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Writing 04: Zero-day Exploits

Reflection

After a series of related readings and videos from the lectures, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on the readings and discussions for each week by writing a few short responses to given prompts. In this course, the reading responses are typically due by 5pm on Tuesdays of the following week they are assigned, after we have discussed the issues and explored the topics in class. This reflection is due on 3/26 at 5pm.

Note that the course staff are looking for your own thoughts on these topics. Writing in the first person, taking divergent viewpoints, and bringing in ideas from outside of class are encouraged. Write as if you are targeting a public audience. Particularly insightful or convincingly contrarian statements might be shared with the entire class in lecture or in the course slack.

For this week, you are to consider the following questions related to the lectures Trojans and Backdoors and Smashing the Stack:

  1. Imagine that you are a computer hacker in the 1990s who is specializing in the development of exploits for unauthorized privilege escalation in operating systems. Is there an ethical way for you to release your exploits to the public? Explain why or why not?

  2. In this week's lectures, we've talked about commercial operating systems like Microsoft Windows, as well as open source operating systems like Linux. Given what you know about each type, are security vulnerabilities found in commercial operating systems worse than those in open source operating systems? 

Grading

Each reflection should be between 500 - 1000 words. It will be graded in terms of:
 

  • Does the reflection adequately address the prompt?

  • Does the reflection reference the readings and class discussions to support the writing?

  • Does the reflection exhibit thoughtfulness and creative expression?

  • Does the reflection utilize proper grammar and style?

  • Is the reflection an appropriate length?

Submission Instructions

  1. (For this first submission) Share a Google drive folder for this class with our TA Ellen (ejoyce3@nd.edu) and give her editor privileges. 

  2. Prepare a doc in that folder named using this convention: lastname_firstname_duedate. Example: Joyce_Ellen_032624

  3. The TA will collect each assignment directly from your drive after it is due