royal hacking lab

What royal hacking lab does

Royal Hacking Lab (also referenced as NSE Hacking Lab, NSE Lab, and Cyber Security Lab) is an academic cybersecurity research and education facility operated by the Division of Network and Systems Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska högskolan), a public Swedish university located at Teknikringen 33, 10044 Stockholm. The lab provides hands-on penetration-testing and ethical-hacking infrastructure to KTH bachelor's and master's students conducting thesis projects in cybersecurity, with documented output of 45+ responsibly disclosed CVEs across consumer IoT, smart home, connected vehicle, and industrial control categories. It is led under the supervision of Professor Pontus Johnson and is structured as a government academic institution rather than a commercial entity.

The lab's technical infrastructure spans a WireGuard-based VPN for remote access, Linux and Windows virtual machines hosted on physical servers, an extensive IoT device inventory (smart locks, cameras, garage openers, wearables, connected vehicles, industrial control systems), and professional hardware-hacking tools including HackRF One, Ubertooth One, Flipper Zero, Hak5 Rubber Ducky and Bash Bunny, and SIM Trace v2. It also operates Google's Clusterfuzz fuzzing infrastructure for automated vulnerability discovery and a CVE reporting pipeline that channels student findings into public disclosures. The lab publishes an extensive open documentation set covering wireless, hardware, radio, firmware, fuzzing, and web exploitation methodologies, and has open-sourced the Meta Attack Language (MAL), a domain-specific language for probabilistic attack-graph modeling with companion tooling such as securiCAD.

The lab does not sell products or services and has no commercial revenue model, pricing structure, or external investors. Outreach is conducted through KTH academic channels, a LinkedIn page, an Instagram account (@nsehackinglab), a YouTube channel, a GitHub documentation repository, and a Slack channel for the SSAS student association. Operating scope is European, with a Sweden-domiciled primary presence. The lab received a visit from the Swedish Royal Family in 2020, reflecting its institutional visibility within Sweden.

Name

royal hacking lab

Legal name

KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska högskolan)

Website

https://nse.digital

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Royal Hacking Lab (NSE Hacking Lab) is an academic cybersecurity research facility at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm that provides penetration-testing infrastructure and ethical-hacking resources for bachelor's and master's thesis students, and has produced 45+ CVEs and open-source tools such as MAL.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cybersecurity Research & Education

NAICS

Testing Laboratories and Services (54138), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services (7381)

akta.pro primary industry

Cybersecurity (General) (EDAOAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Penetration Testing & Red Teaming (BPAKAHAF), Cybersecurity (Digital Safety, Ethical Hacking Basics) (EDAMACAH)

Keywords

• Cybersecurity research lab
• IoT security testing
• Ethical hacking education
• Penetration testing research
• Vulnerability discovery

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Royal Hacking Lab (also known as NSE Hacking Lab) is an academic cybersecurity research facility at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm that provides hands-on penetration testing infrastructure, IoT device testing equipment, and ethical hacking educational resources for Bachelor's and Master's thesis students. The lab operates professional-grade hacking tools, virtual machine infrastructure, and a WireGuard VPN to enable supervised security research on consumer IoT devices, smart home products, connected vehicles, and embedded systems.

Product overview

NSE Lab is a cybersecurity research and education laboratory at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. It is not a commercial product company but an academic facility offering hands-on penetration testing infrastructure for students and researchers. The core offering is the Cyber Security Lab, which provides access to IoT device testing equipment (smart locks, cameras, connected vehicles), specialized hacking tools (radio, hardware, and software analysis tools), and a VPN-enabled remote testing environment. Supporting offerings include comprehensive hacking guides covering wireless, hardware, radio, firmware, fuzzing, and web security; published thesis archives documenting previous security research; the Meta Attack Language (MAL) open-source threat modeling tool; and a Clusterfuzz service for automated vulnerability discovery. The lab is part of the Division of Network and Systems Engineering at KTH.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NSE Cyber Security Lab A cybersecurity research and education lab at KTH Royal Institute of Technology providing hands-on penetration testing facilities, equipment, and thesis guidelines for students and researchers conducting ethical hacking research.
• Meta Attack Language (MAL) Open-source domain-specific language and toolset for creating probabilistic attack graphs and attack simulations, including tools like securiCAD for threat modeling.
• Published Theses Repository Collection of completed academic security research theses covering IoT device penetration testing, smart home vulnerabilities, and cybersecurity assessments of connected devices.

Quantifiable outcome

• 45+ CVEs discovered and reported through student research
• +1 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Carnegie Mellon SEI CERT Division: University-affiliated cybersecurity research organization that produces vulnerability research, CERT advisories, and trains cybersecurity talent. Comparable to NSE Lab as an academic research arm producing CVEs, security tooling, and educational programs.
• MITRE Corporation: Not-for-profit that operates federally funded R&D centers including CVE program management and ATT&CK framework. Comparable as a research-driven organization contributing to public cybersecurity knowledge and standards.
• NCC Group: Large global cybersecurity consulting firm offering penetration testing, threat modeling, and security research services. Comparable to NSE Lab's pen testing and vulnerability research focus, but as a commercial incumbent.

Direct peers

• Trail of Bits: Security research and consulting firm known for publishing high-quality security research, open-source tools, and conducting penetration testing. Comparable to NSE Lab in publishing security research and contributing open-source tooling.
• Cure53: Berlin-based security research firm specializing in penetration testing, code audits, and publishing vulnerability research. Comparable to NSE Lab in its research-driven, vulnerability-disclosure-focused culture and European base.
• KU Leuven COSIC: European university research group (KU Leuven) conducting cybersecurity research on IoT, hardware, and applied cryptography with open-source contributions. Comparable to NSE Lab as a European academic cybersecurity research lab with hardware and systems focus.
• ETH Zurich Center for Cyber Security: European university center conducting cybersecurity research and producing trained graduates. Comparable to NSE Lab as a top-tier European technical university cybersecurity research hub producing theses and CVE-class research.

Regional players

• WithSecure (formerly F-Secure): Finnish/Nordic-headquartered cybersecurity firm with research arm publishing vulnerabilities and threat intelligence. Comparable as a Nordics-based organization with strong cybersecurity research heritage and presence in the regional security ecosystem.
• Detectify: Swedish cybersecurity startup founded by researchers, offering attack surface and vulnerability research-driven products. Comparable to NSE Lab as a Swedish cybersecurity research-rooted organization with academic origins.
• Securify: Swedish cybersecurity research and consulting firm with academic roots, working on vulnerability research and threat modeling. Comparable to NSE Lab as a Sweden-based security research organization with academic ties.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/KTH-Cyber-Security-Lab/NSE-lab-documentation
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCyvYS8sVqLlD0NKU-T10-sQ
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/royal-hacking-lab
• Instagraminstagram.com/nsehackinglab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about royal hacking lab