CS 5770: Software Vulnerabilities and Security (SoftVulnSec)

Engin Kirda

For correspondence, send a mail to ek@ccs.neu.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 4.50pm-5.50pm, 258 WVH

1. 12.17.2012 End of class. Have a great winter break!
2. 11.27.2012 Challenge 8 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
3. 11.20.2012 Challenge 7 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
4. 10.30.2012 Challenge 7 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
5. 10.30.2012 Challenge 6 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
6. 10.30.2012 Challenge 5 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
7. 10.09.2012 Challenge 4 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
8. 10.02.2012 Challenge 3 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
9. 09.25.2012 Challenge 2 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
10. 09.18.2012 Challenge 1 is online. Use your husky credentials to access the specification.
11. 09.11.2012 Contact the instructor to receive your account information and access to course material.
12. 09.05.2012 The course website has now been updated. The first lecture will be on Tuesday, 11th of September.
13. 08.21.2012 The course website is being built. Come back for news at the beginning of September.

Internet security has become part of everyday life where security problems impact practical aspects of our lives. Even though there is a considerable corpus of knowledge about tools and techniques to protect systems, information about what are the actual vulnerabilities and how they are exploited is not generally available. This situation hampers the effectiveness of security research and practice. Understanding the details of attacks is a prerequisite for the design and implementation of secure systems.

This course deals with common programming, configuration, and design mistakes and ways to detect and avoid them. Examples are used to highlight general error classes, such as stack and heap overflows. Possible protection and detection techniques are examined. The course includes a number of practical lab assignments where participants are required to apply their knowledge as well as a discussion of the current research in the field. Students will learn how the security of systems can be violated, and how such attacks can be detected and prevented.

The course aims to make the students "security aware", and gain an in-depth understanding about security issues.

Some Topics

• Operating system security and vulnerabilities (UNIX, Windows, stack and heap overflows)
• Windows Security
• Buffer Overflows (including Heap overflow)
• Testing
• Reverse engineering and binary analysis
• Viruses, worms, malware and malicious code
• Botnets
• Language security
• Web security