Individual Projects

Computer Organization

Projects in C:

• A fictional assembly language, LC2K, was used for this course as well as a limited subset of ARMv8. LC2K resembled a limited subset of MIPS.

• Basic assembler and simulator for LC2K.

• Advanced assembler for LC2K with support for multiple source files and external references. Implemented a symbol table and relocation table.

• Linker for multiple LC2K source files.

• Pipelined simulator for LC2K. Implemented a 5-stage pipeline with forwarding to resolve data hazards and simple branch prediction and rollback for control hazards.

• Cache simulator for LC2K with variable number of lines, block size, and associativity; writeback policy and LRU.

Projects in Assembly:

• Multiplier for LC2K, which lacks a multiplication instruction. Uses long multiplication with bit shifting for speed.

• Binomial coefficient calculator using stack frames and recursion.

Other project work:

• For most (if not all) projects above, students were instructed to devise their own test cases, handwritten or randomly generated. The test cases were graded against a set of buggy instructor implementations for their ability to catch bugs.

Data Structures and Algorithms

Projects in C++:

• Word morph solver. Takes a start word, end word, dictionary, and rulebook. Implemented with stacks, queues, and deques.

• Mine escape solver implemented with priority queues.

• Binary heap and pairing heap implementations from scratch.

• Hash table implementation from scratch.

• AVL balanced binary search tree implementation from scratch.

• SQL simulator for a limited subset of commands. Implemented with a mix of hash tables, arrays, and maps.

• Minimum spanning tree generator and traveling salesperson problem solver with heuristics. Employs backtracking and branch-and-bound designs.

Other project work:

• For most (if not all) projects above, students were instructed to devise their own test cases, handwritten or randomly generated. The test cases were graded against a set of buggy instructor implementations for their ability to catch bugs.

• Projects in this class were graded for correctness and also for performance. Runtime, peak memory usage, and memory leaks were measured.

Group Projects

Thread Library

• Created a thread library from scratch in C++ with two other group members that can be used in multithreaded programs.

• Implemented thread functionality such as thread creation, deletion, join and yield functions, and working with mutexes and CVs

iOS Block App

• Develop an AR iOS app in Swift in a team of four using ARKit and GPS location to visualize buildings with pins and building names to help students better identify buildings on the University of Michigan campus

• Market app with team and app got featured on the official University of Michigan app

Computer Security

• A Vigenere deciphering tool. Uses variance in ciphertext letter frequency to estimate key length, and either simple frequency analysis or chi-square test to guess the key.

• A length extension attack on MD5 hashes, and a collision attack composed of two binaries with identical MD5 hashes but wildly different behavior.

• RSA signature forgery implementing Bleichenbacher’s attack.

• A padding oracle attack against cipher block chaining, modeled after the vulnerability in earlier versions of TLS/SSL.

• SQL injection against inadequate sanitation and hashed user input fields.

• Port scanning detector using the dpkt library to parse packet captures.

• Buffer overflow attacks for C programs. Encompasses shellcode, bypassing DEP and ASLR, and return oriented programming.

• A fuzzer for black box testing on an instructor program that parses JSON input.

Projects in JavaScript and jQuery:

• XSS attacks that send user data to a remote server. Implemented against increasing levels of sanitation, and coupled with CSRF attacks.

Other project work:

• Analyzed network traffic with Wireshark to find vulnerabilities.

• Wrote a phishing email to a simulated helpdesk.

• A penetration test on a simulated corporate network, and digital forensics using Autopsy and various other tools. Due to the open ended nature of those projects, I am unable to disclose their components or methods.