| Course Description/Topics | Lecture Notes | Grading | Class Hours |
| Important Dates | Instructor and TA | Texts | Special needs |
In the class, we will discuss the principles and practice of computer system security. We will not address network security in this course, since it is the topic of CSE 508.
The first objective of this course is to provide a broad overview of issues and approaches in building and administering secure systems. The second objective of this course is to expose students to some of the latest research in computer and software security. This course is thus ideal for any one considering research or a career in cyber security.
Students seeking a career in software development should be aware that the vast majority of security problems today can be traced to software vulnerabilities. This course will help you understand the nature of the threats posed by these vulnerabilities, and ways to mitigate them. A survey of software vulnerabilities, and more generally, cyber threats, can be found by clicking on the links for the first one or two topics in the course.
The course will consist of two parts, the first of which will last about 4 to 5 weeks. The rough list of topics covered within each part is given below.
Part I. Foundations
- Cryptographic foundations
- Identification and Authentication: passwords, biometrics, ...
- Authorization and Access control: ACLs, capabilities, MLS, DTE, RBAC, ...
- Operating system security
- Principles: memory protection, privilege separation, layering, isolation, sharing, ...
- Case studies: UNIX/Linux, SELinux
- Database security: encryption, views, delegation, statistical inference
- Principles and practices for secure system design
Part II. Contemporary Threats, Vulnerabilities and Defenses
- Software vulnerabilities
- Memory corruption: stack-smashing, heap overflows, integer overflows, ...
- Input validation errors: SQL and command injection, format-string attacks, ...
- Race conditions and other software vulnerabilities
- Web server and Browser vulnerabilities
- Malware and Untrusted software
- Viruses and worms, Rootkits, Botnets, ...
- Obfuscation and evasion
- Defenses for software threats
- Static analysis for vulnerability detection
- Code transformation for runtime policy checking
- Runtime policy enforcement and sandboxing
- Isolation and information-flow control
- Virtual machines, TPM, ...
- Network-layer threats: network probing, scanning, evasion, ...
- Defenses: Intrusion detection, ...
- Side-channel attacks: covert channels, timing attacks, power analysis, emanations, remanence and reuse
- Privacy and Anonymity
The entire set of slides and notes are now available as single PDF files. This section starts out with lecture notes from previous offerings of the course. These will be updated on an as-needed basis as we go through the semester.
| Description/Reading | Slides | Notes |
| Introduction: Overview of Security Threats Emerging threats and research directions |
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| Cryptography Basics Reading: Who is guarding the guardians, or how secure are the CAs |
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| Identification and Authentication Reading: Lamport's One-Time Password Scheme Reading: How anonymous hacked into a security firm |
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| Discretionary Access Control Reading: Revisiting "Setuid Demystified" |
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| Capabilities, Mandatory Access Control Reading: The Confused Deputy (or why capabilities might have been invented) |
See Prev Topic | |
| DTE and SELinux. POSIX Capabilities. Commercial Security Policies Reading: Confining Root Programs with Domain and Type Enforcement |
See Prev Topic | |
| OS Security, UNIX Security, Database Security Reading: Linux capabilities (alternative link) Reading: SELinux |
PDF TXT |
|
| Principles and practices for secure system design Reading: The Protection of Information in Computer Systems |
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| Background: Runtime memory organization | TXT | |
| Stack-smashing, Heap overflows and Format string attacks Reading: Smashing the stack for fun and profit |
PDF |
|
| Integer overflows Memory corruption defenses: guarding, ASR, DSR, ... Reading: Memory exploitation defenses in Windows Optional Reading: (Not so) Recent advances in exploiting buffer overruns Optional Reading: Basic Integer Overflows |
See Prev. Week | PDF |
| Memory-error detection: Bounds-checking, etc. | See Prev. Week | |
| Injection Attacks, Taint-tracking Taint-enhanced policies Reading: Taint-Enhanced Policy Enforcement |
PDF |
|
| Race conditions and other Software vulnerabilities Reading: Top 25 Software Vulnerabilities |
|
|
| Malware Evasion, obfuscation, Software tamper-resistance A very short article from 2011 on specific malware trends. |
PDF |
|
| Securing Untrusted Code: System-call interception, Inline-reference monitoring |
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| Securing Untrusted Code: Inline-reference monitoring, Software-based fault isolation, Control-flow integrity |
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| Binary analysis and transformation: Disassembly, static binary rewriting Dynamic translation |
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| Untrusted Code: Java, Javascript and Web security | ||
| Untrusted Code: Virtual Machines | ||
| Intrusion detection overview Host-based/Application layer Intrusion detection Intrusion detection models Reading: A sense of self for Unix processes |
PDF |
|
| Vulnerability analysis: Program analysis overview, Model-checking Abstract interpretation |
PDF |
|
| Course summary |
Lectures: Mon, Fri 12:50pm to 2:10pm Room CSE 2120
R . Sekar
Office: 2313E Computer Science
Office Hours: MF 11am to 12:15pm
TAs:
Bhushan Jain
Office Hours: Tue 12:30pm to 2:00pm, Wed 11am to 12:30pm CS 2110
There is no official textbook for this course. We will rely on class notes and some papers. Some of the lectures will draw on material from the following books.
First day of classes Aug 29 No classes Sep 5, 30; Nov 25 Extra classes Sep 28 Classes follow Friday schedule Last day of classes Dec 12 Mid-term I October 7 4:00pm to 5:30pm Mid-term II November 7 or 14 12:50pm to 2:10pm Final Thursday, Dec 15 2:15-4:45 PM, Room 2120
Your final grades will be computed as follows. You should expect some changes to the weightages over the semester.
You will get full credit for written homeworks and quizzes as long as you
Copying homework solutions from a fellow student or from the Internet, and all other forms of academic dishonesty, are considered serious offenses. They will be prosecuted to the maximum extent permitted by university policies.
If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact on your ability to carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services office (DSS), in the ECC building, 632-6748v/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.