Writing secure code is a challenging, since one has to make sure that
attackers cannot interfere with the program execution in order to
steal confidential data or to perform unauthorized, security-critical
operations. This task is particularly hard for various reasons:
cryptography is often required to protect messages while
in transit over the network,
programming languages (e.g., JavaScript) often feature a sophisticated and not clearly
defined semantics, and development environments (e.g., mobile OS,
web platforms, and smart contracts) are extremely complex and offer a large attack
surface.
In this course, students will learn the semantic foundations of
computer security. In particular, they will study the state-of-the-art
formal methods for the verification of security and privacy properties.
These verification techniques are based on type systems and SMT-solving: students will study their foundations and learn how to apply them in various domains of interest, such as cryptographic protocols, source code, bytecode (e.g., Android and Ethereum).
For instance, students will study and have hands-on experience on ProVerif, a state-of-the-art cryptographic protocol verifier, and F*, a typed programming language successfully used to verify TLS 1.3 implementations as well as Firefox cryptographic libraries, thereby showing the
practical impact of formal methods for security and privacy in today's
software and systems (see also https://project-everest.github.io).
This is a research-oriented course, so it is particularly (but not
exclusively) indicated to those students who are potentially
interested in doing research at the intersection between logic &
verification and security & privacy, or to learn the state-of-the-art
in security and privacy verification.
- Analysis of Cryptographic Protocols via SMT solving (Applied
Pi-Calculus and ProVerif)
- Language-based Security (Non-Interference, Hyperproperties, and Side Channels)
- Secure JavaScript Programming (Semantics and Security Type Systems for
JavaScript)
- Foundations of Security Static Analysis (Taint Analysis, Symbolic
Execution, SMT solving)
- Formal Security Analysis of Bytecode (Android, Ethereum Virtual Machine)
ECTS Breakdown: 6 ECTS = 150 Stunden
40h lectures, tutorials, exam
30h self-study
80h projects and exercises
