General Information
Instructor
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
Class CTF Platform: http://yeast.utep.edu:2223/
UTEP VPN Setup Guide: Link
Tentative Schedule
| Date | Topic | Dues |
|---|---|---|
| Week-1 Class-1 1/20 | Course Overview, Logistics, Introduction to hacking platform; Slides | |
| Week-1 Class-2 1/22 | Background Knowledge; Slides; HW1 | |
| Week-2 Class-1 1/27 | Background Knowledge: Process Map, System Calls & Stack; Slides; | |
| Week-2 Class-2 1/29 | Buffer Overflow (Local variables); Slides; HW2 | HW-1 |
| Week-3 Class-1 2/3 | Buffer Overflow (Return address); Slides; | |
| Week-3 Class-2 2/5 | Buffer Overflow (Return to shellcode 1); Slides; | |
| Week-4 Class-1 2/10 | Buffer Overflow (Return to shellcode 2); Slides; HW3 | HW-2 |
| Week-4 Class-2 2/12 | Buffer Overflow (Frame Pointer Attack); Slides; | |
| Week-5 Class-1 2/17 | Buffer Overflow defenses 1 (DEP, Shadow Stack, Stack Canary); Slides; | |
| Week-5 Class-2 2/19 | Buffer Overflow defenses 2 (DEP, Shadow Stack, Stack Canary); Slides; HW4 | HW-3 |
| Week-6 Class-1 2/24 | ASLR and Seccomp; Slides | |
| Week-6 Class-2 2/26 | Buffer Overflow (Real-world Examples); Slides | |
| Week-7 Class-1 3/3 | Shellcoding; Slides; HW5 | HW-4 |
| Week-7 Class-2 3/5 | Shellcoding (In class Activity); Slides; | |
| Week-8 Class-1 3/10 | Mid Term Review; | |
| Week-8 Class-2 3/12 | =============Midterm CTF; HW6============ | HW-5 |
| Week-9 Class-1 3/17 | ===============Spring Break=============== | |
| Week-9 Class-2 3/19 | ===============Spring Break=============== | |
| Week-10 Class-1 3/24 | Format String (Memory Read); Slides; | |
| Week-10 Class-2 3/26 | Format String (Memory Write); Slides; HW7 | HW-6 |
| Week-11 Class-1 3/31 | Format String defenses and In class hacking; Slides; | |
| Week-11 Class-1 4/2 | Return-oriented Programming 1; Slides; | |
| Week-11 Class-2 4/7 | Return-oriented Programming 2; Slides; HW8 | HW-7 |
| Week-12 Class-1 4/9 | Return-oriented Programming Defenses; Slides; | |
| Week-12 Class-2 4/14 | Heap Basics; Slides; | |
| Week-13 Class-1 4/16 | Heap Exploitation; Slides; HW9 | HW-8 |
| Week-13 Class-2 4/21 | UAF; Double Free; Slides | |
| Week-14 Class-1 4/23 | Cache side channel attacks; Slides | |
| Week-14 Class-2 4/28 | Meltdown and Spectre; Slides; Teams; HW10 | HW-9 |
| Week-15 Class-2 4/30 | Review for Final Exam; Slides | |
| Week-16 Class-1 5/5 | Office hours for final exam; | |
| Week-16 Class-2 5/7; 3.00 PM - 6.30 PM; Location: CCSB 1.0410 | Final CTF; | HW-10 |
Resources
GDB Cheat Sheet Tmux Cheet Sheet x64 Cheat Sheet x32 Cheat Sheet x32 Cheat Sheet ARM Cheat Sheet ARM Cheat Sheet 32-bit