ECS 235A. Computer Security. Fall 2006

ECS 235A. Computer Security

Fall 2006	CRN: 44172
Lectures:	Tuesday and Thursday, 4:40-6:00pm, 209 Wellman.
Office hours:	Tuesday and Thursday, 2-3pm, 3055 Kemper.
Instructor:	Hao Chen <`hchen`AT`cs.ucdavis.edu`>
Mailing list:	`ecs235a-f06@ucdavis.edu` Web interface (for announcements from instructional staff)
Newsgroup:	ucd.class.ecs235.d Web interface (for discussions)
Students:	photos

Announcements

Welcome to ECS 235A.

Goals

Introduces modern topics in computer systems security. Prepares students to do research in computer security.

Requirements and Grading

Reviews: Write a brief review of each paper that we will discuss in each class. List the paper's most significant contributions and weaknesses, and suggest how the paper could be improved. Your review is due by noon on the day before the lecture.
- Place your review in a plain text file named "review". Include your name and the title of each paper in the file.
- Submit the file at any CSIF Linux machine (e.g., pc1.cs.ucdavis.edu) using the command
  handin cs235 revmmdd /path/to/your/review
  where mmdd is the two-digit month and two-digit date of the lecture.
Project: You will do a team (around 2 people). You are welcome to choose any topic on computer security -- I will interpret the topic broadly. I encourage you to tie your project with your current research if possible. You will present your project in a poster session, and submit a report in the form of a conference paper. Be ambitious! Strive for publications from your project.
Homework: A few homework assignments.
Exam: None.
Grading: project: 50%; homework: 30%; paper reviews and class participation: 20%

Lectures

Note: reading is subject to change.

Week	Date	Topic	Reading
1	Sep 28	Introduction	None
2	Oct 3	Buffer overflow	StackGuard: Automatic Adaptive Detection and Prevention of Buffer-Overflow Attacks. Cowan, Pu, Maier, Hinton, Bakke, Beattie, Grier, Wagle, Zhang. Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit. Aleph One.
2	Oct 5	Principles	The protection of information in computer systems. Saltzer and Schroeder. (Only Section I.) Reflections on trusting trust. Thompson. Rudimentary treatise on the construction of locks. Tomlinson.
3	Oct 10	Access Control	Protection. Lampson. Excerpts from the Orange Book. DoD.
3	Oct 12	Capabilities; confinement	The Confused Deputy. Hardy. A note on the confinement problem. Lampson. Capability Myths Demolished. Miller, Yee, and Shapiro.
4	Oct 17	Sandboxing	A secure environment for untrusted helper applications: confining the wily hacker, Goldberg, Wagner, Thomas, and Brewer. Traps and Pitfalls: Practical Problems in System Call Interposition Based Security Tools, Garfinkel.
4	Oct 19	Cryptography; Kerberos	Why Cryptosystems Fail, Anderson. Designing an Authentication System: a Dialogue in Four Scenes, Bryant.
5	Oct 24	Protocol design	Prudent engineering practice for cryptographic protocols, Abadi and Needham.
5	Oct 26	E-voting	Analysis of an Electronic Voting System, Kohno, Stubblefield, Rubin, Wallach. Cryptographic Voting Protocols: A Systems Perspective, Karlof, Sastry, Wagner.
6	Oct 31	Software security	Shifting the odds: Writing (more) secure software. Bellovin. Improving Security Using Extensible Lightweight Static Analysis Evans, Larochelle.
6	Nov 2	Language-based security	Intrusion Detection via Static Analysis Wagner, Dean.
7	Nov 7	Java Security	Extensible security architectures for Java Wallach, Balfanz, Dean, Felten Optional: Java security: from HotJava to Netscape Dean, Felten, Wallach.
7	Nov 9	Worm detection	Automated Worm Fingerprinting, Singh, Estan, Varghese and Savage. Inferring Internet Denial of Service Activity, Moore, Voelker, and Savage.
8	Nov 14	Worm propagation	How to 0wn the Internet in Your Spare Time, S. Staniford, V. Paxson and N. Weaver
8	Nov 16	Virtual machines	Terra: A Virtual Machine-Based Platform for Trusted Computing, Garfinkel, Pfaff, Chow, Rosenblum, and Boneh.
9	Nov 21	Virtual machines; Taint check	Practical Taint-based Protection using Demand Emulation Alex Ho, Michael Fetterman, Christopher Clark, Andrew Warfield and Steven Hand. Optional: Xen and the art of virtualization
9	Nov 23	Thanksgiving. No class.
10	Nov 28	Virtual machines	ReVirt: Enabling Intrusion Analysis through Virtual-Machine Logging and Replay George W. Dunlap, Samuel T. King, Sukru Cinar, Murtaza Basrai, and Peter M. Chen.
10	Nov 30	OS security	An Overview of the Singularity Project. Galen C. Hunt et al.
11	Dec 5	Security usability	A Usability Study and Critique of Two Password Managers Chiasson and Oorschot. Why Phishing Works Rachna Dhamija, J. D. Tygar and Marti Hearst
11	Dec 7	Project poster session, 1131 Kemper.

Warning

From time to time, we may discuss vulnerabilities in widely-deployed computer systems. This is not intended as an invitation to go exploit those vulnerabilities. It is important that we be able to discuss real-world experience candidly; students are expected to behave responsibly.

The campus's policy (and my policy) on this should be clear: you may not break into machines that are not your own; you may not attempt to attack or subvert system security. Breaking into other people's systems is inappropriate, and the existence of a security hole is no excuse.

Feedback

I always welcome any feedback on what I could be doing better. You are also welcome to send me feedback anonymously.

Hao Chen <hchenATcs.ucdavis.edu>
Last modified October 27, 2006.