Schedule

Date	Topic	Discussion Lead(s)
Aug 25	Introduction, Motivation, and Course Logistics	Venkat
Aug 27	Brief Review of Modern Processors-1 Reading: Chapters 1 from Processor Microarchitecture: An Implementation Perspective Chapters 2.3, 2.2, and 2.1 from Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual in that order.	Venkat
Sep 1	Brief Review of Modern Processors-2 Reading: Chapters 2 from Processor Microarchitecture: An Implementation Perspective Chapters 2.6 from Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual.	Venkat
Sep 3	Fundamentals of Computer Security-1 Reading: Chapters 2.1-2.3 Section 1 from The Protection of Information in Computer Systems, IEEE 1975	Venkat
Sep 8	Fundamentals of Computer Security-2 Reading: Section 2 from The Protection of Information in Computer Systems, IEEE 1975 SoK: Eternal War in Memory, S&P 2013	Venkat
Sep 10	Memory Safety and Capability-Based Addressing Reading: SoK: Sanitizing for Security, S&P 2019 The CHERI capability model: Revisiting RISC in an age of risk, ISCA 2014 CHEx86: Context-Sensitive Enforcement of Memory Safety via Microcode-Enabled Capabilities, ISCA 2020	Venkat
Sep 15	Side and Covert Channels-1 Reading: Chapter 8 A Note on the Confinement Problem, CACM 1973	Venkat
Sep 17	Side and Covert Channels-2 Reading: New cache designs for thwarting software cache-based side channel attacks, ISCA 2007 BranchScope: A New Side-Channel Attack on Directional Branch Predictor, ASPLOS 2018 Jump Over ASLR: Attacking Branch Predictors to Bypass ASLR, MICRO 2016	Venkat
Sep 22	Transient Execution Attacks Reading: Chapters 3.2-3.3 Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution, S&P 2019 The Evolution of Transient-Execution Attacks, GLVLSI 2020	Venkat
Sep 24	Transient Execution Attack Mitigations Reading: Evolution of Defenses against Transient-Execution Attacks, GLVLSI 2020 InvisiSpec: Making Speculative Execution Invisible in the Cache Hierarchy, MICRO 2018 Context-Sensitive Fencing: Securing Speculative Execution via Microcode Customization, ASPLOS 2019 CleanupSpec: An "Undo" Approach to Safe Speculation, MICRO 2019	Venkat
Sep 29	Information-Flow Tracking-1 Reading: Secure Program Execution via Dynamic Information Flow Tracking, ASPLOS 2004 Speculative Taint Tracking (STT): A Comprehensive Protection for Speculatively Accessed Data, MICRO 2019	Venkat Kulkarni
Oct 1	Information-Flow Tracking-2 Reading: A Hardware Design Language for Timing-Sensitive Information-Flow Security, ASPLOS 2015	Venkat
Oct 6	Rowhammer Attacks and Defenses + Processing-In-Cache Reading: Flipping Bits in Memory Without Accessing Them: An Experimental Study of DRAM Disturbance Errors, ISCA 2014 ZebRAM: Comprehensive and Compatible Software Protection Against Rowhammer Attacks, OSDI 2018 Neural Cache: Bit-Serial In-Cache Acceleration of Deep Neural Networks, ISCA 2018	Paul
Oct 8	Model Inversion and Membership Inference + Processing-In-Memory Reading: Model Inversion Attacks that Exploit Confidence Information and Basic Countermeasures, CCS 2015 Membership Inference Attacks Against Machine Learning Models, S&P 2017 PRIME: A Novel Processing-in-Memory Architecture for Neural Network Computation in ReRAM-Based Main Memory, ISCA 2016	Gumabay Toor
Oct 13	Rowhammer on Neural Nets + Hardware Backdoors + Pointer Provenance Reading: Terminal Brain Damage: Exposing the Graceless Degradation in Deep Neural Networks Under Hardware Fault Attacks, USENIX Security 2019 Hardware Backdoors in x86 CPUs, Black Hat 2018 CheriABI: Enforcing Valid Pointer Provenance and Minimizing Pointer Privilege in the POSIX C Run-time Environment, ASPLOS 2019	Toor Krist McDowell
Oct 15	Data-Oriented Programming + Data-Oblivious Execution + Bit Trojans Reading: Data-Oriented Programming: On the Expressiveness of Non-control Data Attacks, S&P 2016 Data Oblivious ISA Extensions for Side Channel-Resistant and High Performance Computing, NDSS 2019 TBT: Targeted Neural Network Attack with Bit Trojan , CVPR 2020	Siddique Ahmed Toor
Oct 20	Exploiting Voltage and Frequency Scaling Reading: CLKSCREW: Exposing the Perils of Security-Oblivious Energy Management, USENIX Security 2017 Plundervolt: Software-based Fault Injection Attacks against Intel SGX, S&P 2020 V0LTpwn: Attacking x86 Processor Integrity from Software, USENIX Security 2020	Moody
Oct 22	Model Extraction Attacks Reading: Stealing Machine Learning Models via Prediction APIs, USENIX Security 2016 Stealing Hyperparameters in Machine Learning, S&P 2018 Stealing Neural Networks via Timing Side Channels, arXiv 2018 Cache Telepathy: Leveraging Shared Resource Attacks to Learn DNN Architectures, S&P 2020	Gumabay Wu
Oct 27	No Class (Intel FoMR PI Meeting)	-
Oct 29	Memory Isolation + Memory Bus Snooping Attacks + Branch Predictor Hardening Reading: SEIMI: Efficient and Secure SMAP-Enabled Intra-process Memory Isolation, S&P 2020 An Off-Chip Attack on Hardware Enclaves via the Memory Bus, USENIX Security 2020 BRB: Mitigating Branch Predictor Side-Channels, HPCA 2019	Kulkarni Rudek Wu
Nov 3	Trusted Execution Environments-1: Intel SGX Reading: Sections 5.1-5.4 from Intel SGX Explained Software Grand Exposure: SGX Cache Attacks Are Practical, WOOT 2017 Telling Your Secrets Without Page Faults: Stealthy Page Table-Based Attacks on Enclaved Execution, USENIX Security 2017	Kato
Nov 5	FPGA/GPU Security Reading: FPGA-Based Remote Power Side-Channel Attacks, S&P 2018 C3APSULe: Cross-FPGA Covert-Channel Attacks through Power Supply Unit Leakage, S&P 2020 Grand Pwning Unit: Accelerating Microarchitectural Attacks with the GPU, S&P 2018	Jordan
Nov 10	More IFC + Replay Attacks + RAMBleed Reading: A Progress-Sensitive Flow-Sensitive Inlined Information-Flow Control Monitor (extended version), Computers and Security 2017 MicroScope: Enabling Microarchitectural Replay Attacks, ISCA 2019 RAMBleed: Reading Bits in Memory Without Accessing Them, S&P 2020	Mayes Siddique Ahmed
Nov 12	Technical Evaluation: Methods and Best Practices Reading: Chapters 2, 3, and 5 from Computer Architecture Performance Evaluation Methods Benchmarking Crimes: An Emerging Threat in Systems Security, arXiV 2018	Venkat
Nov 17	Security of Compressed Caches + Controlled-Channel Attacks + JIT Leaks Reading: Safecracker: Leaking Secrets through Compressed Caches, ASPLOS 2020 CopyCat: Controlled Instruction-Level Attacks on Enclaves, USENIX Security 2020 JIT Leaks: Inducing Timing Side Channels through Just-In-Time Compilation, S&P 2020	Kulkarni Siddique Ahmed
Nov 19	Trusted Execution Environments-2: ARM TrustZone Reading: Demystifying Arm TrustZone: A Comprehensive Survey, ACM Computing Surveys 2019 vTZ: Virtualizing ARM TrustZone, USENIX Security 2017 SoK: Understanding the Prevailing Security Vulnerabilities in TrustZone-assisted TEE Systems, S&P 2020	Mansouri
Nov 24	No Class (ISCA deadline)	-

Honor Code

I trust every student in this course to fully abide by the University's Honor Code and pledge to not commit academic fraud. You are allowed to discuss, collaborate, and brainstorm both within and outside your group. You're also free to lookup and use source code/tools on the internet with appropriate citations. However, you're not allowed to plagiarize text from another student's assignment or from the internet, and/or falsify data. Cheating will be taken seriously and will be reported to the honor committee. All suspected honor violations will receive an immediate zero on that assignment regardless of any action taken by the Honor Committee.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the course Honor policy. If you believe you may have committed an Honor Offense, you may wish to file a Conscientious Retraction by calling the Honor Offices at (434) 924-7602. For your retraction to be considered valid, it must, among other things, be filed with the Honor Committee before you are aware that the act in question has come under suspicion by anyone. More information can be found here. Your Honor representatives can be found at this link

Learning Accommodations

Students with disabilities or learning needs
It is my goal to create a learning experience that is as accessible as possible. If you anticipate any issues related to the format, materials, or requirements of this course, please meet with me outside of class so we can explore potential options. Students with disabilities may also wish to work with the Student Disability Access Center to discuss a range of options to removing barriers in this course, including official accommodations. Please visit their website for information on this process and to apply for services online. If you have already been approved for accommodations through SDAC, please send me your accommodation letter and meet with me so we can develop an implementation plan together.

Discrimination and power-based violence
The University of Virginia is dedicated to providing a safe and equitable learning environment for all students. To that end, it is vital that you know two values that I and the University hold as critically important:

1. Power-based personal violence will not be tolerated.
2. Everyone has a responsibility to do their part to maintain a safe community on Grounds.

If you or someone you know has been affected by power-based personal violence, more information can be found on the UVA Sexual Violence website that describes reporting options and resources available.

As your professor and as a person, know that I care about you and your well-being and stand ready to provide support and resources as I can. As a faculty member, I am a responsible employee, which means that I am required by University policy and federal law to report what you tell me to the University's Title IX Coordinator. The Title IX Coordinator's job is to ensure that the reporting student receives the resources and support that they need, while also reviewing the information presented to determine whether further action is necessary to ensure survivor safety and the safety of the University community. If you wish to report something that you have seen, you can do so at the Just Report It portal. The worst possible situation would be for you or your friend to remain silent when there are so many here willing and able to help.

Religious accommodations
It is the University's long-standing policy and practice to reasonably accommodate students so that they do not experience an adverse academic consequence when sincerely held religious beliefs or observances conflict with academic requirements. Students who wish to request academic accommodation for a religious observance should submit their request in writing directly to me as far in advance as possible. Students who have questions or concerns about academic accommodations for religious observance or religious beliefs may contact the University’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR) at UVAEOCR@virginia.edu or (434) 924-3200.