6.857 Final Project Ideas - Fall 2002

This page lists some final project ideas and resources. We are just collecting ideas tossed out in class. Your specific project still requires approval from the course staff. Also, we prefer that groups work on somewhat distinct topics.


New Topic Ideas
Implement a program to measure the amount of randomness available in a system
Many systems assume a source of randomness to generate cryptographic keys. Without a source of good randomness, keys are extremely easy to guess. The default Linux random number generator gathers randomness from IDE disk events and mouse/keyboard I/O. On headless server machines with SCSI disks locked in hosting centers, there may be little or no randomness. Can you measure the effectiveness of random number generation? Develop a suite of tests to determine how fast randomness is exhausted?
MIT Card
Analyze the security of the new MIT Card. An analysis was done by students in the mid 90s, but many aspects have probably changed. The card is also used for different purposes now. What is the new trust model? See this Tech article.
MIT Tech Cash
How secure is the MIT Tech Cash online maintainance page? Are the session ID cookies actually secure? What does the cookie mean?
Peer-to-Peer Security
Anti-spam techniques

Topics from Previous Years
Sample proposal
Hints for writing your paper and giving your talk

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