Computer Science CS 4/6/79995 ST: Design of Secure Operating Systems
Section 021/020/020
Call Numbers 12966/10607/10621
SYLLABUS
Summer 2013

Time and Place:

Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00 to 5:40 in room 228 MSB

Instructor:

Michael Rothstein, 268 MSB, phone 330-672-9065. Email address: rothstei at cs.kent.edu (The address mrothste at kent.edu will not work too well because I do not check it as often; for a quicker response, the first address is recommended.)

Web address:

http://www.cs.kent.edu/~rothstei

Office Hours:

Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00-3:30 and after class. Also, you can always send email with questions and/or to set up an appointment. Usual turnaround will be a few hours during the day. Email use is to be preferred over voicemail, which will not be checked as often.

Textbook:

Jaeger, Trent, Operating System Security, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2008, ISBN 9781598292121 (paperbook), 9781598292138 (ebook)

Additional bibliography:

• Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne, Operating System Concepts 8th Ed Update, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, 2012, ISBN 978-1-118-11273-1.
• Rueda, Sandra, Vijayakumar, Hayawardh and Jaeger, Trent, Analysis of virtual machine system policies in Proceedings of the 14th ACM symposium of Access control models and technologies (SACMAT 09), 2009, Stresa, Italy, pp 227-236
• Amer, Suhair Hafez and Hamilton,Jr., John A. Understanding security architecture, in Proceedings of the 2008 Spring simulation multiconference (SpringSim '08), 2008, Ottawa, Canada, pp 335-342
• Chaudhuri, Avik Language-based security on Android in Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Fourth Workshop on Programming Languages and Analysis for Security (PLAS '09), 2009, Dublin, Ireland, pp 1-7
• William Enck, Machigar Ongtang and Patrick McDaniel Understanding Android Security, IEEE Security and Privacy, Vol 7, 2009,pp 50-57
• Anonymous (Untitled)
  http://www.ratliff.net/blog/2007/10/03/security-design-principles/ (A critique on selinux)
• Bishop, Matt, Computer Security: Art and Science, Addison-Wesley, 2003, ISBN 0201-440997, Chapter 13.

Course Goals:

The goal of this course is a study of the challenges involved in the design and implementation of a secure operating system.

Prerequisite:

For CS 6/79995: Graduate Standing
For CS 49995: CS II with a grade of C or better; Operating Systems is desirable, but not required.

Attendance policy:

By initiative of the Provost of the University, I have been charged with keeping full attendance records, at least for the first five weeks of the term. Though I will not compute these records into your final averages, when I assign letter grades, I will give you a slightly better grade if you have a better attendance record. Notwithstanding the above, if you are absent, there may be material created, either spontaneously or in response to questions, and covered in the classroom; often there will not be any written notes of this material, so it might be a good idea to team up with somebody who keeps good notes to make sure you have all the material covered. Some of this material may show up in an exam.

Read the text. Only general reading assignments will be given, so it is up to you to discover what is and is not important.

The syllabus may be changed during the semester if necesary: changes will be announced in class; they will also show up on the instructor's website.

Grading:

For Graduate Students: Your grade will be based on one midterm, one final, and a class presentation at the end of the term on a relevant topic of the student's choosing, with instructor approval. The weights are:

Midterm (July 11)	30%
Final (August 1)	30%
Presentation	40%

For Undergraduate Students: Your grade will be based on one midterm, one final, and a three page term paper due on July 26 on a relevant topic of the student's choosing, with instructor approval. The weights are:

Midterm (July 11)	30%
Final (August 1)	30%
Term paper	40%

Test make-up policy:

I will need signed documentation to verify each individual absence in order to provide make-ups; only university accepted reasons will be honored.

Grading scale:

I will assign number grades during the session and only convert them to letter grades when I turn them in at the end of the session. No decision can be made regarding a conversion table until the very last minute due to such imponderables as test difficulty, class attendance and participation, etc. which will influence the grade. However, I guarantee the following, worst case, table:

97-100	will convert into an A
94-96	will convert into at least an A-
91-93	will convert into at least a B+
88-90	will convert into at least a B
85-87	will convert into at least a B-
82-84	will convert into at least a C+
79-81	will convert into at least a C
76-78	will convert into at least a C-
73-75	will convert into at least a D+
66-72	will convert into at least a D

Topics to be covered:

• Introduction to the topic of Security in Operating Systems (1 lecture)
• Principles of Information Security (1 lecture)
• Access Control Fundamentals (2 lecture)
• Generalized Security Architectures (3 lectures)
• Case study: Multics, security architecture, analysis and vulnerabilities. (3 lectures)
• Case study: Analysis of security in Unix and problems with the design of its security architecture (2 lectures)
• Case study: Analysis of security in Windows and problems with its security(1 lecture)
• Verifiable Security Goals (3 lectures)
• Case studies: Security Kernels: SCOMP design and analysis, GEMSOS design.(3 lectures)
• Difficulties with securing Commercial Operating Systems (Retrofitting Security) (3 lectures)
• Case study: Solaris Trusted Extensions (3 lectures)
• Case study: Linux Security Modules architecture (2 lectures)
• Case study: SELinux design and analysis (3 lectures)
• Problems and issues in Secure Capability Systems (3 lectures)
• Security issues in Virtual Machine Systems; evaluation (3 lectures)
• Security issues in sandboxing designs: design and analysis of Android (3 lectures)
• Space for student talks (6 lectures)

Special accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

University policy 3342-3-01.3 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Accessability Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit:
http://www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

Registration Requirement:

The official registration deadline for this course is 06/16/2010. University policy requires all students to be officially registered in each class they are attending. Students who are not officially registered for a course by published deadlines should not be attending classes and will not receive credit or a grade for the course. Each student must confirm enrollment by checking his/her class schedule (using Student Tools in FlashFast) prior to the deadline indicated. Registration errors must be corrected prior to the deadline.

The last withdrawal date for this course is 07/14/2010.

On cheating, plagiarism and other unethical behavior:

You are encouraged to discuss class problems with other students but required to work independently of anybody else except the instructors and/or tutor, unless otherwise indicated. Copying other people's work, allowing your work to be copied (even inadvertently!) and plagiarizing work will not be tolerated and will be dealt with according to University regulations, as described in the University Policies and Procedures, a condensed version of which is attached.

Notes:

1. By default, the penalty for cheating in this course is an ``F'' in the course.
2. University regulations require me to notify Student Conduct in case of violations.
3. Cooperation is just as bad as the deed itself: so, deciding which of two is the original is a non-issue: both are equally guilty.