Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network Review

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Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network ReviewLet me get this out of the way: If books could be reviewed as "first effort" this would be a five/five. For a really ambitious book out of the gate it does a decent job of hitting tons of domains from multiple angles to inform, excite, and influence the thought processes of the reader.
To be even more honest had I thumbed through this book before buying it I would not have bought it. A lot of alarms can go off when you see pictures of vendor equipment, tables of network services, and a touch of conspiracy theory in places. Not that those things are inherently bad but it's only a 400 page tome so that's a lot of real estate to be worried about misusing. The authors use those pages as well as can be expected and in a way that even the most jaded readers should be able to ~respect~ if not always appreciate.
I'm not being hard on this book, trust me. It's now the third book, along with Silence on the Wire, and Anderson's Security Engineering, I expect all newer ITSec professionals to read early and often. I don't judge a non-textbook by the accuracy or timeliness of every statement. Or the quality of the story telling or case studied. I judge these types of books by their ability to affect ~thought processes~, ~perspective~, and ~risk analysis~... and I think this book is a winner on all three counts. It is all about influencing thought, not hand-feeding PRECISE EXACTING and ultimately useless step-by-step hacks.
Solid 4/4.5 star on any scale and a 5/5 for a new set of authors. I hope the editors and publisher give them the opportunity to add about 120/150 pages and build a community. One last note, the books and resources noted within this book are good stand-up lists and should not be overlooked either. The single paragraph stories from the web or people profiles are not to be skipped over.Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network Overview
Dissecting the Hackis one heck of a ride! Hackers, IT professionals, and Infosec aficionados will find a gripping story that takes the reader on a global trip through the world of computer security exploits. One half massive case study, one half technical manual, Dissecting the Hack has it all - learn all about hacking tools and techniques and how to defend your network against threats.

Yes, the security threats are real - read more about the tactics that you see executed throughout the story in the second half of the book where you will learn to recon, scan, explore, exploit and expunge with the tools and techniques shown in the story. Every hack is real and can be used by you once you have the knowledge within this book!

Utilizes actual hacking and security tools in its story- helps to familiarize a newbie with the many devices and their code
Introduces basic hacking techniques in real life context for ease of learning
Presented in the words of the hacker/security pro, effortlessly envelops the beginner in the language of the hack


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Security for Microsoft Windows System Administrators: Introduction to Key Information Security Concepts Review

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Security for Microsoft Windows System Administrators: Introduction to Key Information Security Concepts ReviewThis is a rather short (Security for Microsoft Windows System Administrators: Introduction to Key Information Security Concepts Overview
It's no longer just a buzz word: "Security" is an important part of your job as a Systems Administrator. Most security books are aimed at security professionals, but Security for System Administrators is written for System Administrators. This book covers the basics of securing your system environment as well as security concepts and how these concepts can be implemented practically using common tools and applications. Whether you are new to this profession or have been in the field a while, you'll find valuable information in each chapter. The book's examples will focus on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, but many concepts are platform agnostic.

Take all the confusion out of security including: network attacks, system failures, social networking, and even audits
Learn how to apply and implement general security concepts
Identify and solve situations within your network and organization


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InfoSec Career Hacking: Sell Your Skillz, Not Your Soul Review

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InfoSec Career Hacking: Sell Your Skillz, Not Your Soul ReviewI enjoyed reading this book and I kept thinking to myself, "I wished this book would have existed when I tried to break into Information Security/Information Assurance. So far I've had a pretty successful IA career and as I read each chapter of the book I realized that I basically followed almost all of the books suggestions, some by my own plans and some by accident.
This book is definitely authored by an all-star cast so I was excited to crack the seal. I liked the sections on employment opportunities and who's hiring. The brief IA overview was definitely necessary. I was also fond of the Laws of Security content. I've never thought about those laws and how true they really are.
When I get time my friend and I plan to use the Creating an Attack Lab content. It was a good collection of theory and tool descriptions.
Overall this book is a good read and even though I've been in the Information Assurance field for over 8 years now I plan to use it as a reference and to build me an attack lab ASAP.
All IA/Infosec newbies should read this....it could have saved me some stress when I was just a noob!
Mark Cavey, CISSP-ISSAP, IAM, IEM, CHS
Senior Computer Network Defense Engineer
InfoSec Career Hacking: Sell Your Skillz, Not Your Soul Overview"InfoSec Career Hacking" starts out by describing the many, different InfoSec careers available including Security Engineer, Security Analyst, Penetration Tester, Auditor, Security Administrator, Programmer, and Security Program Manager. The particular skills required by each of these jobs will be described in detail, allowing the reader to identify the most appropriate career choice for them. Next, the book describes how the reader can build his own test laboratory to further enhance his existing skills and begin to learn new skills and techniques. The authors also provide keen insight on how to develop the requisite soft skills to migrate form the hacker to corporate world.* The InfoSec job market will experience explosive growth over the next five years, and many candidates for these positions will come from thriving, hacker communities * Teaches these hackers how to build their own test networks to develop their skills to appeal to corporations and government agencies * Provides specific instructions for developing time, management, and personal skills to build a successful InfoSec career

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Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning Review

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Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning ReviewEarlier this year Fyodor sent me a pre-publication review copy of his new self-published book, Nmap Network Scanning (NNS). I had heard of Fyodor's book when I wrote my 3 star review of Nmap in the Enterprise in June, but I wasn't consciously considering what could be in Fyodor's version compared to the Syngress title. Although the copy I read was labelled "Pre-Release Beta Version," I was very impressed by this book. Now that I have the final copy (available from Amazon) in my hands, I am really pleased with the product. In short, if you are looking for *the* book on Nmap, the search is over: NNS is a winner.
I've reviewed dedicated "tool" books before, including titles about Snort, Nessus, and Nagios. NNS dives into the internals of Nmap unlike any other title I've read. Without Nmap author Fyodor as the author, I think any competitor would need to have thoroughly read the source code of the application to have a chance at duplicating the level of detail Fyodor includes in NNS.
Instead of just describing how to use Nmap, Fyodor explains how Nmap works. Going even further, he describes the algorithms used to implement various tests, and why he chose those approaches. The "Idle Scan Implementation Algorithsm" section in Ch 5 is a great example of this sort of material. I will probably just refer students of my TCP/IP Weapons School class to this part of NNS when we discuss the technique!
One of the best parts of NNS, mentioned but explained in no other text, is the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE). Ch 9 is all about NSE, with a brief intro to Lua and excellent documentation of using and building upon NSE. Beyond this groundbreaking material readers will find many examples of Nmap case studies from users. This and other sections help make NNS a practical book, showing how people use Nmap in their environments for a variety of purposes.
If you use Nmap, for any reason, you should buy this book. Everyone (except author Fyodor) will learn something about network reconnaissance from this text.Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning OverviewNmap Network Scanning is the official guide to the Nmap Security Scanner, a free and open source utility used by millions of people for network discovery, administration, and security auditing. From explaining port scanning basics for novices to detailing low-level packet crafting methods used by advanced hackers, this book suits all levels of security and networking professionals. A 42-page reference guide documents every Nmap feature and option, while the rest of the book demonstrates how to apply those features to quickly solve real-world tasks. Examples and diagrams show actual communication on the wire.
Topics include subverting firewalls and intrusion detection systems, optimizing Nmap performance, and automating common networking tasks with the Nmap Scripting Engine. Hints and instructions are provided for common uses such as taking network inventory, penetration testing, detecting rogue wireless access points, and quashing network worm outbreaks. Nmap runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Nmap's original author, Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon, wrote this book to share everything he has learned about network scanning during more than 11 years of Nmap development. Visit http://nmap.org/book for more information and sample chapters.

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Honeypots for Windows (Books for Professionals by Professionals) Review

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Honeypots for Windows (Books for Professionals by Professionals) ReviewReview by Lou Vega of the Greater Charleston .NET User Group
This book provides immediate and useful information whether you have previous experience with Honeypots or hadn't even heard of one until you picked up the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been interested in network and systems security as it pertains to a Microsoft Windows environment, especially in light of the fact that most previous books and articles with information about Honeypots were geared toward *nix systems.
Those who have no previous experience with Honeypots and would like a background lesson can jump right into Chapters 1 and 2 which should give them a fair basic understanding of what's involved. Those persons who want to get right to work...start browsing between chapters 3 and 8 for hands on information including screenshots and installation/configuration information. Later chapters cover more advanced information concerning the monitoring and analysis of the traffic captured using your Honeypot.
The author doesn't leave you stranded with just setting up a Honeypot either. The chapters on Network Analysis, Honeypot Monitoring and alerting, and Honeypot data analysis give you a chance to begin to make real use of the Honeypot and the data gathered while using it. The walkthroughs for setting these analysis and monitoring tools seem easy enough and the author makes good use of available open source tools out there for those who don't have the budget for some of the commercial applications available.
An added bonus for any networking security person is the wealth of information concerning how to harden a Windows Server, common ports used in malware and numerous configuration demonstrations make this a handy book to keep as a general security reference.
This book will make a fine addition to any IT professional's reference collection.Honeypots for Windows (Books for Professionals by Professionals) OverviewThe Book will cover installing, configuring, and maintaining security Honeypots on Windows platforms. The Book will specifically cover the popular open source Honeypot product called honeyd, and summarize other commercial Honeypot solutions. There are no computer security books covering Honeypots (or IDSs) as they run on Windows platforms. Developers who are tired of reading Unix and Linux documentation and newsgroups to get information on how to build and maintain a Windows-based Honeypot this book is for you. No longer will you have to rummage through Unix-only advice and utilities to pull out the information that related to your Windows deployment. No longer will you have to listen to some Unix head bash Microsoft and Bill Gates when all you wanted to know is why your Honeypot wasn't working. Learn special tricks and troubleshooting hints to run a Windows-based Honeypot.Target audience: Windows network and security administrators; intrusion detection software users; subscribers to Honeypot mailing list; readers of other author's Honeypot books - all are very Unix-centric

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Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures: Attack Phases (EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (Ceh)) Review

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Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures: Attack Phases (EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (Ceh)) ReviewCovers many of the tools related to CEH certification, obviously not in a highly-detailed fashion.
There are typos, such as defining availability as "locking data that is in use....". Link to the student resource center leads to a "coming soon" page (to access the supplemental materials available online, use the registration number in the back of the book - access is given for 180 days).
Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures: Attack Phases (EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (Ceh)) OverviewThe EC-Council | Press Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures Series is comprised of five books covering a broad base of topics in offensive network security, ethical hacking, and network defense and countermeasures. The content of this series is designed to immerse the reader into an interactive environment where they will be shown how to scan, test, hack and secure information systems. With the full series of books, the reader will gain in-depth knowledge and practical experience with essential security systems, and become prepared to succeed on the Certified Ethical Hacker, or C|EH, certification from EC-Council.This certification covers a plethora of offensive security topics ranging from how perimeter defenses work, to scanning and attacking simulated networks. A wide variety of tools, viruses, and malware is presented in this and the other four books, providing a complete understanding of the tactics and tools used by hackers. By gaining a thorough understanding of how hackers operate, an Ethical Hacker will be able to set up strong countermeasures and defensive systems to protect an organization's critical infrastructure and information.

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Security Log Management: Identifying Patterns in the Chaos Review

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Security Log Management: Identifying Patterns in the Chaos ReviewWhen I received a review copy of Security Log Management (SLM) last month, I was eager to read it. I saw two very powerful but seldom discussed tools -- Argus and Bro -- mentioned in the table of contents. This indicated some original thinking, which I appreciate. Unfortunately, SLM did not live up to my expectations. When you strip out the pages of scripts and code and the three reprinted chapters, you're left with a series of examples of output from the author's deployment of several tools. Aside from a few examples mentioned in this review, I don't think readers will learn much from SLM.
The first problem with SLM is a lack of competent editing. Prior to publication, someone should have read the book from the reader's perspective, asking "what is the reader expected to learn from this section/chapter/book?" In other words, the editor should have asked "how is the reader supposed to implement these recommendations?" For example, Ch 2 mentions using the Bro IDS. Nothing about setting up Bro is included, which would be acceptable if a reference to an online guide or another book was given. That is not the case; the author just assumes readers know about Bro and have it running. The number of Bro users is probably less than 100. If you're one of them, you don't need to read this book!
Bro's DNS and SMTP logging modules are casually demonstrated with no regard for showing the reader how to deploy them. The Web module at least shows a sample mt.bro file, if the reader can figure out what that is or how it fits into the picture. The situation gets worse on p 101 when the author says "the SMTP module can be very powerful in helping to identify several of the 'Marcus Ranum' top mail-related statistics (Chapter 1)." Marcus Ranum is not mentioned at all in Ch 1.
SLM demonstrates two other features that are becoming increasingly common and frustrating in Syngress books, for which I detracted stars from the review. First, the editing is rough. I am perplexed by the inability to standardize on references to tools; e.g., is it bro, Bro, or BRO? Second, and far more worrisome, the last three chapters (7, 8, and 9) of SLM are reprints of chapters 6, 7, and 5 from the Feb 2005 Syngress book Microsoft Log Parser Toolkit. On the positive side, SLM did not have as many fuzzy screen shots as sometimes appear in recent Syngress books. The unexplained small, fuzzy, NetForensics screen shot on p 31 is one unwelcome exception.
In terms of stating a clear purpose and delivering material in a coherent manner, the best chapter in SLM is Ch 6 -- Scalable Enterprise Solutions. I thought the author of this chapter stated his purpose, and then delivered material that readers could use. My only problem with the chapter was reading the definition of ESM 5 times -- on pp 195, 196, 205, 237, and 238!
My favorite part of SLM was the material showing how to put Argus records into a MySQL database. This is not that common, so I was glad to see how the author implements that function.
I'm sorry I can't recommend reading SLM in its current form. Three stars means there is some value, but you could get what you need browsing in the book store. I would like to see a second edition of SLM cut out the reprinted chapters. That cuts the book down to 241 pages. If the 70 or so pages of code are moved online, that reduces the book to 171 pages. That leaves plenty of room to add material that meets readers' needs. An example of a very strong Syngress book on a related (host-based) topic is Host Integrity Monitoring Using Osiris and Samhain by Brian Wotring.Security Log Management: Identifying Patterns in the Chaos OverviewThis book teaches IT professionals how to analyze, manage, and automate their security log files to generate useful, repeatable information that can be use to make their networks more efficient and secure using primarily open source tools. The book begins by discussing the "Top 10" security logs that every IT professional should be regularly analyzing. These 10 logs cover everything from the top workstations sending/receiving data through a firewall to the top targets of IDS alerts. The book then goes on to discuss the relevancy of all of this information. Next, the book describes how to script open source reporting tools like Tcpdstats to automatically correlate log files from the various network devices to the "Top 10" list. By doing so, the IT professional is instantly made aware of any critical vulnerabilities or serious degradation of network performance. All of the scripts presented within the book will be available for download from the Syngress Solutions Web site.Almost every operating system, firewall, router, switch, intrusion detection system, mail server, Web server, and database produces some type of "log file." This is true of both open source tools and commercial software and hardware from every IT manufacturer. Each of these logs is reviewed and analyzed by a system administrator or security professional responsible for that particular piece of hardware or software. As a result, almost everyone involved in the IT industry works with log files in some capacity.* Provides turn-key, inexpensive, open source solutions for system administrators to analyze and evaluate the overall performance and security of their network* Dozens of working scripts and tools presented throughout the book are available for download from Syngress Solutions Web site. * Will save system administrators countless hours by scripting and automating the most common to the most complex log analysis tasks

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Windows Registry Forensics: Advanced Digital Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry Review

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Windows Registry Forensics: Advanced Digital Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry ReviewAfter having read the subtitle -- Advanced Digital Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry' -- I was a bit surprised to find that this book seems to have its roots in 'the number of analysts ... [who] have no apparent idea of the forensic value of the Windows Registry' as the Preface mentions. This suggests the book is not so much for the advanced analyst, but more of an introduction to the area for those who are not yet proficient in analysing Registry information.
Other areas of the book, such as the description of some of the internal structures of the registry, tend to support this. An advanced book would probably not have omitted a description of the security descriptors on registry keys, for example.
This is probably not obvious to the buyer -- who is likely to go by the subtitle. I bought the book largely on the strength of the title, myself, and while I'm not disappointed, it's not quite the book I hoped for.To the presumed reader, then, the main value is probably to be found in the two chapters of Case Studies. Here is where the value of the registry in a forensic analysis is most clearly described. These chapters are what beginning registry analysts want to read.
The focus of these chapters, though, is on the information in the registry, not where it is located, or to what extent it can be relied on. This is a deliberate decision of the author, and may be sound enugh. It means, though, that the reader is more drawn into using the author's tools, and less into being able to locate the actual keys and values himself with regedit or other tools. In a text for more advanced users, it would have been been a serious error to omit full key/value descriptions; in this type of book, it may lead to more complexity than is strictly warranted.
So, this is not quite the book for me. I don't mind buying it, but I will not be able to rely on it for reference, so it will end up in the bookshelf. I'd rate it at 3.5, but I do hesitate to round that up to an even four stars, as that is slightly too much, in my opinion.What would have made me give a higher score?* Better source references -- as it is, the source references are largely web links to Microsoft's support web site. If there are any references to printed works, I have not noted them. For example:
The author refers to earlier analysis by himself and Cory Altheide on USB artifacts, but so far I have been unable to find a single reference to that. As it's clear from the text that it was published, omitting this reference seems a little odd.
A couple of theses are mentioned: one by Jolantha Thomassen and one by Peter Norris, but none of these are properly referenced. The one by Ms. Thomassen, I was able to find a web link to in a "TIP" sidebar, and the one by Mr. Norris is mentioned in the text as another web link.
And Mark Russinovich's article 'Inside the Registry' mentioned in the text, is not cited either. (It was published in Windows NT Magazine.)
All of these may be available on the web, but as long as such presence is not guaranteed, I feel the proper source references to make are to the actually published texts.
For an introductory book, however, such references may be thought to be a little to academical and over the top -- though in that case, many of the existing references to Microsoft's support web site could not improbably be dropped as well.* A road map for further studies -- assuming that this particular book is an introduction to the topic, additional sources for continued studies would have been welcome. The preface hints of a wealth of information about the registry, and it is not clear that all aspects have been covered.
I expected to find a mention of Jerry Honeycutt's bok 'Microsoft Windows Registry Guide, 2. ed.' (Microsoft Press, 2005) mentioned, mainly because it describes the practical workings of the registry, and deploying techniques, as well as how to identify what registry settings a particular program modifies. It also documents many registry settings that may be of interest at an investigation, though it's focus is on computer management, not investigations, and it does go into many areas that were not included in the present book, such as registry access rights, and registry auditing.Additionally, I can't rid myself of a feeling that the book tries t be a little more than just an introduction. Some of the information is not on an introductory level. For example, the note on NoInstrumentation on p. 190 is not obviously of any practical value, as it raises the question what exact information is affected by this setting. To the researcher, though, it is probably the starting point for further experiments. And I must also admit that some terminological vagueness, spelling errors (the first is on the first text page of the book) and general grammatical and typographical fuzziness helps pull down the score a bit. The book uses '...' which normally indicates deliberate omissions, but here seems to be used instead of dashes -- this is very confusing at first. Proper typography as well as text polishing is generally the job of the publisher, but as the present publisher, Syngress, does not have much of a reputation in this area, it probably should be considered to be part and parcel of buying a Syngress book in the first place, and so not affect the score of any particular title. Still, the presence of it grates.
Additionally, in a book of reference the index would have been diaster. In an introductory book ... well, it may serve some purpose, but it's pretty clear that I can't use it to find anything important. There is, for example, an index entry 'Master boot record) MBR', but as the text it references only covers how to find drive signatures/volume IDs in the MBR, that entry is clearly not specific enough to be useful. More useful would have been to have index entries on 'drive signature' and 'volume ID', but there are none.
Windows Registry Forensics: Advanced Digital Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry Overview

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Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide Review

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Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide ReviewIt's nice when a book not only delivers on its stated objective, but it also opens my eyes to a better understanding of a related subject. Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide by David Kennedy, Jim O'Gorman, Devon Kerns, and Mati Aharoni falls solidly into that class. In addition to learning how I can use Metasploit for network penetration testing, I also saw just how easy it is for someone to compromise a system with very little effort or knowledge. You can never rest when it comes to network and system security.
Contents:
Introduction; The Absolute Basics of Penetration Testing; Metasploit Basics; Intelligence Gathering; Vulnerability Scanning; The Joy of Exploitation; Meterpreter; Avoiding Detection; Exploitation Using Client-Side Attacks; Metasploit Auxiliary Modules; The Social-Engineer Toolkit; Fast-Track; Karmetasploit; Building Your Own Module; Creating Your Own Exploits; Porting Exploits to the Metasploit Framework; Meterpreter Scripting; Simulated Penetration Testing; Configuring Your Target Machines; Cheat Sheet; Index
The authors set an ambitious goal in trying to write a book that is useful for both beginners and experienced users of Metasploit. Usually that means that neither side ends up being happy. I can say as a member of the beginner group, I can say they were successful on that end of the scale. There's a fine balance between step-by-step hand holding and the assumption that the reader already knows everything. After an introduction to a structured approach to penetration testing, they start to cover the basics of how someone might use Metasploit to probe a network, gather information on potential attack vectors, and then exploit those potential weaknesses. The major features are covered as opposed to trying to write about every last setting, so the material doesn't bog down in minutia. It's also nice that they set up a fictional penetration test scenario, and follow it through the different chapters. It makes for good continuity. As the book progresses, the emphasis moves towards creating your own modules to run within the Metasploit framework. Not every tester will need or want to go that route, but it's a reminder of how flexible this tool can be.
The bonus of this book was realizing how easy it is to launch various attacks without much effort. I guess I really hadn't thought through what would be necessary to set up phishing attacks, either by sending infected documents or setting up a fake site to collect personal information. With Metasploit, it's nothing more than selecting some options and running the tool. You can argue whether Metasploit is a good or bad thing depending on who is using it, but it's a certainty that this type of behavior will exist and happen regardless. By writing this book, the authors have helped even the playing field between the black hats and the white hats.
Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide is a book that should be on the shelf of any serious computer security professional. And if you're just starting to dabble in the world of network security, this is a great resource to start your journey.
Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: FreeMetasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide Overview"The best guide to the Metasploit Framework." -HD Moore, Founder of the Metasploit Project
The Metasploit Framework makes discovering, exploiting, and sharing vulnerabilities quick and relatively painless. But while Metasploit is used by security professionals everywhere, the tool can be hard to grasp for first-time users. Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide fills this gap by teaching you how to harness the Framework and interact with the vibrant community of Metasploit contributors.

Once you've built your foundation for penetration testing, you'll learn the Framework's conventions, interfaces, and module system as you launch simulated attacks. You'll move on to advanced penetration testing techniques, including network reconnaissance and enumeration, client-side attacks, wireless attacks, and targeted social-engineering attacks.

Learn how to:

Find and exploit unmaintained, misconfigured, and unpatched systems
Perform reconnaissance and find valuable information about your target
Bypass anti-virus technologies and circumvent security controls
Integrate Nmap, NeXpose, and Nessus with Metasploit to automate discovery
Use the Meterpreter shell to launch further attacks from inside the network
Harness standalone Metasploit utilities, third-party tools, and plug-ins
Learn how to write your own Meterpreter post exploitation modules and scripts

You'll even touch on exploit discovery for zero-day research, write a fuzzer, port existing exploits into the Framework, and learn how to cover your tracks. Whether your goal is to secure your own networks or to put someone else's to the test, Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide will take you there and beyond.


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Nessus, Snort, & Ethereal Power Tools: Customizing Open Source Security Applications (Jay Beale's Open Source Security Series) Review

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Nessus, Snort, & Ethereal Power Tools: Customizing Open Source Security Applications (Jay Beale's Open Source Security Series) ReviewI've read and reviewed the three previous books in Jay Beale's Open Source Security Series -- Snort 2.1, Nessus Network Auditing, and Ethereal Packet Sniffing. I liked all three of those books, and I'm glad to say that this fourth book -- Nessus, Snort, and Ethereal Power Tools (NSAEPT), is a worthy continuation of Jay's series. NSAEPT is a unique resource for anyone who wants to extend Nessus, Snort, and Ethereal. The book could save programmers hours of work, and it should be the first step for those looking to contribute to the development of all three projects.
It's unfortunate that an uninformed three star review has been the only commentary on NSAEPT until now. Of course the book is not for beginners! Why write another introductory book, when the three earlier titles serve that role (and more)? NSAEPT is strong precisely because it starts where the other three books end.
I learned quite a bit reading NSAEPT. For example, Part I shared advice on using Nessus to audit hosts directly, by examining Windows registry keys, package databases, or Windows PE files (.exe, .dll) directly. I appreciated the discussion of creating NASL checks that were more protocol-aware (for MySQL) or that could speak NTLM authentication to IIS Web servers. Ch 6 even gave tips on building NASL generators.
Part II, covering Snort, gave better advice on writing Snort rules than what was found in the earlier Snort 2.1 book. I thought this part was the weakest of the three, however. I would have liked to have seen many more examples of using advanced Snort rule options. Table 8.10 should have said that the + flag means "match on the specified flags, and allow any other flags." Also, I thought the author miscommunicated the purpose of the stream4 preprocessor when he mentioned dropping UDP and ICMP traffic. That's an issue when running inline, not passively as most people use Snort.
I really liked Part III, which examined Ethereal. Ch 11 offered great guidance on reverse engineering an unknown trace format, namely iptrace from AIX 3. Ch 12 mentioned an undocumented tethereal flag (-G) that was new to me. I enjoyed learning about tap modules in Ch 13, and I did not know that Ethereal uses the wiretap library to read traces -- not libpcap.
I subtracted one star from my review for a few reasons. First, NSAEPT features some really annoying formatting problems in many of the code listings. Every place the characters "FI" (any case) appear, they are changed into a single nonsensical character. I stopped counting the number of times this happened. For example, where one should read "Filename", we see instead "Xlename". The same seems to have happened with "FL"; e.g., "Flags" becomes "Xags". The reference to libpcap and "Chapter 1" on p 159 should instead point to Ch 11. I thought the inclusion of material from Brian Wotring's Host Integrity Monitoring book as Appendix A was unnecessary. Brian's book is great, but I don't think readers need 30 pages from another title. Is that just padding?
Format-wise, NSAEPT features smaller fonts than one sees in more recent Syngress books. I thought the font was a little small, but in some ways an improvement over the jumbo text seen elsewhere. I also thought the paper used to print NSAEPT was much better than other titles. Compare NSAEPT with another 440 page Syngress book, Securing IM and P2P Applications for the Enterprise, and you'll see the latter book is much thicker.
Overall I recommend NSAEPT to anyone who wishes to do more with Nessus, Snort, or Ethereal. NSAEPT is definitely a book for power users and developers. It's great to see a new book that starts with original material and avoids rehashing what's already been written.Nessus, Snort, & Ethereal Power Tools: Customizing Open Source Security Applications (Jay Beale's Open Source Security Series) OverviewThis book will cover customizing Snort to perform intrusion detection and prevention; Nessus to analyze the network layer for vulnerabilities; and Ethereal to "sniff" their network for malicious or unusual traffic. The book will also contain an appendix detailing "the best of the rest" open source security tools. Each of these tools is intentionally designed to be highly customizable so that users can torque the programs to suit their particular needs. Users can code their own custom rules, plug-ins, and filters that are tailor-made to fit their own networks and the threats which they most commonly face. The book describes the most important concepts of coding and customizing tools, and then provides readers with invaluable working scripts that can either be used as is or further refined by using knowledge gained from the book.* Snort, Nessus, and Ethereal are the three most popular open source security tools in the world* Only book that teaches readers how to customize these tools for their specific needs by coding rules, plugins, and filters* Companion Web site provides all working code and scripts from the book for download

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