CIS-551: Computer and Network Security
Fall 2020
Instructor: Sebastian Angel
Room: Online (Zoom link in Canvas)
Time: M/W 12:00 PM–1:30 PM
Email: sebastian.angel at cis.upenn.edu
Discussion: Piazza
This course covers the principles of computer and network security. It covers:
Even though NETS students are not required to take CIS 240, it is a prerequisite for this course. In particular, we expect all students to be familiar with the C programming language, some simple assembly, and the use of the command line.
Name | Email (at seas.upenn.edu) | Office hours (Remote, see Canvas) |
---|---|---|
Weichen Zheng | zweichen | Monday 4–6 PM |
Daniel Stekol | dstekol | Tuesday 4–6 PM |
Abdullah Zaini | azaini | Wednesday 8:30–10:30 AM |
Liangcheng Yu | leoyu | Wednesday 7–9 PM |
Andrew Beams | abeams | Friday 10 AM–12 PM |
Makarios Chung | chungma | Saturday 8–10 PM |
There is no required textbook for this course. The following three books (available for free) are good extra sources:
There will be 4 homework assignments and 4 projects. Each weekly module will have a quiz that must be completed before the end of the week. There will be two take-home exams: a midterm and a final.
Late Days. You will have a budget of six late days (24-hour periods) over the course of the semester that you may use to turn assignments in late without penalty and without needing to ask for an extension. Once your late days are used up, extensions will only be granted in extraordinary circumstances. Late days can be used for homeworks and projects, but not exams. To use a late day, just turn in your assignment late. There is no need to notify the course staff. If you have an extenuating circumstance, you must contact the course staff before the assignment is due.
We encourage you to discuss the problems and your general approach with other students in the class. However, the answers you turn in must be your own original work, and you must adhere to Penn’s Code of Academic Integrity.
For more information, see the Office of Student Conduct.
The University of Pennsylvania provides reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities who have self-identified and received approval from the Office of Student Disabilities Services (SDS). If SDS has approved your request for accommodations, please make an appointment to meet with me as soon as possible in order to discuss the arrangements for your accommodations. SDS services are free and confidential.
The CIS department and all of the faculty and staff are committed to making your studies here at Penn a safe and rewarding experience. This can only happen if we work together to create an inclusive environment that welcomes all students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, or socioeconomic status. Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are all core values of this course. All participants in this course deserve, and should expect, to be treated with respect by other members of the community. We encourage all students to visit the CIS Diversity site to learn about all avaialble resources.
A sense of belonging can also affect students’ mental health and wellness, which is of utmost importance to the course instruction staff, if not the University as a whole. All members of the instruction staff will be happy to chat or just to listen if you need someone to talk to, even if it’s not specifically about this course.
If you or someone you know is in distress and urgently needs to speak with someone, please do not hesitate to contact CAPS: 215-898-7021; 3624 Market St. If you are uncomfortable reaching out to CAPS, any member of the instruction staff will be happy to contact them on your behalf.
Module | Topic |
---|---|
Module 1 (Sep 1) Homework 1 out |
Introduction course overview, course format, grading Security mindset threat models, defensive programming |
Module 2 (Sep 7) Project 1 out |
Review of processes and address space processes, address space, ELF, x86 assembly Control Hijacking buffer and integer overflow, stack smashing, format string vulnerability |
Module 3 (Sep 14) Homework 1 due |
Control hijacking defenses stack canaries, NX bit, ASLR Return oriented programming bypassing NX and ASLR |
Module 4 (Sep 21) Homework 2 out |
User authentication Passwords, fuzzy extractors, two-factor, hardware tokens Privilege separation privilege separation, capabilities, setuid, chroot |
Module 5 (Sep 28) Project 1 due |
Cryptography introduction history, confidentiality, adversaries Classic ciphers substitution cipher, Vigenere cipher, frequency analysis |
Module 6 (Oct 5) Homework 2 due Project 2 out |
Information-theoretic security one-time pad, perfect secrecy Indistinguihsability PRGs, unpredictability, statistical tests, negligible functions |
Module 7 (Oct 12) |
Symmetric encryption PRGs, PRPs, stream ciphers, block ciphers |
Module 8 (Oct 19) |
Hash functions collision resistance, pre-image resistance, Merkle-Damgard construction MACs and authenticated encryption length extension attacks, PRFs, ciphertext integrity |
Module 9 (Oct 26) Homework 3 out Exam 1 |
Public key encryption Diffie-Hellman key exchange, trapdoor function, public key encryption from trapdoor functions RSA encryption RSA trapdoor permutation, RSA-KEM, RSA-OAEP, RSA digital signatures, RSA-FDH, PKCS#1 v1.5 |
Module 10 (Nov 2) Project 2 due Project 3 out |
TLS TLS handshake, TLS 1.3, 0-RTT HTTPS Certificates, PKI, forward secrecy |
Module 11 (Nov 9) Homework 3 due |
Web overview threat model, HTTP, HTML, JavaScript Web security same origin policy, cookies |
Module 12 (Nov 16) |
Web attacks SQL injection, CSRF, XSS Web assembly overview and attacks |
Module 13 (Nov 23) Project 3 due Homework 4 out Project 4 out |
Networking attacks TCP, IP, BGP, DNS, DNS poisoning, BGP hijacking Denial of service DDOS, SYN flooding, client puzzles |
Module 14 (Nov 30) |
Privacy and anonymity private browsing, VPN, Tor Censorship Great firewall of China, decoy routing, domain fronting |
Module 15 (Dec 7) Homework 4 due |
Underground economy spam, phishing, botnets Current research topics what are security researchers focusing on nowadays? |
Final exams week (Dec 14) Project 4 due Exam 1 |
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