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CPSC 538M: Systems Security

[**Overview**](#overview) **//** [**Registration and Prerequisites**](#registration-and-prerequisites) **//** [**Evaluation**](#course-structure-and-grading) **//** [**Projects**](./projects.html) **//** [**Class schedule**](#reading-list) **//** [**Academic Integrity**](#academic-integrity)

Overview

This is a research-oriented graduate course covering topics on security and privacy techniques for software systems in the web, cloud, mobile, and edge.

Learning objectives:

get familiar with cutting edge research topics in systems security
understand the key components of executing a systems security research project (both attack and defense mechanisms) from reading papers
be able to apply the security research to your area of practice
evaluate your interest in the field for future research

Instructor: Aastha Mehta ( [firstname]k[lastinitial] [AT] cs.ubc.ca )

Office hours: Mon, 12:00 - 13:00h PT, or by appointment

Class hours: Mon/Wed 10:30 – 12:00 hours PT, ORCH 4052

Web tools: Piazza

Registration and Prerequisites

Registration: Note, the last date to add/drop out of the course is 16 Sep 2024.

Prerequisites: Undergraduate knowledge of operating systems, architecture, networking, databases, and software engineering is essential. Any background in security is welcome but not required. The course is intended for Masters and Ph.D. students in Computer Science, but enterprising Bachelors students are welcome to participate.

Prerequisites for bachelors students: Fourth year standing, satisfying honors requirements. Students should have taken CPSC 313 and CPSC 317. Having taken at least one of CPSC 435A or CPSC 436S is great, but not mandatory.

Evaluation

The primary goal of this course is to prepare you to do research. Therefore, the evaluation for this course consists of only two components (tentative, subject to change until the beginning of the course):

Class participation: 35%
Project: 65%

Class participation (35%):

Students are expected to read the assigned reading material before each class and come prepared with questions and a critical analysis of the papers. You are also encouraged to read the additional reading material. In the class, we will discuss the reading material and applications of the ideas beyond the papers. You are will be graded based on the quality of participation.
In addition, each student is expected to give feedback on at least two other groups’ project proposals. Your feedback will count towards your class participation points.

Project (65%): The course project must be done in teams of 1-2. The goal of the project is to conduct original research in computer security. You are encouraged to come up with your own ideas, but you can talk to the instructor for some ideas that are well-scoped for a course project.

The project deliverables will include a research proposal, a proposal presentation, a final presentation, and a final report. For more details, please check the project page.

Class schedule

Here is a tentative schedule of papers to be covered in the class.

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Date	Topic	Preparation material	Other resources
Sep 02	Labour Day
Sep 04	Introduction, security overview, threat models
Sep 09	Access control	[OS Access Control](https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/security-access.pdf)
Sep 11	Access control in real systems *Register project team*	[Zanzibar](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/atc19-pang.pdf) [Qapla](https://aasthakm.github.io/files/sec17-qapla.pdf)
Sep 16	Noninterference principle and information flow control (IFC)	[Decentralized Label Model](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru/papers/iflow-tosem.pdf)	[DC Labels](http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~russo/publications_files/nordsec2011.pdf)
Sep 18	IFC in real systems	[RESIN](https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/papers/resin:sosp09/resin:sosp09.pdf) [Grok/Legalese](https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/danupam/sen-guha-datta-oakland14.pdf)
Sep 23	Software vulnerabilities	[Eternal War in Memory](https://nebelwelt.net/files/13Oakland.pdf)
Sep 25	Control flow safety *Project abstract due (1 page)*	[CFI principles](https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~abadi/Papers/cfi-tissec-revised.pdf)	[CFI Bending](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity15/sec15-paper-carlini.pdf)
Sep 30	Regional holiday -- National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Oct 02	Software fault isolation *1st project check-in*	[SFI principles](https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~dstefan/cse227-spring21/papers/tan:sfi.pdf)	[XFI](https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/osdi06/tech/full_papers/erlingsson/erlingsson.pdf)
Oct 07	Fine-grained sandboxing	[RLBox](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec20-narayan.pdf)
Oct 09	Compartmentalization techniques *Project proposal due (3 pages)*	See Piazza	[How to write a great research paper](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/write-great-research-paper/)
Oct 14	Holiday -- Thanksgiving
Oct 16	Modeling isolation abstractions *Peer review*	OSMosis (See Piazza)	[Survey: Security Isolation Techniques](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2988545)
Oct 21	*Project proposal presentations*		[How to give a great research talk](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/give-great-research-talk/)
Oct 23	Hardware isolation primitives	[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MREwcSo0uz4)
Oct 28	ARM TEEs	[ReZone](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec22fall_cerdeira.pdf)	[Sanctuary](https://www.ndss-symposium.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ndss2019_01A-1_Brasser_paper.pdf)
Oct 30	Security for accelerators	[ACAI](https://n.ethz.ch/~sshivaji/publications/acai_usenix24.pdf)	[StrongBox](https://fengweiz.github.io/paper/strongbox-ccs22.pdf)
Nov 04	Cache-timing side channels	[Flush+Reload](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity14/sec14-paper-yarom.pdf) [Prime+Probe](http://palms.ee.princeton.edu/system/files/SP_vfinal.pdf)	[Survey](https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/613.pdf)
Nov 06	Cache side-channel mitigations	[Constant-time technique](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/software-security-guidance/secure-coding/mitigate-timing-side-channel-crypto-implementation.html) [Predictive Mitigation](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru/papers/ccs10.pdf)
Nov 11	mid-term break
Nov 13	mid-term break
Nov 18	Transient execution attacks	[Transient execution attacks and defenses](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec19-canella.pdf)	[Survey](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3442479)
Nov 20	Network side-channel attacks *2nd project check-in*	[Beauty and the Burst](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity17/sec17-schuster.pdf)
Nov 25	Hardware-software contracts	[Hardware-software contracts for secure speculation](https://spectector.github.io/papers/hwsw-contracts.pdf)
Nov 27	Network side-channel mitigations	[NetShaper](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/usenixsecurity24-sabzi.pdf)
Dec 02	Recap
Dec 04	*Final project presentation*
Dec 20	*Final project reports due (5 pages)*

(###) Additional reading

Acdemic Integrity

[UBC Academic Honesty and Integrity](https://vancouver.calendar.ubc.ca/campus-wide-policies-and-regulations/academic-honesty-and-standards)
[CS Department's Integrity Policy](https://www.cs.ubc.ca/students/undergrad/resources/academic-integrity)

(###) Acknowledgements

UBC’s main Vancouver campus—including our classroom and other course spaces—is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. These lands have always been a place of learning for Musqueam youth, who were instructed in their culture, history, and tradition, and who in turn shared their knowledge with a new generation.