Internet Site Security

Mirko Zorz writes "Internet Site Security - what a name for a book. When I first heard about it I was thinking: '1400 pages, 6 CDs,' but when the book came and I began to read through it, I realized how much good information the authors were able to fit into just over 400 pages. We all want 'big books' but with this one, the authors take a somewhat different approach, one that is less connected to software versions and that will endure in time. But, before we get into the core of the book, let's take a look at the people behind it." Mirko's review continues below. Internet Site Security author Erik Schetina, Ken Green and Jacob Carlson pages 432 publisher Addison Wesley rating 8 reviewer Mirko Zorz ISBN 0672323060 summary This book manages to shed new light on the problems of security implementation; a good gift idea for both your IT manager and your system administrator.

About the authors

Erik Schetina, CISSP, is the CTO for TrustWave Corporation. He spent 14 years with the U.S. Department of Defense developing information security systems and public key cryptosystems. Jacob Carlson is a senior security engineer for TrustWave Corporation. His primary role is leading the penetration testing and vulnerability assessment team. In his copious free time he likes breaking things and writing code. Ken Green is a senior security engineer for TrustWave Corporation where he works extensively on intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and virtual private network initiatives.

When you read biographies like the ones above you can be somehow reassured that the content of the book is good. All of the authors come from TrustWave Corporation and the fact that they work together has influenced the writing of this book, in a very good way.

The basics

At the very beginning of the book the authors show us that the starting point of building a secure environment is not the implementation of a solution but rather the defining of the assets we want to protect. You have to know what's a threat to your assets in order to choose the best security solution.

The authors manage to successfully illustrate how different things such as system administration, policy and audits fit into an overall security plan. Through the book, the authors educate the reader by making sure he sees "the big picture." The bottom line is that "the transition from a techie to a security professional consists in the recognizing the importance of all the components of security." In the second chapter some great material is covered: description of the security process, assessment and policy, asset protection, monitoring and detection.

Which one is better?

When describing the way things can be done, the authors always give you the pros and the cons. For example, at one point they describe the difference when using commercial scanners in penetration testing compared to using a team of people who will do it by hand. They provide good pros and cons for both ways, and that's one of the great things about this book, you always get to look at the other side of the coin.

The insecurities

What we all know is that the Internet is inherently insecure -- that's why this book was published in the first place. The authors explain why it's insecure, who administers it and how it works. Some of the topics presented here are: an overview of TCP/IP, the Domain Name Service (DNS), Whois databases, anonymity, and much more.

History is also present in this book. Chapter 4 begins with a brief overview of the history of the Internet and the TCP/IP protocol suite. Also mentioned is the Morris Worm (November 1998). As we move on, the DNS is explained in greater detail (with some security issues addressed specifically), and we are slowly presented with an abundance of technical details that stretches over several chapters. Some of the things that are explained in the book include: secure protocols, virtual private network protocols and encapsulation, the secure shell (SSH) and authentication systems.

As an inevitable part of a book of this kind, there's a part dedicated to passwords (and good rules for their generation), and another on digital certificates. The authors present the shortcomings of certificates as well as their best uses. Although neither of these are explained in great detail, you'll be able to get an overview of the things presented.

Moving on, we get a plethora of information covering: firewalls, DMZs, VPNs, external and internal threats, the security of wireless networks, workstation management issues, intrusion detection systems and log processing, etc.

Operating systems

The book also gives some good information when it comes to operating systems and server software. Some of the covered topics include:

• Windows NT and 2000 - authentication, access tokens, security identifiers, object access control lists, tightening Windows users rights, etc.
• Linux - overview of the Linux Kernel, file system permissions, authentication mechanisms, how PAM works, etc.
• Server security: web, mail, FTP, etc.

Attack and defense

If you want information about attacks, denials of service attacks are covered in great detail, along with many other attack scenarios. Since you also want to protect yourself from all of these attacks there's naturally much material dedicated to firewalls: their functions, implementation issues and vulnerabilities. Now that's not enough, is it? Now you want more. There's a whole chapter dedicated to intrusion detection systems and one dedicated to incident response and forensics. The chapter on incident response and forensics will be of particular interest for all of you who want more knowledge of legal and privacy issues.

Secure Code

To complete the book, there's a chapter dedicated to the developers, which discusses the development of secure Internet applications. Here you'll be able to read about common sources of programming mistakes, exploiting executable code, application-level security, coding standards, and more.

The verdict

This book manages to shade a new light on the problems of security implementation by explaining the position of the system administrator and the position of the IT manager in order to make them both understand their role in the overall process of security in the company. It's a good idea to give it to both your IT manager and your system administrator, they will both learn from it and in the process start to understand each other on a new level. With this book, you basically learn to think on a larger scale.

There are not many downsides. There are basically only two things that I didn't like about this book: the lack of resources, and (in parts) the writing style. There are not enough resources listed, and I always like to get to more information. As regards the writing style it's obvious that this book was not meant to entertain in any way, but it sometimes seems a bit too serious. I always believed that learning should be fun. That's just me :)

Overall, this is an excellent book, two thumbs up!

If you're interested in hearing what one of the authors of the book has to say, you can check out an interview with him here. You can purchase Internet Site Security from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

From your review it sounds like great theory

[defile]

Windows NT and 2000 - authentication, access tokens, security identifiers, object access control lists, tightening Windows users rights, etc.

Ok, I could have ignored this review until I got to that part.

Windows 2000 sounds like a complete, powerful system in theory. To salespeople and even project managers, Windows 2000 is packed with all of the buzzwords they want to hear. "Security Reference Monitor", "Policies", etc.

Of course, anyone with practical, in-the-trenches experience knows that it's an impossible system to keep secure. It is big, it is bloated, it is closed source. It discourages deep understanding and is too complicated and restrictive to allow you to strip down to the parts you only need.

The best reference manual you can find on Windows 2000 internals is "Inside Windows 2000", which is at best a pedestrian overview of the system. This is not the fault of the authors, it is the fault of the system.

It is simply pathetic compared to The Design & Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System, or Linux Kernel Source Commentary, or UNIX System Internals, et al. You cannot download the source to Windows 2000 and evaluate it for yourself. You cannot compile out support for everything but the core essentials. You cannot identify and understand every process running on the system. You do not have the option of replacing them with specialized alternatives.

Do not confuse this with Linux being unbreakable. That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying that in the hands of a competent person, one can achieve a far greater degree of security with Linux than they ever can with Windows. To some admins, this is not a big deal. To me, Windows is simply unacceptable.

The authors appear to be blinded to technical realities by buzzword compliance. Not too suprising given their background.

Many professionals are content with Windows, but anyone who is passionate about technology finds it reprehensible. It comes down to who you'd rather deal with. Would you rather hire a brain surgeon who was passionate about his craft or just one who simply treated it as a job?