CS 579 A - Foundations of Cryptography

This course provides a broad introduction to cornerstones of security (authenticity, confidentiality, message integrity, and non-repudiation) and the mechanisms to achieve them. Topics include: block and stream ciphers, public key cryptosystems, key management, certificates, public key infrastructure (PKI), digital signatures, non-repudiation, and message authentication. Various security standards and protocols such as DES, AES, PGP, and SSL are also discussed.

Pre-requisites:

• CS/MA 503 (Discrete Mathematics for Cryptography) and either CS 600 (Data Structures and Algorithms) or CS 434 Theory of Computation
• or permission of the instructor

Textbook:

Douglas Stinson
Cryptography: Theory and Practice
CRC Press
ISBN 1584885084
Errata List

Other Resources:

• Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot, and Scott A. Vanstone
  Handbook of Applied Cryptography
  CRC Press
  ISBN 0-8493-8523-7
  Available online - for free!

• Victor Shoup
  A Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra
  Cambridge University Press
  ISBN 0521851548
  Available online - for free!

• Howard M. Heys
  A Tutorial on Linear and Differential Cryptanalysis

Instructor:

Dr. Susanne Wetzel (swetzel AT cs DOT stevens DOT edu)
Office hours: Wednesdays 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM and by appointment. Lieb Building 304.

Liu Yang (lyang AT cs DOT stevens DOT edu)
Office hours: Mondays 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM. Burchard 127.

Class Mailing List:

Subscribe to CS579.

Grading:

• Quizzes: 30% - four quizzes, 10% for each of the three best ones
• Midterm: 20%
• Final: 30 %
• Homework Assignments: 20% - five assignments, 5% for each of the four best ones

Policies:

• A make-up midterm/final will be granted only if the instructor is notified before the exam and there is serious illness or similarly important reason for missing the exam.
• For fairness to all students there will be no individual extra credit work.
• Homework assignments are due before the lecture begins at 6:15pm. After 6:15pm, 25% will be deducted from your grade. For homeworks late more than one (two) day(s), 50% (75%) will be deducted. No credit will be given for homeworks that are more than 3 days late. Exceptions may be granted only if there is an important reason. Exceptions must be cleared with the instructor in advance. If you must miss a class at which an assignment is due, you may email your solution to the TA postmarked BEFORE it is due.
• You may collaborate on homeworks with your fellow students to a limited degree. I.e., you may discuss concept clarifications with other students, but the specific details of your homeworks must be your own work.
• You must specify in writing any resources (web, books etc.) other than the textbook that you used for completing the assignments.
• It is cheating to collaboratively work out a detailed solution, to copy a solution from another student or some other resource without specifying it, or to give away a solution.
• ALL parties involved in a case of cheating get an automatic grade of zero (0) in the assignment/exam. Repeated cases get an F in the course. Any case of cheating will be reported to the honor board or the Dean of the Graduate School.
• Programming assignments must be completed in C/C++/JAVA OR PERL. Submissions must include makefiles. Programming assignments are graded on style, documentation, and content. Your code must compile on the CSlab machines. Programs that do not compile will receive an automatic grade of zero (0). Submissions are accepted through 'submit' on the lab machines only (see manpages for 'submit').

Week	Date	Topics	Reading	Remark
1	August 28, 2006	Introduction, Classical Cryptography	Chapter 1
2	September 4, 2006	No Class - Labor Day
3	September 11, 2006	Classical Cryptography cont'd, Information Theory	Chapter 2
4	September 18, 2006	Block Ciphers	Chapter 3
5	September 25, 2006	Modes of Operation, AES
6	October 2, 2006	Hash Functions	Chapter 4
7	October 10, 2006 Monday Schedule	Message Authentication Code
8	October 16, 2006	MACs cont'd, Public Key Encryption: Introduction	Chapter 5
9	October 23, 2006	Midterm Exam
10	October 30, 2006	Public Key Encryption: Diffie-Hellman, ElGamal	Chapter 6
11	November 6, 2006	Public Key Encryption: Additional Topics
12	November 13, 2006	Security and Privacy Day at IBM
13	November 20, 2006	Digital Signatures	Chapter 7
14	November 27, 2006	Digital Signatures cont'd
15	December 4, 2006	Key Management
	December 11, 2006	Final Exam