Hacking Books - Page 2

Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World

Bruce Schneier

List Price: $29.99 By: John Wiley & Sons Amazon Marketplace: 81 new & used starting at $0.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A little dated but still essential reading 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

More people should read this book - it would greatly help to make computers and physical property more secure! A comprehensive approach and easy to understand; I immediately started changing things based on the read.

Editorial Review:

Praise for Sectrets and Lies "This is a business issue, not a technical one, and executives can no longer leave such decisions to techies. That's why Secrets and Lies belongs in every manager's library." Business Week "Clear and passionate, this is the definitive book on Internet security from the leading thinker on the subject." The Industry Standard "Startlingly lively...a jewel box of little surprises you can actually use." Fortune "Secrets is a comprehensive, well-written work on a topic few business leaders can afford to neglect." Business 2.0 "Instead of talking algorithms to geeky programmers, [Schneier] offers a primer in practical computer security aimed at those shopping, communicating or doing business online almost everyone, in other words." The Economist "Schneier peppers the book with lively anecdotes and aphorisms, making it unusually accessible." Los Angeles Times

Counter Hack: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Attacks and Effective Defenses (The Radia Perlman Series in Computer Networking and Security)

Edward Skoudis

List Price: $54.99 By: Prentice Hall PTR Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $1.80

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This informal, step-by-step guide will empower every network and system administrator to defend their network assets, whether or not they have security experience. It covers both Unix and Windows platforms, presenting in-depth descriptions of the inner workings of the most destructive hacker tools, and proven, step-by-step countermeasures. Skoudis begins by presenting the hacker's view of networks and their vulnerabilities, with especially detailed coverage of how hackers view the TCP/IP protocol suite. He introduces all five phases of hacking: reconnaissance (targeting of a network); scanning for network vulnerabilities; gaining access and exploiting the system; maintaining access; and preventing detection. Counter Hack presents in-depth descriptions of the most widespread and dangerous attack scenarios, and the most widely-used hacker tools, including war dialers, port scanners, firewall scanners, sniffers, session hijackers, and more. For all system administrators, network administrators, security specialists, and others directly involved in protecting network and computing infrastructure.

EnCase Computer Forensics: The Official EnCE: EnCase Certified Examiner Study Guide

Steve Bunting, William Wei

Amazon Price: $44.09 List Price: $69.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sybex Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $2.39

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A must have 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is not for beginners in the IT world, but you will need it in the long run.

Editorial Review:

• Guidance Software's EnCase product is the premier computer forensics tool on the market, used in law enforcement labs for digital evidence collection; in commercial settings for incident response and information assurance; and by the FBI and Department of Defense to detect domestic and international threats
• This guide prepares readers for both the CBT and practical phases of the exam that validates mastery of EnCase
• Written by two law enforcement professionals who are computer forensics specialists and EnCase trainers
• Includes the EnCase Legal Journal, essential for forensics investigators who need to be sure they are operating within the law and able to give expert testimony
• The CD includes tools to help readers prepare for Phase II of the certification, which requires candidates to examine computer evidence, as well as a searchable PDF of the text

Hacking For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Kevin Beaver

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $11.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Are you worried about external hackers and rogue insiders breaking into your systems? Whether it’s social engineering, network infrastructure attacks, or application hacking, security breaches in your systems can devastate your business or personal life. In order to counter these cyber bad guys, you must become a hacker yourself—an ethical hacker.

Hacking for Dummies shows you just how vulnerable your systems are to attackers. It shows you how to find your weak spots and perform penetration and other security tests. With the information found in this handy, straightforward book, you will be able to develop a plan to keep your information safe and sound. You’ll discover how to:

• Work ethically, respect privacy, and save your system from crashing
• Develop a hacking plan
• Treat social engineers and preserve their honesty
• Counter war dialing and scan infrastructures
• Understand the vulnerabilities of Windows, Linux, and Novell NetWare
• Prevent breaches in messaging systems, web applications, and databases
• Report your results and managing security changes
• Avoid deadly mistakes
• Get management involved with defending your systems

As we enter into the digital era, protecting your systems and your company has never been more important. Don’t let skepticism delay your decisions and put your security at risk. With Hacking For Dummies, you can strengthen your defenses and prevent attacks from every angle!

CEH: Official Certified Ethical Hacker Review Guide: Exam 312-50

Kimberly Graves

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

too easy? 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I'm a freshman in highschool.
I went through the questions at the end of every chapter in borders and i got over 90% of them right.) This book is WAY too easy. It also contained flase information. It said that you cant sniff any packets on a switched LAN and you DEFINITLY CAN. Read Counter-Hack:Reloaded by Ed Skoudis if you dont want to read an understandable book on Ethical Hacking. By the way, the CEH exam is extremely difficult compared to this books test they test you on specific commands that you type in for tools such as Snort. BOTTOM LINE: This is a bad book don't buy it.

Editorial Review:

Prepare for the CEH certification exam with this official review guide and learn how to identify security risks to networks and computers. This easy-to-use guide is organized by exam objectives for quick review so you’ll be able to get the serious preparation you need for the challenging Certified Ethical Hacker certification exam 312-50. As the only review guide officially endorsed by EC-Council, this concise book covers all of the exam objectives and includes a CD with a host of additional study tools.

Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition

Shon Harris, Allen Harper, Chris Eagle, Jonathan Ness

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $26.51

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A perfect reference for IT-security consultants 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Contents
Second edition of books I like are always welcome - and this book is no exception. So I was very happy when I was provided a review copy from the publisher.

I really liked the first edition of this book and consider this follow up an essential book for IT-security consultants and other professionals.

The book is comprised of five parts which each give an overview of important subjects for professional IT-security consultants. Within these five parts are 21 chapters which are mostly around 20 pages, making it possible for busy professionals to digest a chapter while performing the usual projects and everyday work.

The five parts are:
I) introduction to ethical disclosure, including legal system in the US
II) penetration testing tools: metasploit and backtrack
III) exploits 101 with everything from basic programming skills to writing shellcode, but only on Linux and Microsoft Windows.
IV) Vulnerability analysis which is a strong part about static analysis, reverse engineering, fuzzing, writing real life exploits and references to the essential tools used for these purposes
V) Malware analysis is saved for last and includes the finishing touch to why IT-security professionals should care about all the rest of the book

The great thing about this book are that non-programmers are presented with enough materials to get started in finding and developing exploits. This was also the reason why it took so long to do this review. Each time I read a chapter I was itching to get started running the examples and trying the techniques.

Since this book tries to cover a lot of materials they have decided to include references. There are a lot of specific references to full-length articles covering each of the specialized techniques described in the examples. This really works out great, since I can skip the articles I already have read - but get some in-depth materials to complement the book.

As you can probably understand this way of building the book makes it very efficient and much to my liking, I can decide where to go next. The reader can also decide to skip a chapter and enough references to other chapters are provided that I will never get lost. The small price to pay are a few lines repeated in two chapters.

The writing style and the edge of the book is presented with authority and the authors have done a superb job of making this book consistent. The book is written by 4 authors, but except for a few places were they hint to the author of a chapter there are no clues to who wrote what part. The book is overall high quality and I have only discovered two small wording errors.

I have not discovered any problems in the materials presented and was in general amazed by the updates done. As an example they use Vista for some of the Microsoft Windows examples and in other parts they reference articles and techniques that are up to date. When second edition of a book is published the fear is always that only the new chapters are updated, but it seems the book was updated in all chapters.

Some bad things, which are not really that bad are. I would expect more script-languages but for some reason a lot of examples are using C programs for exploits. I personally use Perl for developing scripted exploits, and the book does use that - but in odd places they use C programs.

This is not really wrong, but it feels a bit old'ish. To be fair in some cases the C programs are needed and since the programs that are to be exploited are also C programs, it works out.

The worst thing I can say about the book is that the index is kind of weak. I know specific things are included in the book, but they are nowhere to be found in the index. That does make the book less useful. Others would also think that a book like this should include a CD/DVD - but since everyone can download the tools I would recommended not adding a CD/DVD for the third edition, but use more resources expanding and adding more chapters instead :-)


Target audience
This book is for anyone interested in getting into hacking and developing exploits. While the primary target audience are security professionals I would recommend that some parts are copied and put on the desk of your manager - they really need information about risk, ethical hacking and legal aspects.


Conclusion
As I started out I welcome second editions, and I had high expectations when receiving this book.

I am happy to report that I was satisfied with the results, and even though I got to go through stuff again I was delighted to relearn a lot which I had forgot. Having an updated concise book about exploits with a great number of references written in an easy to follow language is high value for me.

I would suggest that IT-security consulting companies include this book in the welcome package for any new employee who is doing consulting in IT-security - along with a BackTrack CD, laptop, mobile phone and the usual other stuff.

One word of warning, if you own ALL the more specialized books about exploits, shellcode, secure coding, reverse engineering, fuzzing etc. you may want to skip this book. On the other hand you might own all these books, but never found the time to read them cover to cover, then you should read this book :-)



Links:
The home page for this book is:
http://www.grayhathackingbook.com

A sample chapter about metasploit is also available on the book website.

Editorial Review:

"A fantastic book for anyone looking to learn the tools and techniques needed to break in and stay in." --Bruce Potter, Founder, The Shmoo Group

"Very highly recommended whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting out in the security business." --Simple Nomad, Hacker

Hackers

Steven Levy

List Price: $5.99 By: Dell Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 81 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Today, technology is cool. Owning the most powerful computer, the latest high-tech gadget, and the whizziest web site is a status symbol on a par with having a flashy car or a designer suit. And a media obsessed with the digital explosion has reappropriated the term "computer nerd" so that it's practically synonymous with "entrepreneur." Yet, a mere fifteen years ago, wireheads hooked on tweaking endless lines of code were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captures a seminal moment when the risk takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, "the hacker ethic"--first espoused here--is alive an well.

Hacker's Delight

Henry S. Warren

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fun, interesting and useful 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

My first introduction to binary operators wizardry was in a 1st year, 1st semester course in Digital Systems at the Technion, IIT. I thought it was fun. While I was trying to write a computer program to compute Karnaugh Maps for me, I run into performance problems, and then some binary hackery helped me get back on the horse.

Since then, whenever I come across some binary trick I write it down with a few examples of usage and sometimes with some reasoning why it works.

Then came "Hacker's Delight" and I felt compelled to buy it.

I wasn't disappointed at all! Not only it contained all of the tricks that I have collected, but also it contains a lot more in depth examples of how these tricks can come in handy when trying to squeeze performance from an implementation or save a few more bytes and bits.

The book also gave me a fresh perspective on the implementation of some well known algorithms with the twist of binary arithmetic. This was very enlightening.

I read the "BASICS" chapter (chapter 2) with a single breath of air, and just couldn't leave it down. Not only it was nice to have all these tricks summarized in one book, but also I liked some of the reasoning and the "so-called" proofs.

Remaining chapters were, as I mentioned before, a fresh look for me on known algorithms. This fresh look was through the glasses of binary arithmetic.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels comfortable with binary arithmetic and/or computer organization -- even just for the fun of it!

I'd recommend the book to developers who don't necessarily have a sympathy to this topic, but would like a Copy&Paste solution to some problems they have to tackle.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I will probably reference it from time to time.

Editorial Review:

Veteran programmer Hank Warren shares the tricks he has collected from his considerable experience in the worlds of application and system programming. For anyone who wants to create efficient code. Self-directed study.

Big Book of Apple Hacks: Tips & Tools for unlocking the power of your Apple devices (Hacks)

Chris Seibold

Amazon Price: $23.09 List Price: $34.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $10.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bigger in size, longer in length, broader in scope, and even more useful than our original Mac OS X Hacks, the new Big Book of Apple Hacks offers a grab bag of tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of Mac OS X Leopard, as well as the new line of iPods, iPhone, and Apple TV.

With 125 entirely new hacks presented in step-by-step fashion, this practical book is for serious Apple computer and gadget users who really want to take control of these systems. Many of the hacks take you under the hood and show you how to tweak system preferences, alter or add keyboard shortcuts, mount drives and devices, and generally do things with your operating system and gadgets that Apple doesn't expect you to do. The Big Book of Apple Hacks gives you:

• Hacks for both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, their related applications, and the hardware they run on or connect to
• Expanded tutorials and lots of background material, including informative sidebars
• "Quick Hacks" for tweaking system and gadget settings in minutes
• Full-blown hacks for adjusting Mac OS X applications such as Mail, Safari, iCal, Front Row, or the iLife suite
• Plenty of hacks and tips for the Mac mini, the MacBook laptops, and new Intel desktops
• Tricks for running Windows on the Mac, under emulation in Parallels or as a standalone OS with Bootcamp

The Big Book of Apple Hacks is not only perfect for Mac fans and power users, but also for recent -- and aspiring -- "switchers" new to the Apple experience. Hacks are arranged by topic for quick and easy lookup, and each one stands on its own so you can jump around and tweak whatever system or gadget strikes your fancy. Pick up this book and take control of Mac OS X and your favorite Apple gadget today!

Ubuntu Hacks: Tips & Tools for Exploring, Using, and Tuning Linux (Hacks)

Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin, Bill Childers

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ubuntu Linux--the most popular Linux distribution on the planet--preserves the spirit embodied in the ancient African word "ubuntu," which means both "humanity to others" and "I am what I am because of who we all are." Ubuntu won the "Linux Journal" Reader's Choice Award for best Linux distribution and is consistently the top-ranked Linux variant on DistroWatch.com. The reason this distribution is so widely popular is that Ubuntu is designed to be useful, usable, customizable, and always available for free worldwide.

"Ubuntu Hacks" is your one-stop source for all of the community knowledge you need to get the most out of Ubuntu: a collection of 100 tips and tools to help new and experienced Linux users install, configure, and customize Ubuntu. With this set of hacks, you can get Ubuntu Linux working exactly the way you need it to. Learn how to: Install and test-drive Ubuntu Linux. Keep your system running smoothly Turn Ubuntu into a multimedia powerhouse: rip and burn discs, watch videos, listen to music, and more Take Ubuntu on the road with Wi-Fi wireless networking, Bluetooth, etc. Hook up multiple displays and enable your video card's 3-D acceleration Run Ubuntu with virtualization technology such as Xen and VMware Tighten your system's security Set up an Ubuntu-powered server

"Ubuntu Hacks" will not only show you how to get everything working just right, you will also have a great time doing it as you explore the powerful features lurking within Ubuntu.

""Put in a nutshell, this book is a collection of around 100 tips and tricks which the authors choose to call hacks, which explain how to accomplish various tasks in Ubuntu Linux. The so called hacks range from downright ordinary to the other end of the spectrum of doing specialised things...More over, each and every tip in this book has been tested by the authors on the latest version of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) and is guaranteed to work. In writing this book, it is clear that the authors have put in a lot of hard work in covering all facets of configuring this popular Linux distribution which makes this book a worth while buy.""
-- Ravi Kumar, Slashdot.org