This course examines the security interplay between software and hardware in today's computer systems. The course covers microarchitectural side-channel attacks and defenses, trusted execution environments, transient execution attacks and defenses, fault attacks and defenses, and other emerging hardware security topics. The body of the course will be readings and discussion of seminal or noteworthy papers from the literature and guest lectures from industry. A lab assignment will help students gain hands-on experience with hardware security research. The course will culminate in an open-ended research project.

This course is designed for students (PhD, masters, or advanced undergrads) who want to work on secure systems research projects where hardware plays a first-class role. Students who are interested in computer security or computer architecture in general will find it appealing too.

Instructor
Riccardo Paccagnella

Home department
Software and Societal Systems