Rownak Islam

I am a second year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago, advised by Jason Polakis.

I work on web security and privacy, focusing on how browser and web application mechanisms can be abused to violate trust boundaries and on building practical defenses against these threats. My current work targets native messaging vulnerabilities in Chromium-based browsers, where host-to-browser attack vectors can break through browser isolation in ways that are largely understudied. I am also deeply interested in the security implications of AI agents on the web: how they interact with web infrastructure, how we detect and distinguish agentic behavior from human interaction, and how we harden web applications against them, work that drives our previous research on AgentShield.

Outside of research, I like to read, stroll around Chicago in search of new cafes, and take pictures of whatever catches my eye.