Course abstract

With increase in the threat of cyber-security attacks, it is important to write software code that is not only efficient but also secure. In this course we will discuss various security vulnerabilities in software code that, if left unfixed, can potentially lead to major cyber-attacks. We will see how these vulnerabilities can arise from simple programming flaws like a buffer that overflows, to complex application runtime characteristics that get manifested in the program’s execution time and power consumption. We will look at some recent cyber-attacks such as Meltdown and Spectre, Heartbleed, and Stagefright. The pre-requisites are a good understanding of C and a basic understanding of computer organization and operating systems.