CSEP 590: Applied Cryptography (Autumn '20)

[Annnouncements] [General Info] [Team] [Weekly Schedule] [Resources] [Interaction / Q&A] [Grading Policy] [Schedule and Homework]

Announcements

• October 1: Make sure to activate your edstem account -- we will be using edstem for most announcemetns as the class start.
• September 28: The zoom meeting ID is available on canvas. Contact the lecturer/TA if unable to find it.
• September 28: First-version of homepage is live.

General information

• Topics: Basic cryptographic primitives (block ciphers, secret- and public-key encryption, authenticated encryption, message authentication, signatures, ...), cryptographic protocols (e.g. TLS), attack vectors (padding-oracle attacks, side-channel attacks, etc). Also, advanced cryptographic techniques (zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation,...).
  The class will adopt rigorous security definitions and statements, but mostly replace proofs with attack-driven intuition.
• Prerequisites: No formal prerequisites, except for basic mathematical proficiency as expected in an undergraduate CS program, as well as a certain affinity to rigorous thinking. Basic programming skills (we will mostly use Python).

Team

Instructor: Stefano Tessaro, tessaro(at)cs(dot)washington(dot)edu

Teaching assistant

• Ansh Nagda (ansh@cs)
• Xihu Zhang (xihu@cs)

Weekly schedule

• Class time and location
  Tue & Thu 6:30-7:50pm (On zoom -- link available via Canvas)
• Office hours
  ST: Mo 5-6pm or by appointment
  TA Office Hours: Wed 5-6pm

Resources

No mandatory textbook. Slides will be made available (password protected).

The following are lecture notes/textbooks on cryptography (all but one free), which (often) adopt a more formal approach than the one from this class.

• D. Boneh and V. Shoup, A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography. (Great overlap with class, just with more proofs.)
• M. Bellare and P. Rogaway, Introduction to Modern Cryptography. (An excellent reference for a concrete security treatment, albeit somewhat incomplete.)
• M. Rosulek, The Joy of Cryptography. (Undergraduate-level introduction to cryptography.)
• J. Katz and Y. Lindell, Introduction to Modern Cryptography. (An actual textbook.)

Interaction / Q&A

We are going to use edstem for class discussion. Instructions will be provided.

Grading

• Homework: There will be 5-6 problem sets distributed over the quarter. Problem sets are generally posted online on Monday, by 11:59pm PST, and are due on Thursday, 11:59pm PST, the following week. Homework will be graded and you are required to hand in your own solution for each homework. (Refer to the "Academic Integrity" paragraph below for further details.) You are allowed 5 late days overall throughout the quarter.
  Homework submissions will be online via Gradescope (instructions will be provided soon).
• Project: An important component of this class will be a project, to be undertaken by teams of two students. (Exceptions can be made but are not the norm.) The final outcome of the project is a report (we will likely dispense with presentations, due to the projected high number of students). Examples of projects include (but are not limited to):
  • Reading a research paper and/or a cryptographic standard/RFC (either existing, or a current proposal), and writing a summary.
  • Studying a real-world application or implementation of cryptography (either a well-known one, or something specific to your personal experience) and documenting it (or formalizing the underlying threat model).
  • Some cryptography-specific implementation problem.
  • Anything else really, just let your creativity flow.
  A project proposal (0.5-1 pages) describing the planned work and the two members of esach time is due on Monday, November 2nd. Early submissions are welcome and encouraged. The final project is due then on Wednesday, Dec 16, 11:59pm.
• Final grade: The final grade will be distributed as follows: Homework (60%), project (40%). The lowest homework score will be dropped. Participation (in class and online) will be taken into account for partial bonus credit in borderline cases.
• Academic Integrity: Homework assignments are meant to be solved individually, whereas collaboration with a team-mate is required for the project component of the class. Please refer to the Allen School's Academic Misconduct webpage for a detailed description of what is allowable and what is not.
• Religious Accommodation Policy: See here for the current policy.

Schedule and Homework

The following is a tentative schedule, and is intended to give a rough idea about what I hope to cover in the class and in which order. There will be (slight) shifts depending on the pace of the class, and more information will appear on the schedule as lectures are completed. (Initially, contents will be vague for later lectures.)