Welcome to CS 24! We’re super excited to have you here this term!
Most Recent Announcements
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Lecture Cancelled Today
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Thanksgiving Week OH + Lecture UpdatesThere will be no OH this week (11/25-12/1). The next OH will be on December 2nd. As such, there will not be a project released this week....(continued here)
Due Next
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project04a (vm) due @ 11:30 pm on Sun, Dec 08 -
project04b (meltdown) due @ 11:30 pm on Sun, Dec 08
Office Hours Status
Calendar
Wellness and Inclusion
It is very important to us that you succeed in CS 24. We provide many extra resources to help you. Prof. Blank and the TAs hold many office hours, and we have an Ed Discussion Board (coming soon) where you can ask questions asynchronously.
It is also very important to us that you maintain your mental wellness throughout the course. A few points are not worth losing sleep over. Everyone on the course staff is available to chat, and you can always attend office hours for a non-academic conversation if necessary. You can also visit the counseling center if you find you need help beyond the course staff. If you have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (either mental health or physical health related), you should contact accessibility services if you have not already. Additionally, if there is something we can do to make your experience better, please let us know.
Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are all core values of this course. All participants in this course must be treated with respect by other members of the community in accordance with the honor code. If you feel unwelcome or unsafe in any way, no matter how minor, we encourage you to talk to Prof. Blank or one of the Deans. We view these sorts of honor code violations as completely unacceptable, and we take them very seriously.
Tools
Course Staff
Instructor
Teaching Assistants
Handouts
The following is a list of handouts that you might find helpful throughout the course. We’ve categorized them by when they are useful.
Course
Syllabus – an overview of the course and administrative information
Collaboration Policy – the course collaboration policy
Code Quality Guidelines – a list of style requirements for the projects
Tools of the Trade – tutorials for tools that you will need to use in this course
Manual Pages – documentation for relevant standard C functions
Weeks 2 & 3
x86-64 Reference – a description of relevant instructions and ABIs for x86-64
Schedule
L00 | Mon, Sep 30 |
Perspectives on Computing Systems
[ pdf
]
What is this course about? How will grading work? What will the notes look like? What is hexadecimal and why do I care? How do computers represent information?
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L01 | Wed, Oct 02 |
Memory
[ pdf
]
What does an abstraction for memory look like? Give me the details!
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L02 | Fri, Oct 04 |
Fixed-Width Integers
[ pdf
]
How do computers represent integers? What about negative numbers? How does this affect me as a programmer?
DS 4.1-4.7
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L03 | Mon, Oct 07 |
x86-64 Introduction
[ pdf
]
What is x86-64? Why should I care about assembly? How can I understand basic assembly programs and instructions such as mov and others?
DS 7.1-7.3
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DUE | Mon, Oct 07 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 1a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L04 | Wed, Oct 09 |
x86-64 Conditionals
How does branching work in x86-64? What is a label? How can we translate if statements into assembly?
DS 7.4
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DUE | Wed, Oct 09 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 2a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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DUE | Thu, Oct 10 11:30 pm |
pretest
(disk)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this pre-test is to orient you to what CS 24 will be like. It will also cover representation, use number bases, and review pointers.
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L05 | Fri, Oct 11 |
x86-64 Procedures
How do function calls and returns work? What is 'the stack' really?
DS 7.7-7.9, 12
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DUE | Fri, Oct 11 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 3a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L06 | Mon, Oct 14 |
More x86-64 Procedures
How does recursion work using the stack?
DS 7.7-7.9, 12
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DUE | Mon, Oct 14 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 4a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L07 | Wed, Oct 16 | x86-64 Recursive Procedures |
DUE | Wed, Oct 16 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 5a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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DUE | Thu, Oct 17 11:30 pm |
project01
(jvm)
[ guide ]
This project involves building a simplified Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to processes bytecode and allow for Java programs to be executed on a custom virtual machine.
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L08 | Fri, Oct 18 | Bomb Demo 1 |
DUE | Fri, Oct 18 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 6a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L09 | Mon, Oct 21 | Bomb Demo 2 |
DUE | Mon, Oct 21 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 7a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L10 | Wed, Oct 23 |
Security: Buffer Overflows
What happens if we read past the end of a buffer? How can we exploit this?
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DUE | Wed, Oct 23 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 8a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
|
DUE | Thu, Oct 24 11:30 pm |
project02a
(bomb)
[ guide ]
This project involves reverse engineering some passwords by reading x86-64 assembly code
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L11 | Fri, Oct 25 |
HTTP and Buffer Overflow Review
How do you make a request to a webserver? Review of buffer overflow exploits.
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L12 | Mon, Oct 28 |
Dynamic Memory: Basic
What does a "basic" implementation of malloc look like?
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DUE | Mon, Oct 28 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 9a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
|
L13 | Wed, Oct 30 |
Dynamic Memory: Advanced
[ pdf
]
How can we make a performant malloc implementation?
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DUE | Thu, Oct 31 11:30 pm |
project02b
(asmgen)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to build a small BASIC-to-ASM compiler to gain a basic understanding of how compilers work.
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L14 | Fri, Nov 01 |
Dynamic Memory: Garbage Collection
How does Python handle reclaiming memory?
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L15 | Mon, Nov 04 |
ECF: Processes I
What is a process? How does Linux create, maintain, and destroy processes? How do shells work?
DS 13.2, OSTEP 5
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L16 | Wed, Nov 06 |
ECF: Processes II
What is a process? How does Linux create, maintain, and destroy processes? How do shells work?
DS 13.2, OSTEP 5
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DUE | Thu, Nov 07 11:30 pm |
adventure
(adventure)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to write several buffer overflow exploits to perform data injection and eventually arbitrary code execution on a remote machine.
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L17 | Fri, Nov 08 |
ECF: Signals
How do programs that are misbehaving get dealt with? How does the kernel communicate to user programs that something important has happened?
DS 13.4.1
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L18 | Mon, Nov 11 |
ECF: Exceptions
DS 13.1 |
DUE | Mon, Nov 11 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 12a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
|
DUE | Mon, Nov 11 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 13a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
|
DUE | Mon, Nov 11 11:30 pm |
Diagnostic 14a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
|
L19 | Wed, Nov 13 |
Memory: Locality & The Memory Hierarchy
How is memory unified into a seemingly giant array? What properties of programs make this work? How can we write good programs that take advantage of these properties?
DS 11.1-11.2
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L20 | Fri, Nov 15 |
Memory: Cache Memories
A further investigation into Hardware Cache Memories
DS 11.3
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DUE | Sun, Nov 17 11:30 pm |
midterm
(midterm)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this midterm is to write an implict list implementation of malloc.
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L21 | Mon, Nov 18 |
Memory: Virtual Memory
An introduction to WeensyOS. How can every process see the same memory layout?
DS 13.3
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DUE | Mon, Nov 18 12:00 pm |
Diagnostic 15a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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DUE | Tue, Nov 19 12:00 am |
Diagnostic 10a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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DUE | Tue, Nov 19 12:00 am |
Diagnostic 11a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L22 | Wed, Nov 20 | Security: Side-Channel Attacks |
L23 | Fri, Nov 22 |
Security: Meltdown
Meltdown!
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DUE | Fri, Nov 22 12:00 pm |
Diagnostic 16a
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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DUE | Sun, Nov 24 11:30 pm |
project03
(malloc)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to build upon your understanding of malloc by writing an explicit list memory allocator.
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L24 | Mon, Nov 25 |
Concurrent Programming: Processes & Threads
How can we execute multiple things at the same time?
OSTEP 26
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DUE | Wed, Nov 27 12:00 am |
Diagnostic 13b
(attempt 2)
[ link ]
This is the second attempt for this diagnostic. You can complete it even if you didn't do the first attempt in lecture.
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L25 | Wed, Nov 27 |
Concurrent Programming: pthreads & mutexes
How can we make sure to avoid race conditions in a concurrent context?
OSTEP 27
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L26 | Fri, Nov 29 |
Concurrent Programming: Condition Variables
OSTEP 30 |
L27 | Mon, Dec 02 |
Concurrent Programming: More Condition Variables
OSTEP 30 |
L28 | Wed, Dec 04 | Final Exam Review |
L29 | Fri, Dec 06 | Victory Lap |
DUE | Sun, Dec 08 11:30 pm |
project04a
(vm)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to implement a virtual memory abstraction in a small operating system.
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DUE | Sun, Dec 08 11:30 pm |
project04b
(meltdown)
[ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to use the meltdown attack to break the virtual memory abstraction on a real processor.
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