Course content

The course covers the main techniques used by computer hackers and penetration testers in order to better defend against intrusions and security violations in live systems, including low-level kernel and hardware topics, techniques for web applications, exploit techniques, rootkits and some audit techniques used in digital forensics.

Learning outcome

A. Knowledge: Students will learn the underlying principles and techniques associated with the cybersecurity practice known as penetration testing or ethical hacking. They will become familiar with the entire penetration testing process including planning, reconnaissance, scanning, exploitation, post-exploitation and result reporting. B. Skills: For every offensive penetration technique the students will learn the corresponding remedial technique. By this, the students will develop a practical understanding of the current cybersecurity issues and the ways how the errors made by users, administrators, or programmers can lead to exploitable insecurities.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, seminars, invited lectures, student presentations and laboratory exercises.

Portfolio assessment is the basis for the grade in the course. The portfolio includes a practical ethical hacking task which counts 50% and a oral final exam which counts 50%. The results for the parts are given in %-scores. The entire portfolio is assigned a letter grade. The oral exam is given in English only.

Recommended previous knowledge

TTM4135 Information Security and TTM4137 Wireless Network Security or equivalent.

Basic knowledge of computer networks, low-level computer organization, experience using Unix-like operating systems, programming languages such as C, Python or x86 assembler, and familiarity with basic web technologies such as Javascript, PHP and SQL.

Course materials

1. "Gray Hat Hacking The Ethical Hacker's Handbook", Fourth Edition, by Daniel Regalado et al., McGraw-Hill Education, January 5, 2015,
2. "Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters", First Edition, by Justin Seitz, December 14, 2014
3. "The Hacker Playbook: Practical Guide To Penetration Testing", by Peter Kim, January 1, 2014

Credit reductions