Peer Review

Buffer Exploits and Defenses

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 9, 2020 by Information Technology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

In this lecture, Professor Mickens discusses topics related to buffer overflow exploits, including baggy bounds handling, mitigation approaches, and return-oriented programming.

Computer Security studies the design and implementation of secure computer systems

Type of Material:

Online Course

Recommended Uses:

Lecture

Technical Requirements:

Web Browser

Flash player needs to be up to date

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The assignment teaches the student how to understand a variety of buffer attacks, exploits, and defense strategies.

operating system (OS) security
information flow control
language security
network protocols
hardware security

Target Student Population:

CS University students, probably in the last two years of a bachelor's degree.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Student should have a working knowledge of computers, networks, and web servers as well as knowing how to compile a variety of programming code.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: Lecture content is highly detailed and, if followed closely, will certainly teach a student how buffer overflows are perpetrated. Lecturer presents the material in a logical, clear fashion, which makes following the complex concepts somewhat easier.
Concerns:: Need to do assessments to better understand the course

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Closely watching the lecture would be very effective at giving a student a deep understanding of buffer overflow attacks.
Presence of a syllabus
Availability of all resources (notes, exams…)

Concerns:

•Self pace learning is difficult, a student will still need assistance to answer some technical questions he may think of

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

While this material would not necessarily be "easy to use" in that it requires the student to understand a variety of technologies, it would be very engaging due to the highly detailed information presented and the clear manner in which the material is presented.
Structured contents
Easy navigation throughout the materials

Concerns:

None seen.

Other Issues and Comments:: This lecture would be difficult for an entry level student to understand and narrowly targets students who already have expertise in networking infrastructure concepts. For the more advanced student, listening to this lecture would provide deep insight into buffer overflow attacks, which in turn would inform the student's efforts to prevent such an attack.
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