CS 3235 - Course Schedule

Course Schedule Fall 2026

Part 1. System Security

DANIEL Monday, Aug. 24 1. The Security Mindset Course overview, thinking like an attacker, threat models Application Security Project available Quiz 0 - Course Logistics available Lab 1: GDB available	Tuesday, Aug. 25	DANIEL Wednesday, Aug. 26 2. Software Security 1 Machine organization, basic stack smashing Quiz 1 - Security Mindset and Software Security available	Thursday, Aug. 27	Friday, Aug. 28
DANIEL Monday, Aug. 31 3. Software Security 2 Advanced stack smashing and countermeasures Quiz 0 - Course Logistics due 11:59 p.m. Lab 1: GDB due 11:59 p.m.	Tuesday, Sep. 1	MIKE Wednesday, Sep. 2 4. Malware Types of malware, infection methods, C&C, case studies Application Security Project (Part 1) due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 1 - Security Mindset and Software Security due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 2 - Operating System Security and Access Control available	Thursday, Sep. 3	Friday, Sep. 4

Part 2. Cryptography

Monday, Sep. 7 Labor Day	Tuesday, Sep. 8	DANIEL Wednesday, Sep. 9 5. Hashing Applications, definitions, birthday, life cycle, common examples Quiz 2 - Operating System Security and Access Control due 11:59 p.m.	Thursday, Sep. 10	Friday, Sep. 11
DANIEL Monday, Sep. 14 6. Integrity MAC, HMAC, length extension attacks	Tuesday, Sep. 15	DANIEL Wednesday, Sep. 16 7. Symmetric Crypto OTP, block ciphers, DES history, AES internals Application Security Project (Part 2) due 11:59 p.m. Cryptography Project available Quiz 3 - Isolation, Hashing, and Integrity available Lab 2: Docker and Python available	Thursday, Sep. 17	Friday, Sep. 18
DANIEL Monday, Sep. 21 8. Combining Integrity and Confidentiality Block cipher modes, malleability, padding oracles, AEAD	Tuesday, Sep. 22	DANIEL Wednesday, Sep. 23 9. DH and Key Exchange Modular arithmetic, DH, key management, MITM attacks Quiz 3 - Isolation, Hashing, and Integrity due 11:59 p.m. Lab 2: Docker and Python due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 4 - Symmetric Crypto available	Thursday, Sep. 24	Friday, Sep. 25
DANIEL Monday, Sep. 28 10. RSA and Attacks on Protocols, Building a Secure Channel RSA encryption and signatures, attacks on RSA, combining primitives Cryptography Project (Part 1) due 11:59 p.m.	Tuesday, Sep. 29	DANIEL Wednesday, Sep. 30 11. The Web Platform HTTP, HTML, DOM, JavaScript, same-origin policy Quiz 4 - Symmetric Crypto due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 5 - DH Key Exchange & RSA available	Thursday, Oct. 1	Friday, Oct. 2

Part 3. Web and Networking

Monday, Oct. 5 Fall Break	Tuesday, Oct. 6	DANIEL Wednesday, Oct. 7 12. Web Attacks and Defenses CSRF, SQL injection, XSS attacks and defenses Cryptography Project (Part 2) due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 5 - DH Key Exchange & RSA due 11:59 p.m. Web Security Project available Quiz 6 - Web Security available Lab 3: Browser DevTools available	Thursday, Oct. 8	Friday, Oct. 9
STAFF Monday, Oct. 12 Exam Review	Tuesday, Oct. 13	Wednesday, Oct. 14 Exam 1, In-person	Thursday, Oct. 15 Quiz 6 - Web Security due 11:59 p.m. Lab 3: Browser DevTools due 11:59 p.m.	Friday, Oct. 16
MIKE Monday, Oct. 19 13. HTTPS and the Web PKI TLS, certificates, PKI	Tuesday, Oct. 20	MIKE Wednesday, Oct. 21 14. HTTPS Attacks and Defenses Social engineering, attacks on CAs, protocol & implementation issues	Thursday, Oct. 22	Friday, Oct. 23
MIKE Monday, Oct. 26 15. Networking 101 OSI model, link- through transport-layer attacks	Tuesday, Oct. 27	MIKE Wednesday, Oct. 28 16. Networking 102 TCP/UDP, application-layer protocols and attacks Web Security Project due 11:59 p.m. Networking Project available Quiz 7 - HTTPS, Web PKI, Attacks and Defenses available Lab 4: Python Sockets available	Thursday, Oct. 29	Friday, Oct. 30
MIKE Monday, Nov. 2 17. Network Defenses DoS techniques and defenses, network monitoring	Tuesday, Nov. 3	MIKE Wednesday, Nov. 4 18. OS Security and Access Control Secure system principles, access control, process and memory isolation Quiz 7 - HTTPS, Web PKI, Attacks and Defenses due 11:59 p.m. Lab 4: Python Sockets due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 8 - Networking & Networking Defenses available	Thursday, Nov. 5	Friday, Nov. 6

Part 4. Security in Context

MIKE Monday, Nov. 9 19. Isolation and Sandboxing Syscalls and interposition, jails, Docker, VMs, hypervisors	Tuesday, Nov. 10	MIKE Wednesday, Nov. 11 20. Authentication Passwords, CAPTCHAs, 2FA, biometrics Quiz 8 - Networking & Networking Defenses due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 9 - Malware & Authentication available	Thursday, Nov. 12	Friday, Nov. 13
MIKE Monday, Nov. 16 21. Privacy and Anonymity Fingerprinting, k-anonymity, Tor, CFAA, ethics	Tuesday, Nov. 17	MIKE Wednesday, Nov. 18 22. Digital Forensics Imaging, techniques for analysis, countermeasures for forensics Networking Project due 11:59 p.m. Quiz 9 - Malware & Authentication due 11:59 p.m. Forensics Project available Quiz 10 - Privacy & Digital Forensics available Lab 5: Autopsy available	Thursday, Nov. 19	Friday, Nov. 20
DANIEL Monday, Nov. 23 23. Side-Channel Analysis Physical side channels, microarchitectural issues, Spectre and Meltdown	Tuesday, Nov. 24 Quiz 10 - Privacy & Digital Forensics due 11:59 p.m. Lab 5: Autopsy due 11:59 p.m.	Wednesday, Nov. 25 Thanksgiving	Thursday, Nov. 26	Friday, Nov. 27
MIKE Monday, Nov. 30 24. Elections Security Special topics in election security and secure voting systems	Tuesday, Dec. 1	DANIEL Wednesday, Dec. 2 25. Physical Security Types of physical locks and how to defeat them via lockpicking	Thursday, Dec. 3	Friday, Dec. 4
STAFF Monday, Dec. 7 Exam Review	Tuesday, Dec. 8 Forensics Project due 11:59 p.m.	Wednesday, Dec. 9	Thursday, Dec. 10	Friday, Dec. 11 Exam 2, In-person