains, and adversary emulation that mirrors nation-state or advanced persistent threats

My Journey & Contributions

Author of Secrets of the Digital Underground Edition 2 (co-authored with Raed Ahsan and Muhammad Ali). The book explores ethical hacking in the age of AI-driven defenses, quantum risks, next-level evasion, and modern red team tactics grounded in real-world assessments and cutting-edge research. Student Mentor at Pwned Labs, focusing on helping people master offensive cloud security (Azure, GCP attacks, identity abuse, CI/CD pipeline exploitation, hybrid environment breaches, and more). Pwned Labs delivers practical, hands-on labs and bootcamps that build real tradecraft for red and blue teams. I guide students through complex scenarios, troubleshoot chains, share evasion insights, and mentor those gearing up for cloud-focused challenges and certifications. Before joining Pwned Labs as a mentor, I worked as a private instructor in Pakistan, running tailored hands-on sessions and personalized guidance for aspiring penetration testers and red teamers. I trained dozens locally often at low or no cost to help build skills and confidence in our community. Creator of open-source tools on GitHub (including ARES an Active Directory Enumeration & Attack Framework). Frequent writer on Medium (@maverickcx64) and InfoSec Write-ups, diving into advanced topics

Active CTF competitor regularly hitting top-10 placements Core obsessions : Windows Internals mastery, out-of-the-box exploitation ideas, offensive Cloud security across major providers, AI Exploitation Adversary simulation, living-off-the-land binaries/techniques, and multi-stage evasion chains.

I hold several respected industry certifications (some already earned, others actively in progress and pending as I continue stacking practical experience and knowledge). I'm not here to claim "expert" status I'm just someone who learns aggressively, applies immediately, fails fast, and iterates harder. I read voraciously 20+ books a month across cybersecurity, history, geopolitics, engineering, philosophy, and beyond. Diverse inputs lead to more creative adaptive attacks. Before cybersecurity dominated my time, I was a dedicated car enthusiast. Still am. i still have some favourite cars hahaha such as Apollo IE, Hennessey Venom F5 and Pininfarina Battista

The Real Motivation

I've caught my share of criticism some sharp, some superficial. But I turn it around : even hate indirectly supports growth. Every piece of feedback, every skeptic, becomes motivation to improve. I thrive on the grind of self-betterment harsh truths cut deeper and faster than compliments and honestly i love em thats why i say "FEED ME MORE" At the centre of everything: I want Pakistan to accelerate in the cyber domain. Our talent is immense driven, innovative, resilient. Through open-source tools, detailed write-ups, private trainings, Pwned Labs cloud mentorship, and sharing whatever I've learned along the way, I'm trying to ignite more progress : more capable red teamers, stronger defenders, bolder voices on the world stage. If even one person breaks through because of something I've put out there, mission accomplished. — Maverick