Final Project Ideas This page lists some final project ideas and resources. We are just collecting ideas tossed out in class. Your specific project still requires approval from the course staff. Also, we prefer that groups work on somewhat distinct topics.
New Topic Ideas
Implement a Program to Measure the Amount of Randomness Available in a System
Many systems assume a source of randomness to generate cryptographic keys. Without a source of good randomness, keys are extremely easy to guess. The default Linux® random number generator gathers randomness from IDE disk events and mouse/keyboard I/O. On headless server machines with SCSI disks locked in hosting centers, there may be little or no randomness. Can you measure the effectiveness of random number generation? Develop a suite of tests to determine how fast randomness is exhausted?
MIT Card
Analyze the security of the new MIT Card. An analysis was done by students in the mid 90s, but many aspects have probably changed. The card is also used for different purposes now. What is the new trust model? See this Tech article.
MIT Tech Cash
Peer-to-Peer Security
Anti-Spam Techniques
Topics from Previous Years
SEC: SSH like client
A Secure Media Distribution Framework
How to Make the User Authentication Process in MS Passport More Secure
Blinded Distributed Computing
Security of Wireless Networks and Mobile Devices
Cracking Digital Satellite TV
User Authentication in Cryptographic File Systems
Steganography in Spam
Proactive Cryptography Applications in Smart Cards
Execution-Based Software Protection
Steganography in TCP timestamps
Rethinking Software Piracy: Active Software Rights Verification for Effective Control of Piracy
Reputation-Based Certificate Authorities
Cookie authentication
Analyzing the Security of 802.11 Wireless Networks
Threshold Signatures and Open Source
Honeypots
Security and Privacy Issues of Microsoft Passport
Security Aspects of Unicode
Digital Signatures for Physical Mail
Differential Fault Analysis of RC5
Secure Instant Messengers
A Review of AES Candidates
A Payword Implementation
An Analysis of TIMEBOMB
Purple: Japanese Ciphers in WWII
Identity Theft
Approaches to MIXNets
SmartCards: Back from the Dead
Payment via GSM Mobile phones
Digital Multimedia Copyright Protection
Security Analysis of Electronic Postage Systems
Security of Network Attached Storage
Software Bugging
Design of a Secure Pilot-based Authentication System
Intrusion Detection Systems
Cellular Telephone Security
A Computer Testing System
Copyright Protection Mechanisms in DVD + DIVx
CGI Security Issues
Network Access Controls
Digital Money—Fault Tolerant Multibank System
Security Policy Models
An Overview of Biometric Technologies and their Real World Applications
Netbook
Secure Sockets Layer 3.0: Overiew and Analysis
Secure Perfectly Forward Secure Email Wizard
Cryp: An All-or-Nothing Encryption Scheme for Secure Multi-user Information Distribution
Frosty the Random Number Generator
Impact of Quantum Theory on Cryptography
Cartemis: Secure Electronic Wallet Technology
Preventing Media Piracy
Netscape®'s "What's Related" Service and Privacy/Security Issues
Secure Electronic Poker
PGP vs S/MIME
A Study of SSH
ATM: A Trusted Machine?
Secure Mobile Code Framework
Pseudonyms and Credential Transfer
Electronic Payment Schemes
eCheck: A Safety-Oriented Electronic Check Scheme
Computing with Encrypted Data
Receipt-Free Secure Elections
A well-hidden Module for Remote Control of Linux® Machines
The feasibility of Quantum Computation
Network Security for Chat Programs
Electronic Voting
New MIT Car
Hints For Writing Your Paper and Giving Your Talk