18 Jul 2025 Network security
Playing with a couple of common tools used by network defenders and attackers.
Labs
The course will have (up to) eight hands-on practical sessions in the lab. In these labs, we’ll use practical tools to explore software, hosts, networks and the Web with a view to both attack and defence.
4 Jul 2025 Ransomware
An opportunity to play with practical cryptography and see how easy it is to encrypt all of a user’s files.
13 Jun 2025 Password cracking
An opportunity to play with root privilege and try out practical password cracking tools.
30 May 2025 Software exploitation
Practical exploitation of a vulnerable binary using integer arithmetic and return-oriented programming.
23 May 2025 Software (harder)
More exploration of low-level software basics: debugging in hard mode and (a very little bit of) tampering.
9 May 2025 Software (easy mode)
A reminder and exploration of low-level software basics: building and debugging (in "easy mode", i.e., with debugging symbols).
Lab reports
A guide to my expectations for lab reports that you submit in this course.