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Hack Attacks Revealed, Second Edition

Posted by timothy on from the back-for-more dept.

Reader Bill Camarda reviewed Wiley & Sons' Hack Attacks Revealed in June, 2001. Now Tom Brays has examined the book's second edition, and concludes that it's well worth the read. Read on below for his review of the second edition (and the the linked review of the first edition) to get an idea of how the new version stacks up. Hack Attacks Revealed: A Complete Reference for UNIX, Windows, and Linux with Custom Security Toolkit, Second Edition author John Chirillo pages 960 publisher John Wiley & Sons rating 9/10 reviewer Tom Brays ISBN 0471232823 summary All things considered, Wiley should have waited and released this first; this book pans out to be more of an original than a second edition and well worth the read.

The first edition instigated quite a bit of controversy with some glaring errata and misconstrued statements, and the author claims to have alleviated them as well as accommodating critiques:

The primary difference between this second edition and the original Hack Attacks Revealed, aside from some rectified errata, is approximately 300 pages of over 170 new exploits, advanced discovery techniques, malicious code coverage of Myparty, Goner, Sircam, BadTrans, Nimda, Code Red I/II and more, current vulnerabilities, advisories, and hacking labs with additional illustrations, and techniques for routers, operating systems (including Windows 2000/Pro and XP, Solaris, LINUX), and server software daemons. You'll also find a special chapter dedicated to the Top 75 Hack Attacks.

To accommodate the new material, most of the extraneous information, lists, and most source code was moved from the book to the CD-ROM. In addition to the new material, you'll find a special single license release of the internetworking security toolkit, TigerSuite Pro 3.5. This kit contains modules to discover, scan, penetrate, expose, control, spy, flood, spoof, sniff, infect, report, monitor, and more, plus a special 60-page usage and user guide.'
This book promises quite a bit in a new edition; let's see what's really in here ...

Okay, there are 914 pages (only about 15 or so with source code this time) and the chapter layout is completely different as the book starts with a Technology section, followed by Discovery, then Penetration, Vulnerabilities, and finally the Toolbox.

The technology section is nicely abridged to about 87 pages. The Discovery part differs greatly in that the source code has been moved to the CD and the author has added more coverage and examples, plus some stealthier techniques and more recent SNMP, file sharing, DNS, NetBIOS, and CGI stuff. The ports and services sections are still there but I found them to be pretty handy references at any rate. Also, the Penetration section now contains updated material; it's nice to see IDS stuff added in here too.

In addition, the Vulnerabilities section is promising. There's an excellent chapter in which Chirillo identifies what he considers the top 75 exploits -- examples that have certainly proven to be persistent examples of security weaknesses -- and the newer material especially makes this chapter significant. It contains thorough coverage as well as countermeasures for the listed exploits.

The CD contains some of the same plus full licensed software, an updated repository and all of the source code moved from the original text.

All things considered, Wiley should have waited and released this first; this book pans out to be more of an original than a second edition and well worth the read.

You can purchase Hack Attacks Revealed, 2nd Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

6 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hacking is terrorism by drblunt · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...I'm not quite sure if you are being facetious or not. On the chance that you are not...
    I'm going to buy this book, so that I can look at the practices and methods being employed, and counter them, in order to keep my clients networks safe, as well as my home network.

    To mix a quote from both School House Rock and GI Joe: It's good to learn, cause knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle.

    Doc

    --
    We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
  2. Not Much of a Review by Audity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I want a content summary I'll read the blurb on the back or inside cover, usually when I read a review I'm looking for an informed opinion of someone who's actually read the thing.

  3. Re:Hacking is terrorism by MnO-Raphael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Security through obscurity might not be good in principle, but in practice it's well-tested and the only way to go

    Really? When MIT-students back in the 60-70ies stopped playing with modeltrains and started looking into the new emerging telephone networks, I thought we learned that obscurity is no match for devoted geeks.

  4. Re:Hacking is terrorism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    last time i checked, those facilities were secure from you and me, but those pesky Russians were quite capable of getting the info they needed.

    so your theory is wrong, obscurity is time tested, but fails completely when going against an ENEMY.
    because those enemies are willing to spend the time and money.

  5. Re:How many of the folks out there have been hacke by Annamite · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You, Sir, is a brave man. Many of the people here would not admit it. Your case is an interesting example for not to install everything by default, and an [bad] example in system design that assumes/requires the user need to know it all to have a decent secured system.

    Anyhow, Thank you. Thank you for your brave and honesty. We all can learn from hacks like this.

  6. Still using fake reviewers to sell lousy books? by Helevius · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I wonder if "Bill Camarda" is related to the fictitious "L. Peterson", who wrote a glowing July 2001 review of the first Hack Attacks Revealed? (No one named L. Peterson ever worked or does work at the AFCERT.) Excerpts from "L. Peterson's" fake review were published by Wiley in the front cover of Hack Attacks Encyclopedia, much to the Air Force's dismay.

    Be wary of positive reviews of these "Hack Attacks" books. Those who rate them highly seem to be:

    technically clueless

    or

    cronies/clones of the author

    The first edition of HAR supposed solicited 269 Amazon.com reviews! In contrast, the best-selling "hacking" book of all time is Hacking Exposed, with 51 reviews. Something doesn't add up if you peruse these reviews.

    I certainly hope the second edition is better than the first. That would be good for the security community, which is all that matters in the long run.

    Helevius