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Federated Online Social Network Monitoring - available | ||||||||
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The Mastodon network - currently around 1.5 million monthly active accounts on +10000 servers - is regarded as the most successful alternative online social network yet: Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok - this service is NOT based on manipulative strategies like targeted advertising and algorithmic outrage maximisation - which are posing imminent threats to democracies worldwide - and for this reason, the network keeps evolving rapidly. → However, its decentralized nature creates exciting challenges for monitoring "network health". Your task is to:
Further reading: https://fediverse.party/en/mastodon Further watching:
Further watching: https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-857362-die_rosarote_brille_des_fediverse If you are interested in the future of online social networking systems (democratically legitimised moderation and algorithms + resistance against spam, censorship, denial-of-service...) then this topic may be something for you | ||||||||
| If you're interested, please contact Paul Fuxjäger (paul.fuxjaeger(at)univie.ac.at). |
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Pure Data Software Engineering Best Practices - available |
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Pure Data is a visual language for multimedia computing. Pure Data programs, usually called "patches", may use various software engineering techniques such as modularization to achieve better readability, reusability, and maintainability. There exist some established patterns. Yet, there is little introductory literature on on them. In this project, you research the existing material such as public patches and libraries, Pure Data's own documentation system and included examples, and your own experience creating programs in this (and other) programming language(s). The outcome of the project is a set of well-documented worked examples of good software engineering practices in Pure Data. Participation and research intervention in our current course Network-based Communication Ecosystems is possible – you are invited to include our students in your research. We can also connect you with the international community of Pure Data users and developers for further investigation. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
An open-source GVRP/GARP dissector for Wireshark - available |
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Wireshark is a renowned measurement and analysis software for computer networks. Its dissector library is large, yet lower-layer protocols such as GARP and GVRP (protocols for configuration management between switches in LANs) are only partially implemented, do not appear to be tested, lack documentation, etc. Your task in this project is to assess the state of GARP / GVRP / GMRP protocol support in Wireshark through experiments, and extend the implementation and documentation to support the use cases that you identify as most relevant. For this project, you will work with practical network equipment such as switches and wiretaps, as well as write software in C, and glue code in other languages. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
iLO Hacking - available |
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Server hardware includes management interfaces to remote-control the hardware and BIOS of a server even if the main operating system or hypervisor becomes inaccessible through usual means such as ssh. For this, a fully separate embedded system is built into the server. It provides its own firmware and operating system, RAM, storage, a separate physical Ethernet port, and low-level access to the running server hardware (e.g. fan and power supply status) and software (e.g. main memory of the server). Little is known about the actual software comprising these management interfaces, although (mostly-informal) investigations have been conducted, e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Feel free to research other projects, useful search terms include iLO, IPMI, iDRAC, OOB, BMC... In this project, you aim to expand and formalize this knowledge by trying out existing and developing new methods of analyzing and modifying firmware of management interfaces. A distant goal could be a fully free and open-source operating system, e.g. based on OpenWrt, for a management controller. We have multiple HP servers from different generations at our disposal for hardware analysis and hacking. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
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