161 lock logo

CS 161 Fall 2024

For questions about Spring 2025, please see our SP25 FAQs page.

Instructor: David Wagner / Lecture: 9:30-11AM Tu & Th, Hearst Annex A1 [Zoom, Playlist]

Course Calendar

Skip to current week

Wk. Date Lecture Discussion HW Vitamin Project
1Thu
Aug 29
1. Introduction and Security Principles
Slides / Recording / Ch. 1
0. 61C Review
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
HW1
(due 09/06)
Vitamin 1
(due 09/02)
Project 1 Checkpoint
(due 09/13)
2Tue
Sep 03
2. x86 Assembly and Call Stack
Slides / Recording / Ch. 2 / x86/GDB Cheat Sheet
1. Security Principles and x86
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Thu
Sep 05
3. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities
Slides / Recording / Ch. 3
Vitamin 2
(due 09/09)
3Tue
Sep 10
4. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities 2
Slides / Recording / Ch. 3
2. Memory Safety
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW2
(due 09/20)
Thu
Sep 12
5. Mitigating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities
Slides / Recording / Ch. 4
Vitamin 3
(due 09/16)
4Tue
Sep 17
6. Intro to Cryptography
Slides / Recording / Ch. 5
3. Memory Safety Mitigations
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Project 1
(due 09/20)
Thu
Sep 19
7. One-Time Pads and Block Ciphers Modes of Operation
Slides / Recording / Ch. 6
Vitamin 4
(due 09/23)
5Tue
Sep 24
8. Block Cipher Modes of Operation
Slides / Recording / Ch. 6
4. Symmetric Cryptography
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW3
(due 10/04)
Project 2 Spec Quiz
(due 09/27)
Thu
Sep 26
9. Cryptographic Hashes and MACs
Slides / Recording / Ch. 7 / Ch. 8
Vitamin 5
(due 09/30)
6Tue
Oct 01
10. PRNGs and Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
Slides / Recording / Ch. 9 / Ch. 10
5. Integrity and Authenticity
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Project 2 Design Checkpoint
(due 10/08)
Thu
Oct 03
11. Public-Key Encryption and Digital Signatures
Slides / Recording / Ch. 11 / Ch. 12
Vitamin 6
(due 10/07)
7Tue
Oct 08
12. Certificates, Passwords, and Case Studies
Slides / Recording / Ch. 13 / Ch. 14
6. Asymmetric Cryptography
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW4
(due 10/11)
Thu
Oct 10
13. Introduction to Web
Slides / Recording / Ch. 18 / Ch. 19
Vitamin 7
(due 10/23)
Project 2 Testing Checkpoint
(due 10/23)
8Mon
Oct 14

Midterm (7-9pm PT)

7. Cookies and CSRF
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW5
(due 10/25)
Tue
Oct 15
14. Cookies and CSRF
Slides / Recording / Ch. 20 / Ch. 21
Thu
Oct 17
15. XSS
Slides / Recording / Ch. 22
9Tue
Oct 22
16. UI Attacks, SQL Injection
Slides / Recording / Ch. 23 / Ch. 17
8. SQL Injection and XSS
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Vitamin 8
(due 10/28)
Thu
Oct 24
17. CAPTCHAs, Intro to Networking
Slides / Recording / Ch. 24 / Ch. 25
Project 2
(due 11/01)
10Tue
Oct 29
18. Low-Level Network Attacks
Slides / Recording / Ch. 26 / Ch. 27 / Ch. 28
9. ARP, DHCP, WPA
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW6
(due 11/08)
Vitamin 9
(due 11/04)
Thu
Oct 31
19. Network Attacks, BGP
Slides / Recording / Ch. 29
11Tue
Nov 05
20. TCP, UDP, and TLS
Slides / Recording / Ch. 30 / Ch. 31
10. TCP and TLS
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Vitamin 10
(due 11/12)
Project 3
(due 11/15)
Thu
Nov 07
21. TLS and DNS
Slides / Recording / Ch. 32
12Tue
Nov 12
22. DNS and DNSSEC
Slides / Recording / Ch. 33
11. DNS
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
HW7
(due 11/22)
Vitamin 11
(due 11/18)
Thu
Nov 14
23. DNSSEC and Denial of Service
Slides / Recording / Ch. 34
13Tue
Nov 19
24. Denial of Service and Firewalls
Slides / Recording / Ch. 35
12. Intrusion Detection
Worksheet / Solutions / Video
Exam Prep / Solutions / Video
Vitamin 12
(due 11/25)
Thu
Nov 21
25. Intrusion Detection
Slides / Recording / Ch. 36
14Tue
Nov 26
26. Anonymity and Tor
Slides / Recording / Ch. 38
No Discussion (Thanksgiving)
Thu
Nov 28

No Lecture (Thanksgiving)

15Tue
Dec 03
27. ML and GenAI
Slides / Recording
13. Tor and Firewalls
Worksheet
Exam Prep
Thu
Dec 05
28. E-voting
16Tue
Dec 10

No Lecture (RRR Week)

Topical Review Sessions
Thu
Dec 12

No Lecture (RRR Week)

17Tue
Dec 17

Final Exam (3–6pm PT)