• CS 265 --- Information Security
• Department of Computer Science
• San Jose State University
• Fall 2009 semester

• Name: Mark Stamp
• Office: MQH 216
• Office hours: Friday 11:00am--3:00pm, or by appointment
• Phone: 408-924-5094
• email: stamp@cs.sjsu.edu
  • Email is the best way to contact me
  • Please put "CS265" at the beginning of the subject line
• Greensheet: http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/stamp/CS265/syllabus/syllabusFall08.html
• Who am I?
• Furlough days:
  • Tuesday, September 8
  • Tuesday, September 22
  • Tuesday, November 24

• PowerPoint slides, errata, and resources for the textbook are available here.

• Approximate schedule (3 hours equals 1 week of class time):
  • Introduction
    • Chapter 1 (1 hour)
  • Crypto
    • Chapter 2: Crypto Basics (3 hours)
    • Chapter 3: Symmetric Key Crypto (4 hours)
    • Chapter 4: Public Key Crypto (4 hours)
    • Chapter 5: Hash Functions and Other Topics (4 hours)
  • Access Control
    • Chapter 7: Authentication (4 hours)
    • Chapter 8: Authorization (2 hour)
  • Protocols
    • Chapter 9: Simple Authentication Protocols (4 hours)
    • Chapter 10: Real-World Security Protocols (5 hours)
  • Software
    • Chapter 11: Software Flaws and Malware (4 hours)
    • Chapter 12: Insecurity in Software (4 hours)
    • Chapter 13: Operating Systems and Security (4 hours)
  
  
• Note: Due to time constraints, we will omit much of Chapter 8 and various parts of the last three chapters.
  
  
• Recommended Textbook: Applied Cryptanalysis: Breaking Ciphers in the Real World, Mark Stamp and Richard M. Low, Wiley-IEEE Press, May 2007, ISBN: 047011486X. This book contains detailed discussion of several cryptanalytic attacks. These attacks are "applied", in the sense that each attack can be implemented to break a real-world cipher system. This book is a good source for cryptanalysis project topics.
  
  
  • Powerpoint slides, errata, and resources for this book can be found here.
  
  
• Other useful security books:
  • Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering, Eldad Eilam, Wiley, 2005, ISBN: 0764574817. This is the best book available on reverse engineering software. The book also discusses various software protection techniques.
  • Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, second edition, Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman and Mike Speciner, Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN: 0-13-046019-2. This book provides good coverage of cryptography and excellent coverage of several security protocols.
  • Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems, Ross Anderson, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001, ISBN: 0-471-38922-6; see Ross Anderson's Security Engineering website http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html, where you can obtain a free (and legal) copy of the book. This is an excellent book for an overview of security in general, but it is not very focused or technically detailed.
  • Security in Computing, third edition, Charles P. Pfleeger and Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Prentice Hall, 2003, ISBN: 0-13-035548-8. The strength of this book is its coverage of the security issues related to software. In particular, operating systems and some aspects of secure software engineering are covered well. This book also has some good basic information on viruses.
  • Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms and Source Code in C, second edition, Bruce Schneier, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995, ISBN: 0-471-11709-9. For better or for worse this is the standard reference for cryptography, particularly in industry.
  • Counter Hack Reloaded: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Attacks and Effective Defenses, Ed Skoudis with Tom Liston, Prentice Hall, 2006, ISBN: 0-13-148104-5. There are many books that claim to provide information on how to foil hackers, but this is by far the best that I have seen. This is an updated version of the original Counter Hack, published in 2001.
  • Computer Viruses and Malware, John Aycock, Springer, 2006, ISBN: 0387302360. This book gives a good introduction to research topics related to malware. The book is well-written and surprisingly easy reading, given the technical nature of the material. However, it is somewhat uneven in its coverage, with many interesting topics only mentioned in passing, and some of the more lengthy discussions allocated to topics of marginal interest (at least to me).

1. Test 1, 100 points. Date: Tuesday, October 6.
2. Test 2, 100 points. Date: Tuesday, November 17.
3. Cryptanalysis Project, 100 points. Due Tuesday, October 27 and your project topic is due Tuesday, September 15. Note that a written report is required, but no oral report.
   
4. SRE Project, 100 points. Due Tuesday, December 1 and your project topic is due Tuesday, November 3. Presentations will be given beginning on the due date. Note that an oral report is required, but no written report.
   
5. Final, 100 points.
   • Section 01, Monday, December 14 at 9:45am
   • Section 02, Wednesday, December 16 at 9:45am
   • The official finals schedule is here: http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/soc-fall/rec-227.html
6. Semester grade will be computed as a weighted average of the 5 major scores listed above.
7. No make-up tests or quizzes will be given and no late homework or project (or other work) will be accepted.
8. Nominal Grading Scale:
   
   

   Percentage	Grade
   92 and above	A
   90 - 91	A-
   88 - 89	B+
   82 - 87	B
   80 - 81	B-
   78 - 79	C+
   72 - 77	C
   70 - 71	C-
   68 - 69	D+
   62 - 67	D
   60 - 61	D-
   59 and below	F

     CS265HMK assignmentnumber yourlastname last4digitofyourstudentnumber 

• Assignment 1: Due Thursday, September 3
  Solve the following problems from the problem set found here: 3, 8, 10, 13, 17, 21. The PowerPoint slides mentioned in problem 21 can be found here and the video is here.
  
  
• Assignment 2: Due Thursday, September 10
  Chapter 2, Problems 1, 4, 8, 9, 15, 18, 27, 28. Note that for problem 28, parts b and c, you must (briefly) explain how you could write a computer program that would automatically recognize the correct solution.
  
  
• Assignment 3: Due Thursday, September 17
  Chapter 3, Problems 3, 5, 6, 9, 17, 18, 35, 36, 42a. The files you need for problem 35 can be found here and here.
  
  
• Assignment 4: Due Thursday, September 24
  Chapter 4, Problems 2, 5, 9, 13, 15, 21, 22, 24
  
  
• Assignment 5: Due Thursday, October 1
  Chapter 5, Problems 8, 9, 10, 14, 20abc, 21, 29ab, 37. The files you need for problem 20 can be found here and the files you need for problem 37 can be found here.
  
  
• Assignment 6: Due Thursday, October 22
  Chapter 7, Problems 10, 11, 13, 24, 25, 28, 31, 34, 36. For problem 31, you can view the video clip here.
  
  
• Assignment 7: Due Thursday, October 29
  Chapter 8, Problems 3, 5, 13, 15, 25
  Chapter 9, Problems 3, 5, 18, 24, 25
  
  
• Assignment 8: Due Tuesday, November 10
  Chapter 9, Problems 12, 20, 23, 29, 31, 37, 39
  
  
• Assignment 9: Due TBD
  
  
  
• Assignment 10: Due TBD
  
  
  
• Assignment 11: Due TBD
  
  
  

• No extra credit is anticipated
  
  
• Keys to success: Do the homework, do high quality work on the projects, attend class
  
  
• Wireless laptop is required. Your laptop must remain closed (preferably in your backpack and, in any case, not on your desk) until I inform you that it is needed for a particular activity
  
  
• Cheating will not be tolerated...
  
  
• ...but working together is encouraged
  
  
• Student must be respectful of the teacher and other students.
  • No disruptive or annoying talking
  • Turn off cell phones
  • Class begins on time
  • Class is not over until I say it's over
  • Etc.
  
  
• Disability information and policies can be found here
  
  
• Valid picture ID required at all times
  
  
• Why study security?
  
  
• Guest lecture
  
  
  • Speaker: Priti Desai
  • Title: Towards An Undetectable Computer Virus
  • Date: Thursday, November 12
  • Time: 3:00pm
  • Location: MH225
  • Abstract:
    Metamorphic viruses modify their own code to produce viral copies which are syntactically different from their parents. The viral copies have the same functionality as the parent but may have different signatures. This makes signature-based virus scanners unreliable for detecting metamorphic viruses. But statistical pattern analysis tool such as Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) can detect metamorphic viruses. Virus writers use many different code obfuscation techniques to generate metamorphic viruses. In this project we develop a metamorphic engine using code obfuscation techniques. Our metamorphic engine is designed to produce highly diverse morphed copies of the base virus. We show that commercial virus scanners cannot detect metamorphic viruses produced by our engine. We then proceed to determine whether HMMs can detect metamorphic viruses generated by our engine.