General
- study semester
-
5-6
- standard study semester
-
6
- cycle
- occasional
- duration
- 1 semester
- SWS
- 4
- ECTS
- 6
- teaching language
- English
People
- responsible
-
Dr. Michael Schwarz
- lectures
-
Dr. Michael Schwarz
Assessment & Grades
- entrance requirements
-
A background in the basics of operating systems and in programming C is recommended
- assessment / exams
project and written exam
- grade
Will be determined from performance in exams, exercises, and practical tasks. The exact modalities will be announced at the beginning of the module.
Workload
- course type /weekly hours
2 h lectures
+ 2 h tutorial
= 4 h (weekly)
- total workload
60 h of classes
+ 120 h private study
= 180 h (= 6 ECTS)
Aims / Competences to be developed
Students will acquire both a theoretical and practical understanding of microarchitectural attacks, such as side-channel attacks, transient-execution attacks, and software-based fault attacks. The students will understand the attack surface for these types of attacks and learn how such attacks can be mitigated on the hardware, operating system, and software layer. Moreover, students will acquire a more in-depth understanding of how modern CPUs work internally.
The lectures are accompanied by exercises to apply the theoretical concepts in a practical setting and get hands-on experiences with side-channel attacks and their mitigations.
Content
- Basic introduction to the CPU microarchitecture and side channels
- Software-based side-channel attacks (e.g., cache attacks, timing attacks)
- Trusted execution environments and their attack surface (e.g.,
controlled-channel attacks)
- Transient execution attacks (e.g., Meltdown, Spectre, ZombieLoad)
- Software-based fault attacks (e.g., Rowhammer, Plundervolt)
- Overview of various other types of side channels
- Mitigation strategies in software and hardware
Literature & Reading
The teaching material will be in English and it will be announced at the beginning of the lecture.
Additional Information
Curriculum
This module is part of the following study programmes:
Cybersecurity MSc: Vertiefungsvorlesungen Cybersecurity
study semester: 1-3 / standard study semester: 4
Cybersecurity BSc (English): Kernthemen der Cybersicherheit
study semester: 5-6 / standard study semester: 6
Cybersicherheit BSc: Vertiefungsvorlesungen der Cybersicherheit
study semester: 5-6 / standard study semester: 6