MSc: Advanced Security

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Advanced security

  • Course name: Advanced Security
  • Course number:

Course characteristics

Key concepts of the class

  • Wireless network security
  • Software security
  • Web application security
  • OWASP
  • Firewall (web application)
  • Assemblers and debuggers for low-level security

What is the purpose of this course?

In this course, server-based and application-based web attacks are taught. We begin by exploring advanced techniques and attacks to which all modern-day complex applications may be vulnerable to. We will learn about new web frameworks and web back-ends, then explore encryption as it relates to web applications, digging deep into practical cryptography used by the web, including techniques to identify the type of encryption in use within the application and methods for exploiting or abusing it. In this course, we will also focus on wireless security such as Bluetooth and WiFi and will dive deeper into the security mechanisms used in the modern-day technologies. Furthermore, we will look into assembly language, assemblers and debuggers that will help us to assess and protect networks and applications. Other important topics in advanced security include Web Application Firewall (WAF) and web vulnerability scanners. Software security is another exciting topic that will be covered in detail in AS. It is worth mentioning that AS is a defensive course where the emphasis will be put on the defensive mechanisms.

Course Objectives Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy

- What should a student remember at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to recognize and define

  • RF and Bluetooth security
  • Database security/Wifi security
  • Web vulnerabilities
  • API security
  • Software security
  • Network security
  • Web application security
  • Assembly language programming, assemblers, and low-level program analysis

- What should a student be able to understand at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to describe and explain (with examples)

  • Web vulnerabilities
  • WPA and WEP definition and differences
  • Web application firewall
  • Use of OWASP
  • Understanding of RF and Bluetooth security
  • Software security

- What should a student be able to apply at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to apply

  • Track application security against known standard OWASP and SANS categories
  • To perform Bluetooth sniffer test.
  • WPA implementation
  • Testing security features within applications

Course evaluation

Course grade breakdown
Proposed points
Labs/seminar classes 20 50
Interim performance assessment 30 0
Exams 50 50

If necessary, please indicate freely your course’s features in terms of students’ performance assessment: None

Grades range

Course grading range
Proposed range
A. Excellent 90-100
B. Good 75-89
C. Satisfactory 60-74
D. Poor 0-59

If necessary, please indicate freely your course’s grading features: The semester starts with the default range as proposed in the Table [tab:MLCourseGradingRange], but it may change slightly (usually reduced) depending on how the semester progresses.

Resources and reference material

  • Michael Sikorksi and Andrew Honig, Practical Malware Analysis by, 1nd Edition, Kindle Edition
  • Online resources provided either in slides or on moodle

Course Sections

The main sections of the course and approximate hour distribution between them is as follows:

Course Sections
Section Section Title Teaching Hours
1 Bluetooth and hardware security 8
2 Wireless and Wifi security 12
3 Web application, vulnerability, firewalls, and software security 16
4 Network security 8

Section 1

Section title:

Bluetooth security

Topics covered in this section:

  • Bluetooth standard
  • Bluetooth applications
  • Bluetooth security

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

|a|c| & Yes/No
Development of individual parts of software product code & 1
Homework and group projects & 1
Midterm evaluation & 1
Testing (written or computer based) & 1
Reports & 0
Essays & 0
Oral polls & 0
Discussions & 1


Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

  1. Explain an ad hoc networking
  2. Explain frequency hoping
  3. Establishing Piconets example
  4. What is sniff mode?

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

  1. What are possible security flaws for common applications of the bluetooth technology?
  2. What approaches are used to increase radio channel security and throughput?
  3. How radio waves are propagated through environment?

Test questions for final assessment in this section

  1. How radio waves are propagated through environment?
  2. What is park mode?
  3. How Service Discovery Protocol works?

Section 2

Section title:

Wireless and Wifi security

Topics covered in this section:

  • Eavesdropping
  • DoS
  • WEP / WPA / RSN
  • RADIUS, EduRoam, and other current security standards in WiFi

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

|a|c| & Yes/No
Development of individual parts of software product code & 1
Homework and group projects & 1
Midterm evaluation & 1
Testing (written or computer based) & 1
Reports & 0
Essays & 0
Oral polls & 0
Discussions & 1


Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

  1. Define WEP issues!
  2. Describe active attack.
  3. TKIP?
  4. AES-CCMP?
  5. RADIUS and other authentication issues in WiFi

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

  1. Handoff-iapp (802.11f)
  2. Pre-auth (802.11i)
  3. EduRoam

Test questions for final assessment in this section

  1. EduRoam?
  2. Explain TLS handshake.
  3. Differences between WEP and WPA?

Section 3

Section title:

Web (application) security, Web vulnerability scanners, and Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Topics covered in this section:

  • Security related to web technologies.
  • Same Origin Policy.
  • Web Attacker Model
  • Web vulnerability scanners
  • Web Application Firewall

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

|a|c| & Yes/No
Development of individual parts of software product code & 1
Homework and group projects & 1
Midterm evaluation & 1
Testing (written or computer based) & 1
Reports & 0
Essays & 0
Oral polls & 0
Discussions & 1


Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

  1. What is Same Origin Policy?
  2. To which attack does SOP mitigate?
  3. How the Document object model could be used for an attacker to manipulate the web browser data?

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

  1. Vulnerability analysis and exploitation for a given web application.
  2. What are the important aspects of web vulnerability scanners?
  3. Write and deploy a WAF rules to mitigate a specific web attack.

Test questions for final assessment in this section

  1. Vulnerability analysis and exploitation for a given web application, explain.
  2. How the Document object model could be used for an attacker to manipulate the web browser data?

Section 4

Section title:

Network security

Topics covered in this section:

  • Network security policies and practices
  • Nmap
  • VPN
  • IPsec

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

|a|c| & Yes/No
Development of individual parts of software product code & 1
Homework and group projects & 1
Midterm evaluation & 1
Testing (written or computer based) & 1
Reports & 0
Essays & 0
Oral polls & 0
Discussions & 1


Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

  1. How VPN improves network security and in which scenarios??
  2. What are the pros and cons of IPsec? And are there any alternatives to IPSes?
  3. How Nmap is used in penetration testing and what are the ethical concerns?

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

  1. Exploit the difference between VPN and sock5.
  2. Exploit IPsec effects on the performance of a networking device.
  3. Why does nmap produce false-positive when scanning a windows host?
  4. Can you improve nmap scanning technique? Elaborate!

Test questions for final assessment in this section

  1. What are the difference between VPN and sock5
  2. Does IPsec effects the performance of a networking device?
  3. What does nmap produce when scanning a windows host?
  4. Can you improve the scanning technique?
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