Fundamental Computer Security consists of 3 modules and is highly recommended for those who are not comfortable with fundamental security concepts, or if you are unable to easily answer the following types of questions:

1. A fail-safe stance means:

• A program will fail when an adversary attempts to attack it.
• A program will default to a secure mode when it fails.
• A program is safe from failure in all cases, and is therefore secure.
• A program is safe against failure in most cases.

• RC4 can be used in either CBC or ECB mode.
• The design of 3DES takes advantage of modular arithmetic.
• The design of the AES algorithm was kept secret, whereas 3DES was designed by a committee.
• A 128-bit AES key can be used to encrypt a 1024-bit RSA key.

• Wrap all calls to string manipulation functions to check for string lengths.
• Pass the length of input to functions such as strcpy() and strcmp().
• Do not use variables that are allocated on the stack.
• Use buffers as large as possible to prevent buffer overruns.