Network Penetration & Security

Northwestern CS RTFM, Fall Quarter 2007

Sam McIngvale and Whitney Young

Professor Yan Chen

2008 Iteration

Materials are being prepared to enhance this course for 2008. The new class website can be found here.

Overview

This RTFM course will focus on remote computer penetration (hacking). The class will introduce basic theory for many different types of attacks and then actually carry them out in 'real-world' settings. The goal is to learn security by learning how to view your machine as a 'hacker'. In addition, we will be preparing for the 2007 UCSB International Capture the Flag Competition (held each December). Capture the Flag is a network security exercise where the goal is to exploit other machines while defending your own.

During the course, we will read and discuss papers written by professors as well as hackers. We will learn about different types of hacks that we will actually carry out and others that might be beyond the scope of the course. After learning how to execute such exploits and penetrate a network, we will discuss ways to protect your network from others exploiting the same vulnerabilities.

If you have any questions, you can email Sam (sam.mcingvale@u.northwest...) or Whitney (wbyoung@u.northwest...)

Class Files

Newsgroup

The newsgroup is where we will be making announcements throughout the quarter.

Syllabus

Download PDF of syllabus

Projects

Class slides and readings