No Homework
Current lecture notes
Class Projects

6.857 -- Network and Computer Security

Welcome

Welcome to the 6.857 homepage, where you should be able to find all that you want related to the class. Information about the class is available here.

Handouts

The following handouts were made available during lecture. Some of these contained photocopies that can't be made available over the web. For copies of these, please swing by NE43-311 and pick up a copy from the course drawer. If it happens to be the last one, PLEASE notify the course secretary before taking it with you.

Lecture notes

The following are the lecture notes, as taken by students, for the class. Instructions on how to take notes are available here .
  • Lecture 1 : Course Info, Security Objectives --- Stacey Blau
  • Lecture 2 : Unconditional Security, One-Time Pad, Generating Random Bits, MACs --- Zia Ahmed
  • Lecture 3 : Unconditionally Secure Authenticaiton, MAC, Privacy and Authentication, key length --- Abby Knickerbocker
  • Lecture 4 : Conditionally Secure Cryptography, Block Ciphers --- Michelle Goldberg
  • Lecture 5 : CBC mode, Stream Ciphers, Pay-TV, KDC -- Roberta Braum
  • Lecture 6 : Concepts of Public Key Cryptography, Number Theory, ExpMod, Finding Primes -- Elliot Schwartz
  • Lecture 7 : Density of Primes, Generators, Discrete Logs, Key Exchange, ElGamal -- Vijak Sethaput
  • Lecture 8 : ElGamal, DSS, RSA, Elliptic Curves -- Debajit Ghosh
  • Lecture 9 : Digital Signatures, Hashing Security, MD5, SHA, Birthday Attack, CvHP, MACs -- Jesse Kornblum
  • Lecture 10 : CvHP, Uses of one-way hash functions, randomized hash functions, Auction & Commitment -- Edmond Kayi Lee
  • Lecture 11 : Coin Flipping, Interactive Protocols, Zero Knowledge -- Ching Law
  • Lecture 12 : Halevi-Micali Commitments, Graph 3-Coloring, Blobs, Circuits -- Christine Su
  • Lecture 13 : User Authentication, Passwords, Tokens, Biometrics -- Todd Parnell
  • Lecture 14 : Tamper Resistance, Timing Attacks -- Lewis Girod
  • Lecture 15 : Attacks on RSA smartcards, Secure Channels -- Ben Adida
  • Lecture 16 : Kerberos, BAN Logic, proof of Kerberos -- Chris Sepulveda
  • Lecture 17 : Security of Mobile Code, Java applets, concerns, policies -- Alex Hartemink
  • Lecture 18 : Java, ava Security, Attack Applets -- Jessica Wong
  • Lecture 19 : Java Security, TCP/IP, Syn Flooding, Firewalls -- Thor Sewell
  • Lecture 20 : Certification, PGP, X509 -- Lydia Sandon
  • Lecture 21 : SDSI/SPKI -- James Megquier
  • Lecture 22 : Electronic Voting -- Sabra-Anne Kelin
  • Lecture 23 : Electronic Cash -- Lynn Qu
  • Lecture 24 : More Digital Cash, Fingerprinting -- Eytan Adar

Problem Sets and Solutions

Problem Set Solution
Problem Set 1 and encryption text file Solutions 1
Problem Set 2 Solutions 2
Problem Set 3 Solutions 3
Problem Set 4 Solutions 4
Problem Set 5 Solutions 5
Problem Set 6 Solutions 6
Problem Set 7 No Solutions (group project proposal)
Midterm Quiz Solutions
Problem Set 8 Solutions 8
Problem Set 9 Solutions 9

Other Sources of Information

  • comp.risks archive via UseNet contains the latest few issues, it can also be browsed via Discuss
  • sci.crypt archive via UseNet contains discussion of cryptography. A lot of the stuff is questions by people unfamiliar with the topic or just starting out, but there are sometimes useful postings in there too.
  • Ron Rivest's Cryptography Page has lots of links.
  • CERT is responsible for helping disseminate information on security problems with computer systems.
  • Phrack is an electronic publication aimed at electronic hackers . Read and enjoy, but don't abuse.
  • alt.2600 is yet another hacker publication, which also has a splufty web page .
If you want to read and review stuff from previous years, please look at the earlier years page.
Last Modified: December 9, 1997
Yoav Yerushalmi
yoav@mit.edu