Students

COMP8355 – Advanced Offensive Security

2026 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor and Lecturer
Damian Jurd
damian.jurd@mq.edu.au
TBD
Lecturer
Natasha Fernandes
natasha.fernandes@mq.edu.au
TBD
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
COMP6170 or COMP6310
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit provides an advanced exploration of ethical hacking and offensive security. Strong emphasis is given to ethics and ethical behaviour as students are exposed to penetration techniques and methods. Students are taught how to systematically look for and exploit vulnerabilities in software, protocols and systems in order to report those vulnerabilities and improve the safety of those software, protocols and systems. Communication, in both oral and written forms, plays a critical role in this unit. The most proficient students in this unit may be selected to represent the University at various national pentesting competitions and challenges.

Topics include: 

  • Operating system structure. 
  • System services. 
  • Command-line interfaces and scripting. 
  • Vulnerabilities and their classification. 
  • Network services. 
  • Exploitation techniques. 
  • Configuration issues. 
  • Web services and exploitation techniques. 
  • Forensic and Steganographic techniques.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Relate the importance of ethics and ethical behaviour to offensive security and penetration testing.
  • ULO2: Evaluate and execute various scoping, vulnerability scanning and reconnaissance procedures on a range of devices, platforms, protocols, systems and organisations. 
  • ULO3: Use tools and ad-hoc approaches to exploit vulnerabilities for a range of purposes, including access control, payload delivery and privilege escalation.
  • ULO4: Effectively communicate results to technical and non-technical audiences.

General Assessment Information

Release Dates

  • Professional Report - Preliminary Engagement: to be released no later than week 3
  • Professional Report - Supplementary Engagement: to be released no later than week 7
  • Proficiency Assessment: information and sample questions are to be released no later than week 6

Requirements to Pass this Unit

To pass this unit, you must:

  • Achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50%.

Late Submission Policy

  • 5% penalty per day: If you submit your assessment late, 5% of the total possible marks will be deducted for each day (including weekends), up to 7 days.

    • Example 1 (out of 100): If you score 85/100 but submit 20 hours late, you will lose 5 marks and receive 80/100.

    • Example 2 (out of 30): If you score 27/30 but submit 1 day late, you will lose 1.5 marks and receive 25.5/30.

  • After 7 days: Submissions more than 7 days late will receive a mark of 0.

  • Extensions:

    • Automatic short extension: Some assessments are eligible for automatic short extension. You can only apply for an automatic short extension before the due date.

    • Special Consideration: If you need more time due to serious issues and for any assessments that are not eligible for Short Extension, you must apply for Special Consideration.

Need help? Review the Special Consideration page HERE

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due Groupwork/Individual Short Extension AI Approach
Proficiency Assessment 30% No Week 9 Individual No Observed
Professional Report - Preliminary Engagement 30% No 02/04/2026 Individual No Open
Professional Report - Supplementary Engagement 40% No 14/06/2026 Individual No Open

Proficiency Assessment

Assessment Type 1: Examination
Indicative Time on Task 2: 6 hours
Due: Week 9
Weighting: 30%
Groupwork/Individual: Individual
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach: Observed

You will be assessed on your knowledge of penetration testing tasks from a technical, methodological, and ethical perspective.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Relate the importance of ethics and ethical behaviour to offensive security and penetration testing.
  • Evaluate and execute various scoping, vulnerability scanning and reconnaissance procedures on a range of devices, platforms, protocols, systems and organisations. 
  • Use tools and ad-hoc approaches to exploit vulnerabilities for a range of purposes, including access control, payload delivery and privilege escalation.

Professional Report - Preliminary Engagement

Assessment Type 1: Professional task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 28 hours
Due: 02/04/2026
Weighting: 30%
Groupwork/Individual: Individual
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach: Open

You will complete various activities, recording your results in a journal. Drawing upon your journal as evidence, you will produce a professional report written in a form that is suitable for submission to a client for review by both executive and technical audiences.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Relate the importance of ethics and ethical behaviour to offensive security and penetration testing.
  • Evaluate and execute various scoping, vulnerability scanning and reconnaissance procedures on a range of devices, platforms, protocols, systems and organisations. 
  • Use tools and ad-hoc approaches to exploit vulnerabilities for a range of purposes, including access control, payload delivery and privilege escalation.
  • Effectively communicate results to technical and non-technical audiences.

Professional Report - Supplementary Engagement

Assessment Type 1: Professional task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 38 hours
Due: 14/06/2026
Weighting: 40%
Groupwork/Individual: Individual
Short extension 3: No
AI Approach: Open

You will complete various activities, recording your results in a journal. Drawing upon your journal as evidence, you will produce a professional report written in a form that is suitable for submission to a client for review by both executive and technical audiences.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Relate the importance of ethics and ethical behaviour to offensive security and penetration testing.
  • Evaluate and execute various scoping, vulnerability scanning and reconnaissance procedures on a range of devices, platforms, protocols, systems and organisations. 
  • Use tools and ad-hoc approaches to exploit vulnerabilities for a range of purposes, including access control, payload delivery and privilege escalation.
  • Effectively communicate results to technical and non-technical audiences.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • Academic Success for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation.

3 An automatic short extension is available for some assessments. Apply through the Service Connect Portal.

Delivery and Resources

Week 1

Each week you should participate in your scheduled two hour practical workshop. For details of scheduled classes consult the timetables webpage.

Note that both the lectures and practicals workshops (lab sessions) commence in week 1. The week-by-week details of the practical (lab) classes will be available from iLearn.

Also note that you must only attend the practical that you are enrolled in.

Textbook and Reading Materials

COMP8355 is a practice-oriented unit and as such the practical exercises and lecture notes make up the bulk of the learning material. Additional reading materials will be provided on iLearn as required.

Unit Websites

COMP8355 is administered via iLearn (http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/).

This unit outline can be found in the university's unit guides

Lecture Recordings

Digital recordings of lectures may be available. They will be linked from iLearn.

Technologies Used and Required

COMP8355 is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) unit. You will be expected to bring your own laptop computer (Windows or Mac) to the workshop, install and configure the required software, and incorporate secure practices into your daily work (and play!) routines. The laptop must be capable of running a CommandoVM virtual machine. At a minimum your laptop should have 120GB of free disk space, 8GB of memory, and 4 CPU cores.

General Notes

In this unit, you should do the following:

  • Review recorded lecture materials.
  • Participate your weekly Practical session.
  • Work on any assignments that have been released.

Note that Workshops commence in week 1. Please note that you will be required to submit work every week.

Communication Methods in COMP8355 

All announcements about unit-related matters will be communicated through iLearn. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they check iLearn announcements, forums and FAQ sections regularly.

Students are encouraged to use the iLearn forums for asking questions about unit content and concepts. Where questions are about specific details in an assessment submission, this may need to be sent via the dedicated unit email address so as not to be at risk of breaching the university academic integrity policy.

Students should use the appropriate iLearn forms for contacting staff. There may be occasions where unit staff will email a student directly to their @students.mq.edu.au email address. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they check their official university email regularly for communications from the university staff.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit connect.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Academic Success

Academic Success provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via the Service Connect Portal, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2026.05 of the Handbook