NEU CY 5770 Software Vulnerabilities and Security

Spring 2024, W 6:00 pm - 9:20 pm, Cargill Hall 094

General Information

Instructor

Dr. Ziming Zhao
E-mail: z.zhao@northeastern.edu
Homepage: https://zzm7000.github.io/
Office hours will be W 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm or by appointment
177 Huntington (Room 513) or Zoom at https://northeastern.zoom.us/j/99475115019?pwd=4dMw5mmuLNHHh0LS9CCll93xapoB4o.1
CTF platform (only available on NEU campus) http://cy5770-cacti.khoury.northeastern.edu
The lecture recordings will be posted online after each class.

TA

Sagar Mohan
E-mail: mohan.sag@northeastern.edu
Office hours will be Tuesdays 2pm - 3pm
Zoom at https://northeastern.zoom.us/j/98282027383?pwd=qka9no17oqRJD0ebiEXddZ09jnB4E8.1

Overview

This course is designed to provide students with good understanding of the theories, principles, techniques and tools used for software and system hacking and hardening. Students will study, in-depth, binary reverse engineering, vulnerability classes, vulnerability analysis, exploit and shellcode development, defensive solutions, etc. to understand how to crack and protect native software. In particular, this class covers offensive techniques including stack-based buffer overflow, heap security, format string vulnerability, return-oriented programming, etc. This class also covers defensive techniques including canary, shadow stack, address space layout randomization, control-flow integrity, etc. A key part of studying security is putting skills to the test in practice. Hacking challenges known as Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions are a great way to do this. In this class the progress of students are evaluated by lab assignment and in-class Capture-The-Flag (CTF) competitions.

Downloads: Course Syllabus

Tentative Schedule

Date Topic Dues
Week-1 Class-1 1/8 Overview and Background Knowledge L1 Class Overview L2 Background Knowledge Hw Video  
Week-2 Class-1 1/15 Buffer Overflow (Background and Local variables) L3 Buffer Overflow (Local Variables) L4 Buffer Overflow (Return address) Hw Video Hw-1
Week-3 Class-1 1/22 Buffer Overflow L5 Buffer Overflow (Return to Shellcode) Video Hw-2
Week-4 Class-1 1/29 Buffer Overflow L6 Buffer Overflow (Frame Pointer Attack) L7 Buffer Overflow (DEP, Shadow Stack, Stack Canary) Video Hw-3
Week-5 Class-1 2/5 Buffer Overflow L8 ASLR and Seccomp Video Hw-4
Week-6 Class-1 2/12 Shellcoding L9 Shellcoding Buffer Overflow (Real-world examples) L10 Buffer Overflow (Real-world Examples) Video Hw-5
Week-7 Class-1 2/19 Shellcoding L9 Shellcoding Buffer Overflow (Real-world examples) L10 Buffer Overflow (Real-world Examples) Video Hw-5
Week-8 Class-1 2/26 *** Midterm CTF *** Midterm Hw-6
Week-9 Class-1 3/5 ============ Spring Break No class ============
Week-10 Class-1 3/12 Format string vulnerability L11 Format String (Memory Read) Format string vulnerability L12 Format String (Memory Write) Hw Video Hw-7, Hw-8
Week-11 Class-1 3/19 Return-oriented programming L13 Return-oriented Programming Hw Video Hw-9
Week-12 Class-1 3/26 Heap exploitation Heap exploitation L14 Heap Exploitation Hw Video Hw-10
Week-13 Class-1 4/2 Cache and cache side-channel Hw-11
Week-14 Class-1 4/9 *** FinalCTF *** Hw-12, Hw-13

Resources

GDB Cheat Sheet Tmux Cheet Sheet x64 Cheat Sheet x32 Cheat Sheet x32 Cheat Sheet ARM Cheat Sheet ARM Cheat Sheet 32-bit