Preparation

Participants at the Security Summer School are required to have good operating systems knowledge, abilities of working with the Linux command line, good C programming skills, fair Python programming skills and fair assembly programming knowledge.

If you lack some of these or feel that you are a bit rusty, please take the time and follow these resources to prepare. These are useful both for preparing for the interviews and for kicking off the SSS sessions.

• programming-centric labs from the Assembly Language class: work labs #6, #8, #9, #10, #11
• process/memory lectures from the Operating Systems class: read and do the demos for lecture #3, #5, #6 and #7
• introductory labs for the Computer and Network security class: work the 1st and 2nd labs

Concepts you should be aware of: process, virtual memory, virtual address space, page fault, buffer, buffer overflow, return address, stack, stack frame, call, ret, stack pointer, frame pointer, memory allocation, compiling, assembling, linking, disassembling, heap, function, calling convention, kernel space/mode, user space/mode, system call, register, bus

Tools and commands you should know: gcc, make, vim, Bash, VirtualBox, objdump, strace, GDB, lsof, pmap, ps, ls, find, hexdump

Not required, but if you are fond of knowing more before or during the Security Summer School, we recommend you visit the challenge/wargame sites below:

• Overthewire: start with the lower levels and then move on
• IO Netgarage: this is the classical exploit-centric wargame site; it may be difficult for beginners
• Hack This Site: a bit of everything, all tastes and colors