ECE-5641 Software Security
An Introduction to Software Security
Instructor
For correspondence, send a mail to ek@ccs.neu.edu.
Office hours: Tuesdays, 2pm-3pm (send an email to get access to 177 Huntington)
Teaching Assistants
Naman Shah (shah.naman@northeastern.edu)
Lab hours: Tuesdays, Fridays, 4pm-6pm, RI 325
News
- 09.18.2025 Date of the Final announced. See Canvas announcements for details.
- 09.16.2025 Challenge 1 is online.
- 09.11.2025 Class Piazza has been created.
- 09.09.2025 Account information has been sent out to all participants.
- 09.04.2025 The course website will be updated in the next few days.
Abstract
Today, computer security problems have started to impact the practical aspects of our lives. Even though there is a considerable corpus of knowledge about tools and techniques to protect systems, information about what the actual vulnerabilities are and how they are exploited is not generally available. Also, there are many misconceptions when it comes to protecting systems.
This course deals with common programming, configuration, and design mistakes and ways to detect and avoid them. Examples are used to highlight general error classes, such as stack and heap overflows. Possible protection and detection techniques are examined. The course includes a number of practical lab assignments where participants are required to apply their knowledge as well as a discussion of the current research in the field. Students will learn how the security of systems can be violated, and how such attacks can be detected and prevented. The course aims to make the students "security aware", and gain a basic understanding about security issues.
Some Topics
- Code security
- Web security
- Malware
- Underground economy
- Social network security and fraud
- Reverse engineering and binary analysis
- Intrusion detection
- Testing
- Operational security
Prerequisites
Programming experience (this course is not for you if you are a complete beginner)Knowledge of C/C++ useful
Basic web programming knowledge is useful
Knowledge of general computer science concepts
Dates and Times
Tuesdays and Fridays (9:50am-11:15am, 225 Richards Hall)
Slides, Material, and Schedule
All course materials will be available on Canvas.
- 12.05.2025D // Final
- 12.02.2025 // Class 24
- 11.28.2025 // Thanksgiving break
- 11.25.2025 // Class 23
- 11.21.2025 // Class 22 // Quiz 3
- 11.18.2025 // Class 21
- 11.14.2025 // Class 20
- 11.11.2025 // Veteran's Day, no class
- 11.07.2025 // Class 18
- 11.04.2025 // Class 17 // Quiz 2
- 10.31.2025 // Class 16
- 10.28.2025 // Class 15
- 10.24.2025 // Class 14
- 10.21.2025 // Midterm
- 10.17.2025 // Class 13
- 10.14.2025 // Class 12
- 10.10.2025 // Class 11
- 10.07.2025 // Class 10
- 10.03.2025 // Class 9 // Quiz 1
- 09.30.2025 // Class 8
- 09.26.2025 // Class 7
- 09.23.2025 // Class 6
- 09.19.2025 // Class 5
- 09.16.2025 // Class 4 // Slides available on Canvas
- 09.12.2025 // Class 3 // Slides available on Canvas
- 09.09.2025 // Class 2 // Slides available on Canvas
- 09.05.2025 // Class 1 // Slides available on Canvas
Practical Challenges (Assignments)
Students will "need" to solve a set of practical challenges (assignments) in the lab part of the course. For more information on the challenges and the grading, check this page.
Grading
The course grade will be based on:
10%: Participation10%: 3 Quizzes (1-2-3)
25%: Midterm exam
25%: Final exam
30%: Security labs
Registration
Registration details will be announced via e-mail to the registered participants.
Last Modified: Thu Sep 18 13:44:17 2025 EDT