Announcements

Final Exam Time and Location

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Jun 9, 2015 12:16 pm

Folks,

As a reminder, the final exam is in the classroom we normally meet in, 6 Olson, and is on June 10 from 6pm to 8pm.

See you there!

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


TA Office Hours Moved

Posted by: Brian Perry
Date: Jun 5, 2015 1:27 pm

Hi everyone,

We have a new TA, so I have split the discussion section in 2.

Sorry for the late notice but I will not be able to hold my office hours today, but I will make it up by having office hours next Monday (June 8th) from 12--1PM.


Discussion Section Change

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: May 11, 2015 2:00 pm

Folks,

We have a new TA, so I have split the discussion section in 2.

If your name begins with anything between A and Lie, you are in the current section, meeting in 1309 Surge III

If your name begins with anything between Liu and Z, you are in the new section, meeting in 1130 Hart

The TAs have your midterms today, so please go to the right section.

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


Authentication in Program #3

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: May 8, 2015 2:55 pm

Folks,

To do the extra credit password part, if you have a named account (that is, not an account specific to this class) you need to use the program /usr/bin/kinit, not the usual getpwuid/crypt/strcmp approach. This is because the CSIF authenticates your account using the UC Davis Central Authentication System, not the NIS mechanism (which is essentially what some of you are calling the “shadow” file).

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


Warning about program #3

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: May 7, 2015 10:36 pm

Folks,

Step 5 says that you must run chown as a command and not use the system call chown. The “(1)” means it is to be a command, just as you would type it at the command line. There are two reasons for this.

The critical one is that the chown command will fail (with an error message saying you don’t have enough privileges). The chown system call will succeed, and in that case, you will change the ownership of sniff to root. You do not want to do that! (If you do it by accident, you can simply delete sniff.)

The second one (which is what I had in mind when I wrote the assignment — I didn’t find out about the first until tonight) is to give you practice in running a subprocess from a trusted process. This means you have to set up a trusted environment, that is, one in which you are sure of calling the correct chown program.

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


Change to Program #3

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: May 4, 2015 6:40am

Folks,

I have modified Program #3. Step 2 in the original assignment, the password validation step, is now extra credit. The posted assignment has been modified accordingly.

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


Sample Midterm Answers

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Apr 27, 2015 6:44 pm

Folks,

Someone pointed out to me that the last question on the sample midterm, which is on the Bell-LaPadula model we talked about today, included compartments. We did not cover them yet, and they are not on the midterm exam. So I added some material to the answer to question 5. First, I explained how compartments affect read and write access; then, I gave the answers ignoring the compartments. You are responsible for the model with security levels, but you are not responsible for the model with security levels and compartments.

Also, I have posted the UC Davis Communications Policy (see the Handouts folder in Resources).

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


Assignment: Program 2 and the CSIF

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Apr 24, 2015 7:32 am

Folks,

The source code analyzer works on the following CSIF computers:

pc33, pc34, pc36, pc37, pc38, pc39, pc40, pc41, pc42, pc43, pc44, pc45, pc46, pc51, pc55, pc57, pc58

It is not installed on pc35, and the rule sets are not installed on pc47, pc48, pc49, pc50, pc53. If you run it on the latter 5, you will get an error message that says “[error]: No rules files found” If you see that, go to one of the systems listed above and rerun the analyzer.

Hope this clarifies some problems people are (or may be) having.

Matt Bishop


Assignment: Open Date for ‘Program 2. Using a Source Code Analyzer’

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Apr 18, 2015 5:19 pm

Open date for assignment ‘Program 2. Using a Source Code Analyzer’ is Apr 18, 2015 12:00 pm.


Assignment: Open Date for ‘Homework 2’

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Apr 18, 2015 11:51 pm

Open date for assignment ‘Homework 2’ is Apr 18, 2015 12:00 pm.


If You Are Missing Prerequisites, Read This!

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Mar 30, 2015 9:13 am

Folks,

For those of you who are missing prerequisites (that is, who have not taken ECS 150 and ECS 152A before this quarter), you need to have permission to take this class. The College requires you to fill out a form and send it to me; I then look it over and, if I approve, sign it and give it to the department.

I have put the form on SmartSite in the Resources folder; it is a PDF that you can fill in on line. It’s in the Resources area of SmartSite. Please download it, fill it in, and mail it to me (you don’t need to sign it). I will look it over and decide whether to approve it (if you don’t hear back from me, I did — but you can ask me ☺).

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


No Discussion Section Today, March 30, 2015

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Mar 30, 2015 9:13 am

Folks,

There will be no discussion section held today. The first discussion section will be held next week, on Monday, April 6.

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


Room Change Effective Monday, April 13, 2015

Posted by: Matt Bishop
Date: Apr 11, 2015 7:07 pm

Folks,

Effective Monday, April 13, 2015, we will be meeting in 6 Olson, not in 216 Wellman. See you all there at 12:10pm Monday!

Hope this helps,

Matt Bishop


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ECS 153, Computer Security
Spring Quarter 2015
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