Hey y'all.
At this stage in the course, the content is going to start getting harder (Starting with ROP this last week, and HEAP this week). I highly recommend you come and watch the lectures live. Ask questions live. ROP is a combination of all previous weeks content, plus some new techniques. We are over the halfway mark for this course, so it is expected you will have the skills to perform research and practice challenges and techniques on your own.
The tutorials will not have time to go over lecture content if you did not attend the lectures this week. I have asked the tutors not to cover lecture content for students who have not watched the lecture content before attending the tutorial as is disadvantages other students.
Also we will be having a guest lecture in Week 10 (Nov 17). Someone who works at <redacted> will be talking about awesome new techniques related to <redacted>. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, this won't be recorded. This will be an awesome sneak-peak into the world of vulnerability research, I highly recommend making plans to come and watch Week 10 in person, especially if you'd like the opportunity to talk to and ask questions.
Hey everyone, we'll be hosting more help sessions on Friday at 2pm for the next 3 weeks.
They will be running in:
As with the previous ones, they'll run as long as you all have questions. There's no pre-prepared topics/content, this will purely be an open-air question-answer forum , so make sure you come with questions.
This session won't be recorded or live-streamed.
Hey everyone,
Hopefully you've all read through https://rootkit.6447.lol/ and started on your assignment.
Reminder:
Quick update, the midterm will be 1hr50mins, running from 5 minutes into the tute, until 5 minutes before the end, not the original planned 1 hour.
We didn't think an hour would be enough to adequately test your understanding of the content, so we decided to give some extra time (the midterm has historically always been 2 hours, so last year's should be a good indicator of difficulty).
Hey all, some details about the upcoming midterm wargame.
Details:
Practice Exam
We have made a practice exam (That will look exactly like the midterm wargame next week) available at https://2025.midterm.6447.lol/.
Hey all, we'll be running a help session this Friday at 2pm in Mathews 101 to help with any course content we have covered so far.
We'll stay as late as students have questions. Note: we won't be preparing content, this is purely going to be an open-air question/answer forum. Come with questions please!
Apologies if the time doesn't work for you. This session won't be recorded or live-streamed!
Hey everyone.
Hope you are all super excited to take COMP6447 this term. Before we start the First Lecture, some quick admin to sort out
Course Forum
This year we will be using Discourse as the course forum. Please sign up and login using https://discourse03.cse.unsw.edu.au/26T3/COMP6447/. This will be the best place to get help from either your peers, tutors or me throughout the course. The best way to reach course staff will be either through Discourse or via Email.
Course Outline
The course outline is available on WebCMS. Please review it, it has important information about the course content and examinations.
Classes In Person
The lectures for this term are on Tuesday, and will be covering content that is critical to both the weekly tutorials, and weekly wargames. It is super important that you are able to attend lectures and tutorials where possible. There are no online classes this term (Please reach out if this is a problem ASAP). We will try to record all lectures and release them (But make no promises to release them before your tutorials)
Some resources to look at before we begin
To help you prepare for this course, we've come up with a list of helpful prerequisite knowledge that you should revise (or skim over for the first time) before starting the course. These include:
If you aren't familiar with some of these topics, that's fine. I recommend reviewing them before starting the course to make your experience smoother.
I also recommend you have access to a Linux machine, A Linux Virtual Machine (or docker container), with PwnTools , PwnDBG and BinaryNinja installed. These will be required to do many of the challenges in this Course. If you have issues installing anything, that's fine (Lab 1 is about helping you get ready, so no need to panic if you are unsure about anything).
Also, I've setup 4 polls under Activities to better guage everyone's understanding of different topcis. Please take a look when you get a chance.