2025/2026: Segurança em Sistemas Informáticos (Computer Systems Security) - 1º M.EIC

Specification of the Mini-project

Objective

Develop a lab exercise to demonstrate specific features or vulnerabilities in computer security.

Characterization

The Mini-project is to be assigned to a group of students of this course unit. It consists of the development of an educational product in the form of a lab exercise that will allow a student enrolled in a typical Computer Security course unit of a Computer Engineering course (such as Bachelor's [1] or Master's [2] degrees in Computer Engineering at FEUP)) to acquire a clear understanding of some interesting aspect of the area, in a manner similar to the "SEED labs" [3].

Regarding originality, the product may:

• be original, focusing on some aspect not yet freely available on the Internet;
• be a significant improvement on a laboratory already freely available on the Internet;
• be a significant alternative (in terms of freedom of use, clarity, or ease of use) to an existing laboratory on the Internet.

The Mini-project's final deliverables (much to the image of the mentioned "SEED labs") consist of:

• a document summarizing the theoretical basis of the aspect or vulnerability to be experimented;
• a document with
  • basic usage instructions, including the installation of necessary basic open-source software on a Debian-based Linux machine or a Docker virtual machine;
  • a descriptive guide that, in addition to guiding the user towards the objective of the exercise, asks questions or requests code development that must be presented by the user at the end of the exercise for evaluation;
• a set of files with basic software prepared by the developers of the lab, if they are necessary or useful to the experimenter.

Operational issues

Each Mini-project is assigned to a group of 3-4 students, as a rule.
The exact specification of the work (including the feature or vulnerability in focus) is left to each group, but needs to be accepted by the teacher and, if necessary, adjusted in terms of scope, level of difficulty and depth in order to try to homogenize the global effort of every group of developers.

The timeline of the tasks to be performed by each group is:

• at the beginning of the semester, the group forms, as students in class gather themselves;
• about a month afterwards, the group presents a short document specifying the specific feature or vulnerability in computer security it addresses. This specification should be approved by the teacher (eventually, with some adjustments);
• about a month afterwards, and one-two weeks before the end of the semester's classes, the group submits the product to the teacher and, if time permits, presents it in class (maximum of 20 minutes).

Evaluation for grading

It focus on the degree of simplification and clarification of the feature or vulnerability analysed, on the practicality of the lab and on the general quality of the final product. The evaluation is conducted globally, with no predefined values for the weights applied to each of the aspects mentioned. A qualitative peer student's assessment, if performed, will be taken into consideration for adjusting the final grade.

The product's presentation, if it takes place, is not considered for the final grading.

References

[1] - Bachelor in Informatics and Computing Engineering, FEUP, sigarra.up.pt/feup/en/cur_geral.cur_view?pv_ano_lectivo=2025&pv_origem=CUR&pv_tipo_cur_sigla=L&pv_curso_id=22841 (Jan.2026)

[2] - Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering, FEUP, sigarra.up.pt/feup/en/cur_geral.cur_view?pv_ano_lectivo=2025&pv_origem=CUR&pv_tipo_cur_sigla=M&pv_curso_id=22862 (Jan.2026)

[3] - Hands-on Labs for Security Education, Wenliang Du, seedsecuritylabs.org/Labs_20.04/ (Jan.2026)