55AA Security Lab

55AA-006B

Assembly Language

Level
Undergraduate
Status
Under development

Note: this course is still being designed and calibrated; the page content is for reference and does not represent the final teaching version.

Syllabus

Course Overview

Assembly Language trains students to reason directly about machine state: registers, stacks, calling conventions, linking, exceptions, system calls, and disassembly. The course compares RISC-V and x86-64 for systems programming, reverse engineering, exploitation, and performance debugging.

This is the machine-level foundation for systems programming, software security, cryptographic implementation, and embedded systems.

Prerequisites

  • Computer organization fundamentals.
  • Familiarity with C pointers, arrays, and function calls.
  • Ability to use command-line tools, compilers, and debuggers.

Learning Outcomes

  • Read and write small assembly programs.
  • Explain ABIs, calling conventions, stack frames, and linking.
  • Use debuggers and disassemblers to locate machine-level bugs.
  • Understand machine-level manifestations of integer, memory, and control-flow errors.
  • Build machine-level intuition for systems code and security analysis.

Course Format

  • Two meetings per week: one for core concepts and one for labs, paper discussion, or project review.
  • The course proceeds over 16 weeks, each with a checkable assignment, lab, or project milestone.
  • Reproducibility is required: code, configuration, data, lab logs, and reports must be reviewable by staff or peers.

Weekly Plan

Week 1
Week 2

ISAs, registers, and instruction formats: lab and review

Write and single-step a small RISC-V program. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 3ISAs, registers, and instruction formats: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 4ISAs, registers, and instruction formats: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 3
Week 4

Data representation, addressing, and memory: lab and review

Analyze array, struct, and pointer access. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 7Data representation, addressing, and memory: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 8Data representation, addressing, and memory: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 5
Week 6

Control flow and function calls: lab and review

Recover C control flow from assembly. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 11Control flow and function calls: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 12Control flow and function calls: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 7
Week 8

ABIs, stack frames, and linking: lab and review

Debug calling-convention and linking errors. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 15ABIs, stack frames, and linking: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 16ABIs, stack frames, and linking: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 9
Week 10

System calls, exceptions, and interrupts: lab and review

Implement a minimal user-space syscall wrapper. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 19System calls, exceptions, and interrupts: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 20System calls, exceptions, and interrupts: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 11
Week 12

x86-64 comparison and disassembly: lab and review

Use objdump and gdb to recover program behavior. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 23x86-64 comparison and disassembly: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 24x86-64 comparison and disassembly: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 13
Week 14

Machine-level security and performance: lab and review

Observe stack corruption, ROP fragments, and hot loops. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 27Machine-level security and performance: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 28Machine-level security and performance: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min
Week 15
Week 16

Assembly project and review: lab and review

Submit an assembly library, tests, and debugging notes. Complete the paired lab, record issues, and explain design tradeoffs in class review.

Session 31Assembly project and review: lab and review: Concepts, Cases, and Method90 minSession 32Assembly project and review: lab and review: Lab, Review, and Transfer90 min

Assessment

Individual assignments

Concept questions, reading responses, design tasks, and small programming or lab exercises.

25%
Labs and project

Assembly implementation, disassembly analysis, debugging records, and tests.

40%
Participation and review

Participation in discussions, demos, code or paper reviews, and peer feedback.

10%
Final report and defense

Submit reproducible artifacts, a technical report, and a demo explaining methods, results, limitations, and future work.

25%

Course Project

Students implement a small assembly library, interpreter fragment, or reverse-engineering task with tests, debugging notes, and comparison against a C implementation.

Policies

  • AI tools are allowed, but generated code, lab notes, and design suggestions must be reviewed by the student and disclosed in the report.
  • Students may not submit code, proofs, configuration, or experimental results they cannot explain; each member must defend their own design, tests, and tradeoffs.
  • Late work affects iteration grades, but the course values reproducible, auditable, and maintainable results over last-minute accumulation.

Reference Courses

International

China 985 Universities