CSCI 1650

Overview

CSCI 1650 covers software exploitation techniques and state-of-the-practice mechanisms for hardening software. The course begins with a summary of prevalent software defects, typically found in applications written in memory unsafe languages, like C/C++, and proceeds with studying traditional and modern exploitation techniques, ranging from classical code injection and code reuse up to the latest goodies (e.g., JIT-ROP). It also covers defenses against certain vulnerability classes and the way(s) to bypass them. Students will be introduced to advanced software exploitation techniques and countermeasures, and study (in depth) the boundaries and effectiveness of standard hardening mechanisms, such as address space randomization and stack and heap protections.

syllabus.pdf

Prerequisites

CSCI 1670 (Operating Systems) ||
CSCI 0330 (Introduction to Computer Systems) ||
CSCI 0300 (Fundamentals of Computer Systems)

Grading

10%	`Participation` (Ed Discussion)
50%	`Assignments` (4 CTFs)
15%	`Midterm`
25%	`Final`

Acknowledgments

This course would not be possible without the support and assistance of the following people:

Fall '24: Maya Magavi (HTA), Alexander Portland (TA), Bahar Birsel (TA), Caroline Cahill (TA), James Hu (TA), Kamyar Mirfakhraie (TA), Kendra Lee (TA), Lucy Gramley (TA), Pauline Nguyen (TA), Subham Kumar Das (TA), Javier Fernandez Garcia (TA), Thu Luu (TA), Yen Chu (TA), Yu Nie (TA)
Fall '23: Oren Kohavi (HTA), Austin Phan (TA), Hayley Kang (TA), Isha Mody (TA), Kathy Li (TA), Keitaro Nishijima (TA), Maya Fleischer (TA), Riyao Lin (TA), Stephen Rosa (TA), Treetased Vividhwara (TA)
Fall '22: Oren Kohavi (HTA), Floria Tsui (TA), Guangfeng Xu (TA), John Fay (TA), Kaki Su (TA), Linus Sun (TA), Vanessa Chang (TA)
Fall '21: Zachary Espiritu (HTA), Andrew Boden (TA), Andrew Cooke (TA), Maura Driscoll (TA), Ben Givertz (TA), Brandon Lee (TA), Zachary Mothner (TA), Ian Rackow (TA), Daniel Ramirez (TA), Alex Reuter (TA), Marina Triebenbacher (TA)
Fall '20: Brian Tracy (HTA), Zsozso Biegl (TA), Ethan Greenberg (TA), Peter Harvie (TA), Garret Kern (TA), Cat Nguyen (TA), Yue Sun (TA)
Fall '19: Alexander Gaidis (HTA), Di Jin (GTA), Hannah Baackmaan-Friedlaender (TA), Changmin Teng (TA), David Liu (TA), Mneera Abdullah (TA)
Fall '18: Bessie Jiang (HTA), Elisa Guerrant (TA), Yujun Qin (TA)
Fall '17: Frederick Rice (HTA)
Fall '16: Luke Camery (TA)

Meetings

MW 3PM – 4:20PM (T hour)
Smith-Buonanno Hall 106 (Zoom)

Instructor

`Vasileios (Vasilis) Kemerlis`

https://cs.brown.edu/~vpk
echo @cs.brown.edu|sed 's/^/vpk/'
Zoom (Mon. 6PM – 7PM)

Teaching Assistants

`Ruth Ukubay (HTA)`

echo @cs.brown.edu|sed 's/^/rukubay/'
CIT 269 + Zoom (Fri. 12PM – 2PM)

`Alice Song (TA)`

echo @cs.brown.edu|sed 's/^/zsong50/'
CIT 143 + Zoom (Tue. 7PM – 9PM)

`Aly Rajwani (TA)`

echo arajwan^2@cs.brown.edu|tr -d ^
CIT 143 + Zoom (Thu. 6:30PM – 8:30PM)

`Caden Schroeder (TA)`

echo cschroe^4@cs.brown.edu|tr -d ^
CIT 201 + Zoom (Mon. 12PM – 2PM)

`Elizabeth Gresalfi (TA)`

echo e^rgresal@cs.brown.edu|tr -d ^
CIT 165 + Zoom (Tue. 4PM – 6PM)

`Saswata Majumder (TA)`

echo smajum^14@cs.brown.edu|tr -d ^
CIT 227 + Zoom (Wed. 6PM – 8PM)

Communication

Announcements

10/08/2025	Lecture `0xa` posted.
10/06/2025	Assignment `0x1` is due on 10/14/2025.
10/06/2025	Lecture `0x9` posted.
10/01/2025	Lecture `0x8` posted.
09/29/2025	Assignment `0x1` posted.
09/29/2025	Lecture `0x7` posted.
09/24/2025	Lecture `0x6` posted.
09/22/2025	Lecture `0x5` posted.
09/17/2025	Lecture `0x4` posted.
09/15/2025	Lecture `0x3` posted.
09/10/2025	Lecture `0x2` posted.
09/08/2025	Lecture `0x1` posted.
09/03/2025	Welcome to CSCI 1650!