CS 116: Introduction to Security
Tufts University Department of Computer Science, Fall 2023
Course Description
A holistic and broad perspective on cyber security. Attacking and defending networks, cryptography, vulnerabilities, reverse engineering, web security, static and dynamic analysis, malware, forensics. Principles illustrated through hands-on labs and projects, including Capture The Flag (CTF) games.
Sections
- In-person, undergrads and grads: Tuesdays, 4:30 - 5:45 PM EST in Cummings Center Room 270; Thursdays on Twitch, 4:30 - 5:45 PM EST
- Online Master's in Computer Science: live sessions on Wednesdays, 5:30 - 7:00 PM EST (via Zoom)
Instructor
- Ming Chow, ming.chow@tufts.edu
- Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3:00 - 4:00 PM EST in JCC, fourth floor --by the kitchen area
Prerequisites
- CS 15 or Data Structures equivalent course. Strongly recommended that you have taken CS 40. Please disregard prerequisites listed in the University's bulletin as they are incorrect!
Hardware and Software for This Class (on your personal computer)
Absolute Requirements
- A modern web browser (e.g., Firefox, Google Chrome, Chromium, Safari, Microsoft Edge)
- A command line interface to run Unix/Linux commands (e.g., macOS, Windows with Linux Subsystem, a Linux-based virtual machine, a Docker container)
List of Security Tools That Will Be Used in Course
The following is a list of security tools that will be used in the course. All of these tools are platform-independent.
Assessment
- Labs (70%)
- Quizzes (28%; there will be two)
- Subjective factors including asking appropriate questions, answering questions well, organizing study groups or security-related virtual events, etc. (2%)
Course Infrastructure
Syllabus
| Topic 1, starting Tuesday, September 5th |
- Course Introduction - By the end of this week, students will learn many of the fundamental Linux commands, an important skill for any good security practitioner, by playing Capture The Flags via OverTheWire. Students will remember the three principles of the CIA triad, critical to any organization’s security infrastructure.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, September 7th: Linux/*nix Commands
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- Lab 1: Working with the Command Line
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| Topic 2, starting Tuesday, September 12th |
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| Topic 3, starting Tuesday, September 19th |
- Attacking Networks - By the end of this week, students will perform network reconnaissance and port scanning, and build a rudimentary Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) / intrusion detection system (IDS).
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, September 21st: Reconnaissance using Ping, Netcat, Nmap, and SHODAN
- Thursday, September 28th: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks and Scapy feat John Hammond
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- Lab 3: Scanning and Reconnaissance
- Lab 4: Snake Oil, The Incident Alarm
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| Topic 4, starting Tuesday, October 3rd |
- Cryptography - By the end of this week, students will be able to crack passwords on a Linux or Windows system, use one-way hash functions, and briefly describe how Transport Layer Security works.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, October 5th: Password Cracking with John the Ripper
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| Topic 5, starting Tuesday, October 10th |
- Vulnerabilities - By the end of this week, students will know the difference between CVE and CWE.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, October 12th: Vulnerability Scanning, Exploitation, Badness-O-Meter
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| Topic 6, starting Tuesday, October 17th |
- Web Security - By the end of this week, students will able to perform and defend against the following attacks: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL injection, Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), session hijacking, cookie tampering, directory traversal, command injection, remote and local file inclusion. Students will also write a fuzzer to find any software vulnerabilities.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, October 19th: SQL Injection and Web Proxies
- Thursday, October 26th: The Mistakes You Can't Make
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- Lab 6: The XSS Game
- Lab 7: Gain Access to Website
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| Topic 7, starting Monday, October 30th |
- The Capture The Flags (CTF) Game Played Online - By the end of this week, students will be able to find and take advantage of a number of vulnerabilities on a live web application.
- Readings and Videos
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| Topic 8, starting Tuesday, November 7th |
- Static and Dynamic Analysis - By the end of this week, students will be able to perform static analysis and dynamic analysis scans on software, write a technical risk analysis that is communicated to upper management.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, November 9th: Really, Really Bad Code and Static Analysis
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| Topic 9, starting Tuesday, November 14th |
- Malware - By the end of this week, students will be able to describe types of malware, see certain malware behaviors, scan and analyze malware, reverse engineer Android apps to determine if they are malicious.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, November 16th: Malware and Malware Analysis
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- Lab 10: Android Malware Analysis
- Quiz 2
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| Topic 10, starts Tuesday, November 28th |
- Forensics and Incident Handling - By the end of this week, students will be able to acquire data from a disk (e.g., USB drive) using
dd, analyze image of disk from `dd` using forensics tools, and recover deleted files off a disk.
- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, November 30th: Forensics
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| Topic 11, starts Tuesday, December 5th |
The Future: Nihilism or Hope? - By the end of this week, students shall debate and ponder the hard questions in security, and be able to argue multiple viewpoints. Lessons Not Learned: We Can't Even Get the Basics Right- Readings and Videos
- Thursday, December 7th: Opportunities, Where Do You Go From Here
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Topics That Will Not Be Covered In This Course
- Social Engineering
- Privacy
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is there a textbook for this course?
A: No
Q: Are there teaching assistants (TAs) for this course?
A: No
Q: What is the workload of this course?
A: Here is a list of all the labs with expected length and difficulty:
- Lab 1: Working with the Command Line, Short (1 hour max) to Long (3+ hours) --you can put in as much time as you want on this lab
- Lab 2: Packet Sleuth, Medium (1 - 3 hours)
- Lab 3: Scanning and Reconnaissance, Very short (30 minutes). NOTE: This lab cannot be made publicly available because an actual target is used.
- Lab 4: Python and the Incident Alarm, Long (over 3 hours) to Impossible
- Lab 5: The Password Cracking Contest, If you crack all the password hashes (read: good luck with that), you will receive an automatic "A" in the course
- Lab 6: The XSS Game, Medium
- Lab 7: Gain Access to Website, Very short. NOTE: This lab cannot be made publicly available because an actual target is used.
- Lab 8: The CTF Game, One week --team based. NOTE: This lab cannot be made publicly available because an actual target is used.
- Lab 9: Technical Risk Analysis, Short to Medium.
- Lab 10: Android Malware Analysis, Short to Medium
Q: Does this course count towards the M.S. in Cybersecurity and Public Policy?
A: Yes
Q: Does this course count towards the M.S. in Software Systems Development?
A: Yes. In fact, this is one of the four required courses for the M.S.
Q: Did you remove information on using Kali virtual machine for this class? If so, why?
A: Yes. After all these years, it was more trouble than it was worth. Further reasons:
- Accessibility. For students who are visually impaired, using a virtual machine can be very difficult.
- Not all students have a capable laptop. Sometimes due to financial reasons, some students use Chromebooks. The tools required for this course can be installed natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- Performance. Sometimes, using a VM can be very slow. A VM also do not use native drivers (e.g., for networking).
- Hard disk space requirement: at least 10 GB necessary.
- Apple M1 Macs cannot run most Intel x86 virtual machines.
Q: Is Piazza used in this course?
Yes, quite a lot
Q: Why is there a course website and a course Canvas? If you say "it is a nuisance for students to use multiple websites and services for one course", what gives?
This course website serves a few critical purposes. Years ago, I made a decision to make all the readings, slide decks, and most of the labs publicly available. The reasons: (1) to show that Tufts is serious and is working on Cyber Security matters, (2) to provide learning material to the public on Cyber Security as the Cyber Security education problem is very dire, (3) for recordkeeping on what is taught and not taught in this Security class --this comes up often when we speak to industry and organizations who want to work with Tufts on Cyber Security-related matters. The Canvas site for this course isn't made publicly available. Even if Canvas site was made publicly available, content is behind a walled garden, and (4) for redundancy if Canvas goes down.
Q: I have not taken a course on Networks (CS 112), Operating Systems (CS 111), or Computer Architecture (CS 40) yet. Is that a problem?
No. Cyber Security is a very broad field and it is impossible for anyone, even professionals, to know everything. What is important for you is to start thinking about Security.
Q: If I am taking this course for professional purpose, can I have a tuition reimbursement letter or certificate?
A: Absolutely! It's a nice tuition reimbursement letter, hand signed!
If you have read this far, send me an email (ming.chow AT tufts DOT edu) with the subject "Form is temporary, class is permanent" to earn a reward.
Course Policies
Labs
- All labs for a given topic, except for the password cracking lab and CTF writeup, are due on a Sunday at 11:59 PDT.
- With the exception of password cracking lab and CTF game, you are granted an automatic extension of 24 hours at no cost (i.e., grace period). A lab submitted after the grace period will not be accepted.
- No extension tokens.
Accessibility Statement
Tufts is committed to providing equal access and support to all qualified students through the provision of reasonable accommodations so that each student may fully participate in the Tufts experience. If you have a disability that requires accommodations, please contact the StAAR Center (formerly SAS) staarcenter@tufts.edu or 617-627-4539 to make an appointment to determine appropriate accommodations. Please be aware that accommodations cannot be enacted retroactively, making timeliness a critical aspect for their provision. You can learn more about the StAAR Center at https://students.tufts.edu/student-accessibility-services.
Expectations and Structure of This Course
This course will be a fun one for sure. A few notes on the expectations and structure of this course:
1. You are responsible for your own learning.
A very important point: if you want everything gone over in lecture or in notes, then this is not the course for you. More importantly, that's not how things work in real life.
2. You will learn by doing.
Each week, there will be at most three labs to hone your skills and to aim at the crux of the matter for the week. Here's an analogy: you don't learn how to cook simply by just reading cookbooks and watching YouTube videos. You learn by making, using your hands, and making mistakes.
3. You will learn by asking questions.
It is your responsibility to ask questions early and to ask for help...
4. ...and I expect discussions online to be very active and civil.
Share thoughts and respond to other people's questions. I will be online constantly. It is no secret that I respond very quickly unless I need to be away.