Trusted and Secure Computing

(Summer Term 2021)

Overview

In this seminar, the participants will discuss and evaluate state-of-the-art research solutions in the domain of secure, trusted, and trustworthy computing, both from the constructive as well as from the offensive perspective. The focus is particularly on hardware-based security architectures that are nowadays becoming omnipresent in different settings like server, cloud, or embedded device security. Examples of such hardware security primitives are Trusted Platform Modules, Intel SGX, RISC-V Keystone, or ARM TrustZone.

Logistics

Course structure and grading

The course is structured as a standard seminar. Every week, one student will present an assigned topic, which we will then discuss. Prior to this, all students are expected to read the handed-out papers carefully and prepare a list of discussion questions. Additionally, every student will write a short report on their assigned papers, in which the presentation should be elaborated in more detail and potentially including the results of the discussion. Grading will be based on the presentations (40%), report (40%), and general in-class participation in the discussion (20%). 

Registration and pre-requisites

There are no formal prerequisites beyond a basic knowledge of how computer systems work internally. Some of the seminar papers will talk about a certain hardware configuration. But no formal background in hardware design is required. However, participants are expected to carefully read the background sections of the discussed papers to understand the topic.
Previous participation in “Side-Channel Attacks and Defences” (https://cms.cispa.saarland/scad20/) by Dr. Michael Schwarz can be helpful to understand the topics easily.

Registration is handled via the central registration system of the UdS.

Presentation schedule and topics

The concrete week day and time slot will be determined via poll among the participants.