https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/XM_40019This course covers the security of low-level computer hardware, ranging from the memory subsystem on modern CPUs to deeply embedded systems present almost everywhere in our everyday life. The aim of the course is for you to familiarize with the emerging field of hardware security, more specifically micro-architectural and circuit-level attacks, side-channel analysis, firmware analysis, etc. Furthermore, you will learn about the current state of the art by reproducing the results of cutting-edge research and gathering hands-on practical experience. Be prepared to build some of the most advanced exploits on the planet! This is the course where you get credit points by exploiting the CPU on your computer, breaking into embedded systems, and exfiltrating bits directly from the circuit board! The luckiest team will collect the infamous Best Demo Award given each year at the end of the course. Upon completion of this course, you will:have knowledge about the different offensive and defensive research areas involving low-level hardware security (Knowledge & Understanding) have sufficient knowledge and experience to explore open research problems in at least one area of hardware security (Lifelong learning skills) be able to reproduce micro-architectural attacks from recent research (Knowledge & Understanding, Applying Knowledge and Understanding, Making Judgements, Communication) be familiar with techniques used to perform firmware analysis (Knowledge & Understanding, Applying Knowledge and Understanding, Making Judgements, Communication) have knowledge of common hardware communication interfaces and their use in typical hardware. (Knowledge & Understanding, Applying Knowledge & Understanding)The course is divided in two parts. In the first few weeks, you will learn the basics of hardware security with different topics (e.g., reverse engineering, side-channel analysis, classical attacks, firmware analysis, etc.) covered in lectures and individual practical assignments. The lectures and the individual assignments run in parallel and are meant to prepare you for a final group project in the second part of the course. In your group project, you will get the opportunity to dive into one of the topics covered in the course in depth, by replicating or even improving on cutting-edge hardware security research.Lectures and practical assignments.The final grade is determined by (i) the quality and correctness of solutions to the individual assignments and answers based on oral discussions about them (50%), as well as (ii) the quality of the solution of the group project (50%). Each component must be passed with a grade >= 4. The final grade is the weighted average of the components’ grades. Please note that your grade will be registered as follows:If you do not submit any assignment and do not participate in any oral discussion, you will receive a NS.In all other cases, you will receive either a numeric grade or incomplete (NVD).If you did not meet the minimum grade requirements for the assignments, your grade is NVD.Otherwise, your final grade is your weighted average.If you plan to drop the course, do not submit anything, as NVD is administratively considered a failing grade.There is no resit opportunity for the practical assignments, nor for the oral discussions. Results for practical assignments and for the oral discussion may be transferred from previous years if their contents did not change significantly since the result was obtained (as determined by the examiner). If you submit an assignment or participate in the oral discussion, the new result replaces any transferred results. We ensure that each student individually demonstrates their abilities through oral exams to test understanding of the assignments, through active plagiarism detection for the assignments, and by investigating whether each group member contributed sufficiently for the group assignment.No set book. All material will be made available during the course.MSc Computer SecurityKnowledge of operating systems, C, computer architecture, and a keen interest in understanding how things work under the hood. Having attended the Binary and Malware Analysis course is strongly recommended. Having attended the Advanced Operating Systems course is a plus