Introduction to Software Security

Elisa Heymann and Barton P. Miller

Contacts: elisa@cs.wisc.edu and bart@cs.wisc.edu.

© 2023-2026 Elisa Heymann and Barton P. Miller.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Module 1: Introduction

Chapter 1 Welcome and Overview 2 (1.2.1) Introduction (part 1) Basic Terminology English, Español 2 (1.2.2) Introduction (part 2) Threats English, Español 2 (1.2.3) Introduction (part 3) Risks and Basic Concepts English, Español 3 (1.3) Thinking Like an Attacker: Owning the Bits English, Español

Module 2: Thinking Like a Designer

4 (2.1) Secure Design Principles 5 (2.2) Overview of Threat Modeling 6 (2.3) Microsoft Security Design Lifecycle and Threat Modeling Methodology 7 (2.4) Microsoft DREAD Threat Categories 8 (2.5) PASTA Threat Modeling Methodology

Module 3: Thinking Like a Programmer: Secure Programming

9 (3.1) Pointers and Strings English, Español 10 (3.2) Numeric Errors: Integers English, Español 11 Numeric Errors: Floating Point 12 (3.3) Directory Traversal English, Español 13 (3.4) Exceptions English, Español 14 (3.5) Serialization English, Español 15 (3.8) Introduction to Injection Attacks English, Español 16 (3.8.1) SQL Injections English, Español 17 (3.8.2) Command Injections English, Español 18 (3.8.3) Code Injections English, Español 19 (3.8.4) XML Injections English, Español 20 (3.9.1) Web Attacks: Background English, Español 21 (3.9.2) Web Attacks: Cross Site Scripting (XSS) English, Español 22 (3.9.3) Web Attacks: Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) English, Español 23 (3.9.4) Web Attacks: Session Management English, Español 24 (3.9.4b) Web Attacks: CORS English 3.9.5 Web Attacks: Redirection English, Español 25 (3.10.1) Mobile: Background English, Español 25 (3.10.2) Mobile: Attacks English, Español

Module 4: Defensive Techniques

26 (4.1) Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) English 27 (4.2) Memory Safety Checks English 28 (4.3) Control Flow Integrity Checks

Module 5: Thinking Like an Analyst: In-Depth Vulnerability Assessment

29 (5.1) Introduction to FPVA, First Principles Vulnerability Assessment English 30 (5.2.1) FPVA Step 1: Architectural Analysis (part 1) English 30 (5.2.2) FPVA Step 1: Architectural Analysis (part 2) English 31 (5.3) FPVA Step 2: Resource Identification English 32 (5.4) FPVA Step 3: Trust and Privilege Analysis English 33 (5.5.1) FPVA Step 4: Component Analysis (part 1) English 33 (5.5.2) FPVA Step 4: Component Analysis (part 2) English 33 (5.5.3) FPVA Step 4: Component Analysis (part 3) English 34 (5.6) FPVA Step 5: Dissemination of Results 35 (5.7) The Manager's Point of View: Responding to a Vulnerability English

Module 6: Thinking Like an Analyst: Automated Assessment Tools

36 (6.1) Static Analysis Tools Concepts English 37 (6.5.1) Dependency Analysis Tools: Conceptual Background English 37 (6.5.2) Dependency Tools: How to Use the Tools English (6.3) Tools for C and C++ (6.4) Tools for Java

Module 7: Dynamic Techniques (Fuzz Testing and Other Checkers)

38 (7.1) Introduction to Fuzz Testing English (7.2.1) Classic Fuzz Testing: Background English 39 (7.2.2) Classic Fuzz Testing: The Command Line Studies English 40 (7.2.3) Classic Fuzz Testing: The GUI-Based Studies English 41 (7.2.4) Classic Fuzz Testing: Other Studies English 42 (7.3) Fuzz Testing with AFL++ English 43 (7.4) Memory Error Checking Tools (7.2.1) Classic Fuzz Web Resources English

Module 8: Secure Use of Cryptography

(8.1) Basic Cryptography Concepts English (8.2) Java Crypto API Misuses and Cryptoguard English

Supplementary Sections

Glossary of Terms

Last modified: Thu Feb 12 04:09:12 PM CST 2026 by bart