Network Security (CIS-4080) Home Page
This is the home page for Peter Chapin's Computer Security course notes for the Spring 2023
semester. Here you will find electronic versions of class handouts, homework assignments,
lecture slides, and links to other references of interest. If you are a student taking Network
Security you should bookmark this page.
- The Zoom
meeting URL gives you access to the live lectures.
- The homework submission area and grade book are on Canvas. All other course resources are
here.
- The course syllabus gives an overview of the course and
its content, lists course resources, and describes the grading policy and related issues.
- Some of the assignments will require Packet Tracer, a network simulator made by Cisco. You
can access Packet Tracer by creating a Skills for All
account (if you have a Cisco Networking Academy account already you can use that to log into
Skills for All). To get started, enroll in the "Getting Started with Cisco Packet Tracer"
course. You can download Packet Tracer from there. The "Getting Started..." course is worth
working through if you are new to Packet Tracer.
- There is an experimental network in the BLP-210 lab
that we can use for some physical network demonstrations and assignments.
- I've prepared some general information on submitting
assignments.
- My home page contains other resources of potential interest.
Lecture Topics
The lectures for this course are on Zoom.
- 2021-01-18.
Introduction to the course and to Packet Tracer. Started looking at the "basic settings" for
Cisco routers.
- 2023-01-23.
More on router basic settings and discussion of Homework #1.
- 2023-01-25.
Discussed "views" as implemented on Cisco routers.
- 2023-01-30.
Introduced network management and discussed logging via syslog.
- 2023-02-01.
Discussed Homework #2 and NTP.
- 2023-02-06.
Discussed locking down router services (and related topics).
- 2023-02-08.
Discussed the BLP-210 experimental network.
- 2023-02-13.
Quick introduction to GNS3. Discussed AAA.
- 2023-02-15.
[Off-topic lecture] Demonstrated the IPv6 tunnel between Lemuria and Twilight.
- 2023-02-20. No class (Vacation).
- 2023-02-22. No class (Vacation).
- 2023-02-27.
Introduced Homework #3. Started discussing router ACLs.
- 2023-03-01.
Continued discussion of ACLs ("Complex" ACLs).
- 2023-03-06.
Discussed firewalls.
- 2023-03-08.
Discussed intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS).
- 2023-03-13.
Described the current status of the BLP-210 experimental network.
- 2023-03-15.
Discussed Homework #4 and started discussing network attack
methods.
- 2023-03-20. No class.
- 2023-03-22.
Introduced IPsec.
- 2023-03-27.
More discussion about the configuration of the experimental network and about an upcoming
Homework #5 related to using Snort as an intrusion detection system.
- 2023-03-29.
Still more discussion about the configuration of the experimental network and the saga of
getting things set up for use there!
- 2023-04-03. No class (Vacation).
- 2023-04-05. No class (Vacation).
- 2023-04-10.
Demonstrated snort on Mu in package capture and packet logging mode.
- 2023-04-12.
More demonstrations using the experimental network: nmap logging, router attack tools.
- 2023-04-17.
Demonstrated snort in IDS mode.
- 2023-04-19.
Discussed Homework #6.
Slides
These slides are by Jean Hakim. I have made some modifications/updates to them. Most of these
slides were converted from PDF to PowerPoint and then back to PDF (the original PowerPoint was
lost). The conversion process created some formatting issues, which I am slowly correcting.
Homework
- Homework #1. Securing the Router. Due: 2023-01-27.
- Homework #2. Views, Logging, and NTP. Due: 2023-02-10
- Homework #3. Configure AAA Authentication on Cisco
Routers. Due: 2023-03-10.
- Homework #4. Configure Router Access Control Lists.
Due: 2023-03-24.
- Homework #5. Capturing Traffic on the Experimental
Network. Due: 2023-04-14.
- Homework #6. Using Snort in IDS Mode. Due: 2023-05-05
Resources/Articles
Cybersecurity Organizations
Infrastructure Devices
Cisco-Specific Information
Product References
- Snort is an intrusion detection/prevention system. Here
is the documentation for Snort v3 (note that version 3
is significantly different than version 2).
- strongSwan is an IPsec implementation for Linux and
other systems. Here is a document that describes how to install
strongSwan on Ubuntu 20.04.
- Graylog is a commercial product that does log
integration. It can use ML/AI methods to correlate log events to identify attacks that are not
discernible from individual log events.
RFCs
Other
Last Revised: 2023-04-20
Copyright 2023 by Peter Chapin <pchapin@vtc.edu>