Software security: experiments on the .NET common language run-time and the Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure

As more and more software applications are directly or indirectly accessible from the Internet, the importance of the security of these applications grows steadily. Hence, it is important that university curricula for computer scientists and software engineers include courses on secure software development. Such courses should make students familiar with the programming language technology, run-time support and available API for security, and they should also teach them how to use these technological means appropriately. The .NET framework is a good example of the current state-of-the-art support for secure development. The Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure (SSCLI) provides a source for some of the security related aspects of the framework. The paper describes how the secure software development course at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven uses the .NET framework and the SSCLI. An overview is given of the contents of the course, and a number of example project assignments based on .NET or the SSCLI are presented.