CS161 Spring 2026

Instructors: Henry Corrigan-Gibbs, Raluca Ada Popa / Lecture: MWF, 3:00–4:00 PM, Wheeler 150 [Zoom, Playlist]

Announcements

Midterm Logistics

Feb 17

The midterm is on Thursday, March 12, 7–9pm.

Midterm logistics are available on the exam logistics page.

Please fill out this form if you need an alternate exam time, an online exam, or you have DSP accommodations. The form is due Friday, February 20, 11:59PM PT, but will remain open for late requests until Wednesday, March 11, 11:59PM PT. We cannot guarantee that late submissions will be accomodated, but we will do our best. For last-minute emergencies, please email cs161@berkeley.edu.

Past announcements

Course Calendar

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Wk.	Date	Lecture	Discussion	HW	Project
1	Wed Jan 21	1. Introduction and Security Principles Slides / Recording / Ch. 1	0. 61C Review Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides	HW1 (due Fri Jan 30)	Project 1 Checkpoint (due Fri Feb 06)
	Wed Jan 21
	Fri Jan 23	2. x86 Assembly and Call Stack Slides / Recording / Ch. 2 / x86/GDB Cheat Sheet
	Fri Jan 23
2	Mon Jan 26	3. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities Slides / Recording / Ch. 3	1. Security Principles and x86 Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Exam Prep: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Bridge: Slides
	Mon Jan 26	3. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities Slides / Recording / Ch. 3
	Wed Jan 28	4. Memory Safety Vulnerabilities II Slides / Video / Recording
	Wed Jan 28
	Fri Jan 30	5. Mitigating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities Slides / Recording / Ch. 4
	Fri Jan 30
3	Mon Feb 02	6. Intro to Cryptography Slides / Recording / Ch. 5	2. Memory Safety Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Exam Prep: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Bridge: Slides	HW2 (due Fri Feb 13)
	Mon Feb 02	6. Intro to Cryptography Slides / Recording / Ch. 5
	Wed Feb 04	7. Pseudorandom Functions and Block Ciphers Slides / Recording / Ch. 6 / Ch. 9
	Wed Feb 04
	Fri Feb 06	8. Block Cipher Modes of Operation Slides / Recording / Ch. 6
	Fri Feb 06
4	Mon Feb 09	9. Collision-resistant Hash Functions Slides / Recording / Ch. 7	3. Memory Safety Mitigations Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Exam Prep: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Bridge: Slides		Project 1 (due Fri Feb 13)
	Mon Feb 09
	Wed Feb 11	10. Message Authentication Codes Slides / Recording / Ch. 8
	Wed Feb 11	10. Message Authentication Codes Slides / Recording / Ch. 8
	Fri Feb 13	11. Authenticated Encryption Slides / Recording
	Fri Feb 13	11. Authenticated Encryption Slides / Recording
5	Mon Feb 16	No Lecture (Presidents’ Day)	4. Symmetric Cryptography Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Exam Prep: Worksheet / Solutions / Video / Slides Bridge: Slides	HW3 (due Fri Feb 27)	Project 2 Spec Quiz (due Fri Feb 20)
	Mon Feb 16	No Lecture (Presidents’ Day)
	Wed Feb 18	12. Key Exchange and Diffie-Hellman Slides / Recording / Ch. 10
	Wed Feb 18
	Fri Feb 20	13. Public-key Encryption Slides / Recording / Ch. 11
	Fri Feb 20	13. Public-key Encryption Slides / Recording / Ch. 11
6	Mon Feb 23	14. Digital Signatures Slides / Recording / Ch. 12	5. Integrity and Authenticity Discussion: Worksheet / Slides Exam Prep: Worksheet / Slides Bridge: Slides		Project 2 Design Checkpoint (due Fri Feb 27)
	Mon Feb 23	14. Digital Signatures Slides / Recording / Ch. 12
	Wed Feb 25	15. Randomness and Crypto Implementation Bugs Slides
	Wed Feb 25	15. Randomness and Crypto Implementation Bugs Slides
	Fri Feb 27	16. Introduction to Web Slides / Ch. 18 / Ch. 19 / Ch. 20
	Fri Feb 27	16. Introduction to Web Slides / Ch. 18 / Ch. 19 / Ch. 20
7	Mon Mar 02	17. Cookies and CSRF Slides / Ch. 20 / Ch. 21	6. Asymmetric Cryptography Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides	HW4 (due Fri Mar 06)	Project 2 Testing Checkpoint (due Fri Mar 20)
	Mon Mar 02
	Wed Mar 04
	Wed Mar 04	18. Certificates, Passwords, and Case Studies Slides / Ch. 13 / Ch. 14
	Fri Mar 06
	Fri Mar 06
8	Mon Mar 09	19. XSS Slides / Ch. 22	7. Cookies and CSRF Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides	HW5 (due Fri Mar 20)
	Mon Mar 09
	Wed Mar 11
	Wed Mar 11
	Thu Mar 12	Midterm (7-9PM)
	Thu Mar 12	Midterm (7-9PM)
	Fri Mar 13	20. UI Attacks Slides / 23
	Fri Mar 13	20. UI Attacks Slides / 23
9	Mon Mar 16	21. SQL Injection and CAPTCHAs Slides / Ch. 17 / Ch. 24	8. SQL Injection and XSS Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides
	Mon Mar 16
	Wed Mar 18
	Wed Mar 18	22. Intro to Networking Slides / Ch. 25
	Fri Mar 20
	Fri Mar 20
10	Mon Mar 23	No Lecture (Spring Recess)	No Discussion (Spring Recess)	HW6 (due Fri Apr 10)	Project 2 (due Fri Mar 27)
	Mon Mar 23
	Wed Mar 25
	Wed Mar 25
	Fri Mar 27
	Fri Mar 27
11	Mon Mar 30	23. Low-Level Network Attacks Slides / Ch. 26 / Ch. 27 / Ch. 28 / Ch. 29	9. ARP, DHCP, WPA Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides		Project 3 (due Fri Apr 10)
	Mon Mar 30
	Wed Apr 01
	Wed Apr 01	24. BGP and Transport Layer (TCP and UDP) Slides / Ch. 30
	Fri Apr 03
	Fri Apr 03
12	Mon Apr 06	25. TLS Slides / Ch. 31	10. TCP and TLS Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides
	Mon Apr 06
	Wed Apr 08
	Wed Apr 08	26. DNS Slides / Ch. 32
	Fri Apr 10
	Fri Apr 10
13	Mon Apr 13	27. DNSSEC Slides / Ch. 33	11. DNS Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides	HW7 (due Fri Apr 24)
	Mon Apr 13	27. DNSSEC Slides / Ch. 33
	Wed Apr 15	28. Denial of Service and Firewalls Slides / Ch. 34 / Ch. 35
	Wed Apr 15
	Fri Apr 17	29. Intrusion Detection Slides / Ch. 36
	Fri Apr 17	29. Intrusion Detection Slides / Ch. 36
14	Mon Apr 20	30. TBD	12. Intrusion Detection Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides
	Mon Apr 20	30. TBD
	Wed Apr 22	31. AI Security
	Wed Apr 22
	Fri Apr 24
	Fri Apr 24
15	Mon Apr 27	32. AI Security	13. AI Security Discussion: Slides Exam Prep: Slides Bridge: Slides
	Mon Apr 27
	Wed Apr 29
	Wed Apr 29
	Fri May 01	33. iPhone Security
	Fri May 01	33. iPhone Security
16	Mon May 04	No Lecture (RRR Week)	Topical Review Sessions (RRR Week)
	Mon May 04
	Wed May 06
	Wed May 06
	Fri May 08
	Fri May 08
17	Wed May 13	Final Exam (7–10PM)
17	Wed May 13	Final Exam (7–10PM)