The lectures cover a broad overview of systems security together with a deeper focus on several topics: isolation techniques, privilege separation, dealing with buggy code, networked and distributed systems, and human-focused security and privacy.
Links to notes etc. on future days are copies of materials from last year, to give you an idea of what the future will bring. We will update the notes as the course progresses. The year of publication for class readings are shown in parentheses.
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
feb 2 First day of classes |
feb 3 LEC 1: Introduction, threat models Preparation: Optionally read Modern Android exploit Assigned: Lab 1: Buffer overflows |
feb 4 | feb 5 LEC 2: OS and VM isolation Preparation: Read about OS and VM isolation (Question) |
feb 6 |
feb 9 | feb 10 LEC 3: Software fault isolation (video) Preparation: Read about WebAssembly (Question) |
feb 11 | feb 12 LEC 4: Trusted hardware Preparation: Read BitLocker (2006), sections 1-2 (Question) |
feb 13 DUE: Lab 1 part 1 DUE: Lab 1 part 2 |
feb 16 Presidents day |
feb 17 Monday schedule |
feb 18 | feb 19 LEC 5: CPU side-channels Preparation: Read Transient Execution Attacks and Defenses (2019) (Question) Assigned: Lab 2: Privilege separation |
feb 20 DUE: Lab 1 all parts |
feb 23 | feb 24 LEC 6: Privilege separation Preparation: Read OpenSSH (2003) (Question) |
feb 25 | feb 26 LEC 7: Data center infrastructure Preparation: Read Google Infrastructure Security (2023) and BeyondProd (2023) (Question) |
feb 27 DUE: Lab 2 part 1 |
mar 2 | mar 3 LEC 8: Mobile phone security Preparation: Read about iOS Security (Question) |
mar 4 | mar 5 LEC 9: Web security model Preparation: Read about web security (2022) (Question) |
mar 6 DUE: Lab 2 parts 2+3 ADD DATE |
mar 9 | mar 10 LEC 10: Buffer overflow defenses Preparation: Read Baggy bounds checking (2009) + errata (Question) Assigned: Lab 3: Symbolic execution |
mar 11 | mar 12 LEC 11: Symbolic execution Preparation: Read EXE: Automatically generating inputs of death (2006) (Question) |
mar 13 DUE: Lab 2 all parts |
mar 16 | mar 17 LEC 12: Verification Preparation: Read HACL* (2017) (Question) |
mar 18 | mar 19 Quiz 1: Covers lectures 1-12 and labs 1-2 Reference: Past quizzes, solutions Materials: Open laptop Time and Location: 2:30-4p in 45-230 |
mar 20 Assigned: Lab 4: Browser security |
mar 23 Spring vacation |
mar 24 Spring vacation |
mar 25 Spring vacation |
mar 26 Spring vacation |
mar 27 Spring vacation |
mar 30 | mar 31 LEC 13 (guest): Supply chain security (Russ Cox) Preparation: Read Trusting Trust (1984) and Russ's blog post (2023), and optionally xz attack (2024) |
apr 1 | apr 2 LEC 14: Network security Preparation: Read about network security (Question) |
apr 3 DUE: Lab 3 part 1 |
apr 6 | apr 7 LEC 15: Secure channels Preparation: Read TLS 1.3 blog post (2018) (Question) |
apr 8 | apr 9 LEC 16: Certificates Preparation: Read Let's Encrypt (2019) (Question) |
apr 10 DUE: Lab 3 all parts Assigned: Lab 5: ACME + WebAuthn |
apr 13 | apr 14 LEC 17: User authentication Preparation: Read U2F (2016) and optionally from U2F to passkeys (2023) (Question) |
apr 15 | apr 16 LEC 18: Messaging security Preparation: Read Analysis of Signal (2019), sections 1-3 (Question) |
apr 17 DUE: Lab 4 part 1 |
apr 20 Patriots day |
apr 21 LEC 19: Key transparency Preparation: Read CONIKS (2015) (Question) DROP DATE |
apr 22 | apr 23 LEC 20: Anonymous communication Preparation: Read Tor (2004) and blog posts 1, 2, and 3 (2012) (Question) |
apr 24 DUE: Lab 4 all parts |
apr 27 | apr 28 LEC 21 (guest): Cybersecurity policy (Daniel Weitzner) Preparation: Read Keys under doormats (2015) and Cyber risk (2024) |
apr 29 | apr 30 LEC 22: Security economics Preparation: Read Click trajectories (2011) (Question) |
may 1 DUE: Lab 5 part 1 |
may 4 | may 5 LEC 23: Differential privacy Preparation: Read PINQ (2009) (Question) |
may 6 | may 7 LEC 24 (guest): Information security in real life (Max Burkhardt) |
may 8 DUE: Lab 5 all parts |
may 11 | may 12 LEC 25: TBD Last day of classes |
may 13 | may 14 | may 15 Final exam: Emphasis on lectures 13-24 and labs 3-5 Reference: Past quizzes, solutions Materials: Open laptop Time and Location: TBD |
may 18 Final exam: Emphasis on lectures 13-24 and labs 3-5 Reference: Past quizzes, solutions Materials: Open laptop Time and Location: TBD |
may 19 Final exam: Emphasis on lectures 13-24 and labs 3-5 Reference: Past quizzes, solutions Materials: Open laptop Time and Location: TBD |
may 20 Final exam: Emphasis on lectures 13-24 and labs 3-5 Reference: Past quizzes, solutions Materials: Open laptop Time and Location: TBD |
may 21 | may 22 |