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CS161 Fall 2026
Instructors: David Wagner, Peyrin Kao / Lecture: MWF, 12:00–1:00 PM, Physics Building 1 [Zoom, Playlist]
Announcements
Welcome!
Hi everyone, and welcome to CS 161 Fall 2026!
First Lecture
- Our first lecture will be on Wednesday August 26th, 12:00–1:00pm PT in Physics Building 1.
- All lectures this semester will be recorded and posted in bCourses.
- All lectures will be live streamed over Zoom.
Course Communication
- We will be using Ed and the course website (https://fa26.cs161.org/) as the main forms of communication for this class.
Assignments
- In general, the assignment schedule for this course is available on the course website, and upcoming due dates will be reiterated in weekly announcements posts on Ed. You are expected to keep up to date with these announcements posts.
Office Hours and Discussions
- See the course calendar for the office hours and discussion schedule. Please note that discussion times are still tentative, and will be finalized by the end of this week. You are free to attend any discussion you wish and attendance will not be recorded, however, we do encourage you attend these for practice.
Exams
- The midterm and final exam dates are TBA. More information will be released shortly on Ed as well as on our Course Policies Page. Please make sure you keep up to date with any announcements.
Questions
- If you have any questions or comments, please first check out these pages:
- Course policies page: https://fa26.cs161.org/policies/
- FAQs: https://fa26.cs161.org/resources/faqs
- If your question is not answered after reading those two pages, feel free to post a follow up on Ed.
We look forward to a great semester with you!
Course Calendar
| Wk. | Date | Lecture | Discussion | Project |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Wed Aug 26 | 1. Introduction and Security Principles Slides / Recording / Ch. 1 |
0. 61C Review Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions |
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Fri Aug 28 | 2. x86 Assembly and Call Stack Slides / Recording / Ch. 2 / x86/GDB Cheat Sheet |
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| 2 |
Mon Aug 31 | 3. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities Slides / Recording / Ch. 3.1, 3.2 |
1. Security Principles and x86 Discussion: Worksheet / Slides Exam Prep: Worksheet / Slides |
Project 1 Checkpoint
(due Fri Sep 11) |
|
Wed Sep 02 | 4. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities (continued) Slides / Recording / Ch. 3.4, 3.6 |
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Fri Sep 04 | 5. Mitigating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities Slides / Recording / Ch. 4 |
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| 3 |
Mon Sep 07 | No Lecture (holiday) |
2. Memory Safety Exam Prep: Worksheet |
|
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Wed Sep 09 | 6. Mitigating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities (continued) Slides / Recording / Ch. 4 |
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Fri Sep 11 | 7. Authentication, Cryptographic Hashes Slides / Ch. 7 |
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| 4 |
Mon Sep 14 | 8. MACs / Ch. 8 | 3. Memory Safety Mitigations and Injection Attacks | Project 1
(due Fri Sep 18) |
|
Wed Sep 16 | 9. Signatures / Ch. 12 | |||
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Fri Sep 18 | 10. Public-Key Infrastructure / Ch. 13 | |||
| 5 |
Mon Sep 21 | 11. Symmetric-Key Encryption / Ch. 6 | 4. | Project 2 Spec Quiz
(due Fri Sep 25) |
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Wed Sep 23 | 12. Authenticated Encryption | |||
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Fri Sep 25 | 13. Buffer | |||
| 6 |
Mon Sep 28 | 14. Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange | 5. | Project 2 Design Checkpoint
(due Fri Oct 02) |
|
Wed Sep 30 | 15. Public-Key Encryption | |||
|
Fri Oct 02 | 16. Low-Level Network Attacks | |||
| 7 |
Mon Oct 05 | 17. How the Internet Works | 6. | Project 2 Testing Checkpoint
(due Fri Oct 23) |
|
Wed Oct 07 | 18. TLS | |||
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Fri Oct 09 | 19. End-to-End Security | |||
| 8 |
Mon Oct 12 | 20. What Crypto Doesn't Solve | 7. | |
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Wed Oct 14 | 21. Buffer | |||
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Fri Oct 16 | 22. Network Defense | |||
| 9 |
Mon Oct 19 | 23. Intro to Web Applications | 8. | |
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Wed Oct 21 | 24. SQL Injection | |||
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Fri Oct 23 | 25. XSS | |||
| 10 |
Mon Oct 26 | 26. Web Authentication, CSRF | 9. | Project 2
(due Fri Oct 30) |
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Wed Oct 28 | 27. Buffer | |||
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Fri Oct 30 | 28. UI Security | |||
| 11 |
Mon Nov 02 | 29. Isolation I: Benefits | 10. | Project 3
(due Fri Nov 13) |
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Wed Nov 04 | 30. Isolation II: Techniques, Access Control | |||
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Fri Nov 06 | 31. Buffer | |||
| 12 |
Mon Nov 09 | 32. AI Security 1 | 11. | |
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Wed Nov 11 | No Lecture (holiday) |
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Fri Nov 13 | 33. AI Security 2 | |||
| 13 |
Mon Nov 16 | 34. AI Security 3 | 12. | |
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Wed Nov 18 | 35. Buffer | |||
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Fri Nov 20 | 36. Buffer | |||
| 14 |
Mon Nov 23 | 37. Buffer | 13. | |
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Wed Nov 25 | No Lecture (Thanksgiving holiday) |
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Fri Nov 27 | ||||
| 15 |
Mon Nov 30 | 38. Buffer | 14. | |
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Wed Dec 02 | 39. Case study: Signal | |||
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Fri Dec 04 | 40. Case Study: iPhone Security | |||
| 16 |
Mon Dec 07 | No Lecture (RRR Week) |
15. Topical Review Sessions (RRR Week) | |
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Wed Dec 09 | ||||
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Fri Dec 11 | ||||
| 17 |
Fri Dec 18 | Final Exam (11:30AM - 2:30PM) |