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Sounds like a very cool course.

What did you think of the course textbook ("Exploiting Software", Hoglund & McGraw)? Is there a more modern alternative that you (or anyone) can recommend?

The textbook covers subject matter that won't become outdated: reverse engineering, how to craft malicious input, etc.

_The Art Of Software Security Assessment_ is the current canonical text.

Here's a reading list; I'd add Zalewsky's _Tangled Web_ to it, but change little else: http://amzn.to/cthr46

Didn't he famously fail the whole class one of the times he gave it?

I don't think so, as he's only taught the class once and I didn't fail it:

http://cr.yp.to/courses.html

There was a Slashdot story about it.

I remember reading the course syllabus online and being jealous despite already having worked in professional vulnerability research for a few years. You're lucky to have been at the class! Was he a good lecturer?