WHAT IT IS
The UCL Computer Science Hacking Seminar is a weekly informal gathering during which UCL students and academics with an interest in computer security can gather and study security vulnerabilities in practice. The participants of the seminar are typically required to analyse and exploit vulnerable programs and to learn how to develop programs that don't suffer of those same vulnerabilities. Dr Stringhini oversees the seminar, providing advice to the students and making sure that the participants get a good understanding of both the technical aspects but also of the ethical ones linked to hacking. The seminar is a great way for UCL students to integrate the knowledge that they gain in traditional lectures, and apply a more "hands on" approach to computer security problems.HOW TO JOIN
The seminar takes place on Wednesday afternoon, from 17:00 to 19:00. The location of the seminar varies depending on the UCL room availability. To participate, you can sign up to this mailing list and keep an eye on the announcements. Since the seminar is intended to be very interactive and practical, participants are advised to bring their own laptop to the meetings.TOPICS
You don't have to be a security expert to join the seminar. The topics covered vary from week to week, but to give you an idea of the type of challenges that we work on, here are some pointers to programs that we solved in the past:- Google Gruyere, an intentionally vulnerable web application
- Natas, a series of web challenges that present different vulnerabilities
- Protostar, a gentle introduction to binary vulnerabilities