The course teaches C++ developers fundamental concepts from Exploit Development and Reverse Engineering, and uses these concepts to demonstrate common vulnerabilities in C++ codebases. This background is used to help the students to view their code from an attacker's perspective. They develop a sense of what common vulnerable constructs in C++ look like, and also which tools can help them find different types of vulnerabilities in their existing code bases.
The Secure Coding Practices taught are largely based on the C++ Core Guidelines, the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) and the SEI CERT Coding Standards for C++.
The attendees are assumed to be proficient C++
Patricia Aas is an international speaker and has spoken at CppCon, ACCU, C++OnSea, NDC Security, NDC Oslo and many other conferences on subjects ranging from Sandboxing in Chromium to Vulnerabilities in C++. She has taught a range of subjects in Computer Science at the University of Oslo.
Patricia has a masters degree in Computer Science and 13 years professional experience as a programmer, most of that time programming in C++. During that time she has worked in codebases with a high focus on security: two browsers (Opera and Vivaldi) and embedded Cisco telepresence systems.