SEED Labs

Abstract

Security courses have been integrated into many mainstream undergraduate and graduate computer science curricula. To achieve effective education, learning security principles must be grounded in experience. Over the last 12 years, we have developed 30 hands-on lab exercises for computer security education. These labs, called SEED labs (SEcurity EDucation), cover a variety of security topics, including vulnerabilities, attacks, software security, system security, network security, web security, access control, authentication, cryptography, etc. These labs are built upon a Linux virtual machine, the image of which can be downloaded from our web site. Students just need to use a single computer (can be their own laptop) to work on these labs, so there is no need for a dedicated physical laboratory. All software used in the labs is open-source and free. The SEED project has been funded by 3 NSF grants with a total budget of 1.3 million dollars. So far, SEED labs have been used by over 250 institutes in 30 countries. In this workshop, we will select some of the most popular SEED labs, demonstrate how they work. We will then select three labs, and guide the participants to work on these labs in the workshop. Participants are expected to bring their own laptops. Participants who want to gain experiences with more SEED labs can apply to attend our free 3-day workshop in June.