Course Schedule Winter 2026
Part 1. Security Fundamentals
| Lectures | Lab | |
|---|---|---|
|
MAO
Wednesday, Jan. 7 1. The Security Mindset Quiz Threat models, vulnerabilities, attacks; how to think like an attacker and a defender |
Jan. 6/Jan. 8/Jan. 9 Only pre-recorded video Introduce project Python tutorial |
|
|
MAO
Monday, Jan. 12 2. Message Integrity Quiz Alice and Bob, crypto games, Kerckhoffs’s principle, hashes and MACs |
MAO
Wednesday, Jan. 14 3. Randomness and Pseudorandomness Quiz Generating randomness, PRGs, one-time pads |
Jan. 13/Jan. 15/Jan. 16 Length extension Hash collisions |
|
Monday, Jan. 19 No Lecture, Martin Luther King Day |
MAO
Wednesday, Jan. 21 4. Confidentiality Quiz Simple ciphers, AES, block cipher modes |
Jan. 20/Jan. 22/Jan. 23 Padding oracles Bleichenbacher attacks |
|
MAO
Monday, Jan. 26 5. Combining Confidentiality and Integrity Quiz Confidentiality attacks, authenticated encryption |
MAO
Wednesday, Jan. 28 6. Key Exchange, Public-Key Cryptography Quiz Diffie-Hellman, RSA encryption, digital signatures |
Jan. 27/Jan. 29/Jan. 30 No Lab |
Part 2. Web and Network Security
| Lectures | Lab | |
|---|---|---|
|
CHEN
Monday, Feb. 2 7. The Web Platform Quiz Intro to the web platform; HTTP, cookies, Javascript, etc. |
CHEN
Wednesday, Feb. 4 8. Web Attacks and Defenses Quiz Cookies; XSS, CSRF, and SQL-injection attacks and defenses Web Project available
Lab 2 available
|
Feb. 3/Feb. 5/Feb. 6 SQL tutorial SQL injection mechanics |
|
CHEN
Monday, Feb. 9 9. HTTPS and the Web PKI Quiz The TLS protocol and the CA ecosystem |
CHEN
Wednesday, Feb. 11 10. HTTPS Attacks and Defenses Quiz Implementation flaws, social engineering attacks, and crypto failures Lab 2 due 6 p.m.
|
Feb. 10/Feb. 12/Feb. 13 HTML and JavaScript tutorial XSS and CSRF mechanics |
|
CHEN
Monday, Feb. 16 11. Networking 101 Quiz Protocol layers, Ethernet, IP, route hijacking, ARP spoofing |
CHEN
Wednesday, Feb. 18 12. Networking 102 Quiz UDP, TCP, and DNS attacks Web Project due 6 p.m.
Networking Project available
Lab 3 available
|
Feb. 17/Feb. 19/Feb. 20 Python sockets tutorial Wireshark tutorial |
|
CHEN
Monday, Feb. 23 13. Network Defense Quiz Denial of service; firewalls, IDSes, VPNs, zero-trust |
STAFF
Wednesday, Feb. 25 14. Midterm Review Session Lab 3 due 6 p.m.
Midterm Exam, Thursday, Feb. 26, 7–8:30 p.m.
|
Feb. 24/Feb. 26/Feb. 27 No Lab |
|
Monday, Mar. 2 Spring Break |
Wednesday, Mar. 4 Spring Break |
Mar. 3/Mar. 5/Mar. 6 No Lab |
Part 3. Host and Application Security
| Lectures | Lab | |
|---|---|---|
|
STAFF
Monday, Mar. 9 15. Control Hijacking, Part 1 Quiz Software architecture and a simple buffer overflow |
STAFF
Wednesday, Mar. 11 16. Control Hijacking, Part 2 Quiz Common exploitable application bugs, shellcode Networking Project due 6 p.m.
AppSec Project available
Lab 4 available
|
Mar. 10/Mar. 12/Mar. 13 Binary exploitation primer Go over midterm exam |
|
CHEN
Monday, Mar. 16 17. Authentication and Passwords Quiz Passwords, online and offline guessing |
CHEN
Wednesday, Mar. 18 18. Access Control and Isolation Quiz Isolation, sandboxing, virtual machines, SGX, containers Lab 4 due 6 p.m.
|
Mar. 17/Mar. 19/Mar. 20 Shellcode ROP exploitation Ghidra tutorial |
Part 4. Privacy and Security in Context
| Lectures | Lab | |
|---|---|---|
|
GUEST
Monday, Mar. 23 19. Guest Lecture - TBD |
GUEST
Wednesday, Mar. 25 20. Guest Lecture - TBD AppSec Project due 6 p.m.
Forensics Project available
Lab 5 available
|
Mar. 24/Mar. 26/Mar. 27 Autopsy tutorial |
|
GUEST
Monday, Mar. 30 21. Guest Lecture - TBD |
GUEST
Wednesday, Apr. 1 22. Guest Lecture - TBD Lab 5 due 6 p.m.
|
Mar. 31/Apr. 2/Apr. 3 No Lab |
|
MAO
Monday, Apr. 6 23. Machine Learning Security |
MAO
Wednesday, Apr. 8 24. Network Security |
Apr. 7/Apr. 9/Apr. 10 No Lab |
|
MAO
Monday, Apr. 13 25. Physical Security Quiz Locks and safes, lock picking techniques; defenses (We recommend attending in person for hands-on demos) |
STAFF
Wednesday, Apr. 15 Final Review Pt. 1 Forensics Project due 6 p.m.
|
Apr. 14/Apr. 16/Apr. 17 No Lab |
|
STAFF
Monday, Apr. 20 Final Review Pt. 2 |
Wednesday, Apr. 22 Study Day Final Exam, Friday, April 24th, 7–9 p.m.
|
Apr. 21/Apr. 23/Apr. 24 No Lab |