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CS 161 Spring 2025

Instructor: Peyrin Kao / Lecture: 3-4PM MWF, Dwinelle 155 [Zoom]

If you have questions before the semester starts, please see our SP25 FAQs page.

Course Calendar

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Wk. Date Lecture Discussion HW Project
1Wed
Jan 22
1. Introduction and Security Principles
Slides / Recording / Ch. 1
0. 61C Review
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
HW1
(due 01/31)
Project 1 Checkpoint
(due 02/07)
Fri
Jan 24
2. x86 Assembly and Call Stack
Slides / Recording / Ch. 2 / x86/GDB Cheat Sheet
2Mon
Jan 27
3. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities
Slides / Recording / Ch. 3
1. Security Principles and x86
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Wed
Jan 29
4. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities 2
Slides / Recording / Ch. 3
Fri
Jan 31
3Mon
Feb 03
5. Mitigating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities
Slides / Recording / Ch. 4
2. Memory Safety
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW2
(due 02/07)
Wed
Feb 05
Fri
Feb 07
4Mon
Feb 10
6. Intro to Cryptography
Slides / Ch. 5
3. Memory Safety Mitigations
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW3
(due 02/21)
Project 1
(due 02/14)
Wed
Feb 12
7. One-Time Pads and Block Ciphers Modes of Operation
Slides / Ch. 6
Fri
Feb 14
5Mon
Feb 17

No Lecture (President’s Day)

4. Symmetric Cryptography
Worksheet
Exam Prep
Project 2 Spec Quiz
(due 02/21)
Wed
Feb 19
8. Block Cipher Modes of Operation
Slides / Ch. 6
Fri
Feb 21
6Mon
Feb 24
9. Cryptographic Hashes and MACs
Slides / Ch. 7 / Ch. 8
5. Integrity and Authenticity HW4
(due 03/07)
Project 2 Design Checkpoint
(due 03/03)
Wed
Feb 26
10. Public-Key Encryption and Digital Signatures
Slides / Ch. 11 / Ch. 12
Fri
Feb 28
7Mon
Mar 03
11. PRNGs and Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
Slides / Ch. 9 / Ch. 10
6. Asymmetric Cryptography
Wed
Mar 05
Project 2 Testing Checkpoint
(due 03/21)
12. Certificates, Passwords, and Case Studies
Slides / Ch. 13 / Ch. 14
Fri
Mar 07
8Mon
Mar 10
13. Introduction to Web and Cookies
Slides / Ch. 18 / Ch. 19 / Ch. 20
7. Cookies and CSRF HW5
(due 03/21)
Wed
Mar 12
Thu
Mar 13

Midterm (Thu Mar 13, 7–9pm)

Fri
Mar 14
14. Cookies and CSRF
Slides / Ch. 20 / Ch. 21
9Mon
Mar 17
15. XSS and UI Attacks
Slides / Ch. 22 / Ch. 23
8. SQL Injection and XSS
Wed
Mar 19
16. SQL Injection and CAPTCHAs
Slides / Ch. 17 / Ch. 24
Fri
Mar 21
10Mon
Mar 24

No Lecture (Spring Break)

No Discussion (Spring Break) HW6
(due 04/04)
Project 2
(due 04/04)
Wed
Mar 26
Fri
Mar 28
11Mon
Mar 31
17. Intro to Networking
Slides / Ch. 25
9. ARP, DHCP, WPA
Wed
Apr 02
18. Low-Level Network Attacks
Slides / Ch. 26 / Ch. 27 / Ch. 28 / Ch. 29
Fri
Apr 04
12Mon
Apr 07
19. Transport Layer: TCP and UDP
Slides / Ch. 30
10. TCP and TLS HW7
(due 04/18)
Project 3
(due 04/18)
Wed
Apr 09
20. TLS
Slides / Ch. 31
Fri
Apr 11
13Mon
Apr 14
21. DNS
Slides / Ch. 32
11. DNS
Wed
Apr 16
22. DNSSEC
Slides / Ch. 33
Fri
Apr 18
14Mon
Apr 21
23. Denial of Service and Firewalls
Slides / Ch. 34 / Ch. 35
12. Intrusion Detection
Wed
Apr 23
24. Intrusion Detection
Slides / Ch. 36
Fri
Apr 25
15Mon
Apr 28
25. Bitcoin
Slides / Ch. 16 / Bitcoin Whitepaper
13. Tor and Firewalls
Wed
Apr 30
26. Anonymity and Tor
Slides / Ch. 38
Fri
May 02
16Mon
May 05

No Lecture (RRR Week)

Wed
May 07
Fri
May 09
17Wed
May 14

Final Exam (Wed May 14, 7–10pm)