16:198:671:01: Introduction to Software Security

Archived Announcements

• (4/28/09) Project reports are due by midnight on Tuesday, May 5th. Please send them to me by email as a PDF document only and also CC Mohan Dhawan in your email.
• (4/22/09). The preliminary program for the 2009 RUSENIX Security Program has been posted.
• (4/17/09). Upcoming deadlines:
  • 4/21/09: Title and abstracts due. Call for papers is now available.
  • 4/28/09: 2009 RUSENIX Security Symposium. Please send your presentations to me in PPT or PDF format.
  • 5/5/09: Final papers due. See Call for papers for instructions.
• (3/18/09) Related work sections for your project are due on 3/24/09. You should append this section to your project proposal document and highlight: (a) prior work related to the problem that you're proposing to solve; and (b) how your proposed approach differs or is similar to prior work. In addition to the related work section, you should also include a Status update section, in which you describe your progress on the project in the last month.
  Please submit a PDF document with the above by email to me and Mohan by the end of the day on March 24th. No extensions will be granted, so plan accordingly.
• (3/18/09) Midterm exam: I will hand out a mid-term exam in class on March 24th. The exam will involve paper-and-pencil questions (i.e., no programming/hacking exercises) and is due to me by 6pm on March 25th. Late submissions will not be accepted. You can stop by my office on 25th between 5-6pm to turn in your answers (please send me an email if you can't make it at this time).
• (2/21/2009) Project proposals are due on Tuesday, 2/24/2009. Please send me and Mohan a PDF document by email. The project proposal should contain the title of the project, team-members, as well as a clear description of the problem that you're proposing to solve. You should also have a brief description of related work in the area (a more detailed related work section will be due a month from now) and a high-level overview of the solution that you're proposing. As a rough guideline, the project proposal should resemble (in content and length) the introduction section of the papers that we've read in class so far. Here's a good guideline to write paper introductions.
• (2/12/2009) If you are a student who has registered for class, you should have received an email from me with ideas for possible class projects.
• (2/3/09) Office hours for Wednesday, February 4th have been cancelled and have been moved to Thursday, February 5th, 4:00pm-5:00pm.
• (1/27/09) Please email your paper reviews in plain text format only.
• (1/24/09) If you could not attend the first class, please remind me to assign you a paper for presentation when you come to class on Tuesday.
• (1/20/09) Paper reviews: These must be sent by email to both me and the TA by noon on the day of class. Please prefix the subject of your email with the string "[671-review]" so that I can filter it appropriately. For tips on reading and presenting research papers, consult the resources section of the class webpage.
• (1/20/09) Preliminary paper presentation assigments have been posted.
• (1/20/09) Students who plan to take this class but haven't yet registered need to do so ASAP.
• (1/14/09) Hot off the press: Check out the top 25 most dangerous programming errors, released by the SANS institute. We will cover several of these in class. This list can also motivate possible research projects for class.
• (1/14/09) Our first class will be on Tuesday 1/20/09 at 5pm. If you have any questions on the syllabus or prerequisites, please email the instructor or come to the first class. We will also decide paper assignments on the first day of class.
• (1/14/09) The course website is live! Please watch this space for announcements over the course of the semester.