Phase 6 — Reliability and Security (Weeks 23–26). This is an integrative phase — every topic here refers back to something in Phases 1–5. Side-channel attacks are particularly rewarding because they connect your computer organization background directly to OS security.
As you go along, you need to finish the following topics:
Crash Consistency and Recovery
Checkpointing and Rollback
Redundancy — Hardware and Software Approaches
Fault Isolation — Microkernels and Sandboxing
Memory Safety — Buffer Overflows and Stack Smashing
OS Security Principles — Least Privilege, Isolation, Audit
Access Control — DAC, MAC, RBAC
Authentication and Capabilities
Trusted Computing Base (TCB)
Virtualization as a Security Mechanism
Side-Channel Attacks — Spectre, Meltdown
Secure Boot and Attestation
Intrusion Detection and System Hardening
Case Study — Linux Security Modules (SELinux, AppArmor)