January 2018 - Stack@CS Reading Group

[Sysreading] SRG for 2/2: Energy in computing
by James Davis 26 Jan '18

26 Jan '18

Hi all, Great discussion today. I think we all have a pretty good sense of how the Meltdown attack works now! *Theme* This week's theme is *Energy in computing*. In an attempt to satisfy everyone who has stated an opinion: - Papers 1 and 2 muck about in the Linux kernel - Paper 3 explores the (disastrous) security implications of naive energy-aware computing *Papers* 1. ECOSystem: Managing Energy as a First Class Operating System Resource <https://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9242/16/papers/zeng02ecosystem.pdf>, Zeng et al., ASPLOS 2002. 2. Energy-aware task and interrupt management in Linux <http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~nahum/w6998/papers/ols-2008-srinivasan-energy.p…>, Srinivasan et al., Ottawa Linux Symposium 2008. 3. CLKSCREW: Exposing the Perils of Security-Oblivious Energy Management <https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity17/sec17-tang.…>, Tang et al., USENIX Security 2017. *Bonus paper* Here's a little HotOS ditty related to energy, just for fun. Sign up if you want. 4. Free Lunch: Exploiting Renewable Energy For Computing <https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~acr31/pubs/akoush-freelunch.pdf>, Akoush et al., HotOS 2011. *Logistics* "The usual": Friday Feb. 2 2018, KW2 2225, 3:30-5:00 PM. *Sign-ups* Sign up here <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Bej63kWc74Hr5byE8WJul3a4NHIbBfSQ_z8…>. Your sign-up is your RSVP. Let me know if you have specific snack requests! Cheers, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

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[Sysreading] SRG for 1/26: Meltdown and Spectre
by James Davis 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

Hi all, This week we'll move (much) further into the systems and security domains. I'm sure most if not all of you have heard about the Meltdown and Spectre attacks, published over Christmas break. This week we will study the technical papers describing these security vulnerabilities. *Papers* Half of us will read one paper, half the other. We will discuss both at the meeting. Sign up here <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-wHcyi_K_W888DjWj0cZEX55fwdE1WTiOum…> ! 1. Meltdown <https://meltdownattack.com/meltdown.pdf>: Lipp, Schwarz, Gruss, Prescher, Haas, Mangard, Kocher, Genkin, Yarom, Hamburg. arXiv 2018. 2. Spectre <https://spectreattack.com/spectre.pdf>. Kocher, Genkin, Gruss, Haas, Hamburg, Lipp, Mangard, Prescher, Schwarz, and Yarom. arXiv 2018. For the paper you *don't* read, you might want to look through Adrian Colyer's treatment on The Morning Paper. 1. Abridged: Meltdown <https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/01/15/meltdown/> 2. Abridged: Spectre <https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/01/16/spectre-attacks-exploiting-speculative-…> *Logistics* "The usual": Friday 1/26, 3:30-5:00 PM, KW2 2225. *RSVP* Your paper sign-up is your RSVP. Cheers, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/ <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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[Sysreading] First meeting this semester: Friday 1/19
by James Davis 10 Jan '18

10 Jan '18

Hey all, Thanks to those who filled out the whenisgood survey. It looks like we'll continue meeting on Friday afternoons. For sanity's sake let's just keep the 3:30-5:00 slot. *Why you should come* Here are two reasons! 1. Reading widely gives you a breadth of knowledge that can come in handy when you are trying to solve research problems. It's the difference between taking two weeks to solve something vs. saying "Hmm, this reminds me of paper X" and looking there for help. It's also the difference between writing a mundane Discussion and Related Work section and an interesting, insightful one. 2. The systems reading group provides a friendly, low-risk environment to practice discussing papers and presenting ideas. This is an important skill for seminar-style classes, the PhD qualifying exam, oral defenses, and in literally any job you take after graduate. *Details for the first meeting* *Where*: KWII room 2225 (the usual) *When*: Friday, January 19th, 3:30 - 5:00 (the usual) *What*: This week we are doing two things. 1. We will be planning the topics we want to study this semester. If there's a topic you're really interested in, you should definitely come. 2. We will be discussing some lighter software engineering papers about open source software. i. Raymond's *The Cathedral and the Bazaar* (website <http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/> (includes an HTML version), postscript version <http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/cathedr…> ). ii. Crowston and Howison's *The social structure of Free and Open Source software development* <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.89.3506&rep=rep1&t…>, First Monday 2005. iii. Mockus, Fielding, and Herbsleb's *Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla <https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=567795>,* TOSEM 2002. (Read only the Apache case study if you want). Please RSVP to me at davisjam(a)vt.edu so I can plan snacks accordingly. Regards, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/

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[Sysreading] Meeting time for the Spring semester
by James Davis 06 Jan '18

06 Jan '18

Hi all, The Systems Reading Group will continue this semester. We will generally meet in the CRC as usual. Based on the brainstorming in our Idego-fueled final meeting last semester, this semester's topics will include: - Blockchain and smart contracts - Software-defined networks (SDNs) - "Something about the Linux kernel" - *< insert your request here :-) >* I know schedules shift every semester, and I want to ensure that we pick a meeting time that works for plenty of people. *So, if you plan to attend regularly this semester*, go here <http://whenisgood.net/7ew79xt> and: 1. Highlight all of the times that will work for you in a typical week. 2. Enter your name (bottom right) 3. Click the "send response" button (bottom right). Looking forward to another thought-provoking semester! Cheers, Jamie -- Jamie Davis PhD student, Computer Science, 2015-? Virginia Tech http://people.cs.vt.edu/~davisjam/ <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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