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Practical Unix & Internet Security
Practical Unix & Internet Security is divided up into six sections:
The first section covers the basics of computer security, tracing the history of Unix and security, as well as providing details of what should be in a good security policy.
The second section covers the building blocks of security, authentication, users and groups, filesystems, cryptography, physical security for servers, and personnel security.
Network and Internet security are focused on in the third section, with emphasis on modems and dialup security, TCP/IP networks, securing TCP and UDP services, Sun RPC, NIS, Kerberos, LDAP, NFS, and SAMBA, and finishing up with a chapter dedicated to secure programming techniques.
Day-to-day operations are the focus of the fourth section. Keeping up to date, making backups, defending accounts, using integrity checking tools, and auditing, logging, and forensics are all expanded upon in detail over five chapters.
The fifth section rounds off the main part of the book by describing how to handle security incidents. Special focus is given to discovering a break-in, protecting against programmed threats, Denial of Service Attacks (& DDoS), legal options, and a chapter on who you can trust.
The Appendixes make up the sixth and final section. Not a spot is wasted in the appendixes, which begin with a Unix security checklist, and then outline Unix processes, provide extensive links to both paper and electronic resources, and conclude with a sub-section on security organizations.
Among the topics I found most interesting were: Access Control Lists (ACL), Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM), the section about 128-bit keys and dictionary-based passwords, connection laundering, honeypots, the false syslog example, and the example detailing a call to Microsoft's anti-piracy help line. The real-life examples scattered throughout Practical Unix & Internet Security keep the security sections from seeming overwhelming. This is one of the few books that I've found ever chapter of the appendix useful, so don't overlook them as simple reference pages.
Normally one-liners are reserved for movie discussions but for those who've already delved into Practical Unix & Internet Security here are a few of my favorite one-liners:
- "...we do believe that making files readable and writable by everyone leads to many evil deeds." - talking about the octal mode 666.
- "Humidity is your computer's friend." - just before static discharge kills your entire system.
- "Beware of Key Employees." - warning against making one person so key that their departure could cause your company irreparable harm.
- "You mean, you don't really have a copy? [of Windows 98]" - the last part of a conversation with Microsoft's Anti-Piracy line. The company which called Microsoft's was tracing some intruders who had uploaded a copy of Windows 98 to the company's web site and was using the site to peddle warez. Microsoft was just about to launch Windows 98. The example shows just how clueless some help desks can be.
One of the great things about Practical Unix & Internet Security is that it is appropriate for a wide audience. There is relevant material for system administrators, security, company decision makers, even the guy sitting at the accounting terminal. Despite its massive size Practical Unix & Internet Security is entertaining enough to be read cover to cover. (It's good for the arm muscles too.) Though it is easy to read, beginners should probably reread their system manual before plunging headlong into this book. All in all Practical Unix & Internet Security continues to be one of those must-have books for any Linux user.
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The companion book seems, uh, interesting too. :)
when talking about computer books is:
What does this book offer that I can't easily find by asking google or google groups?
lysergically yours
Thanks to froogle price check
How does one glance quickly through a 1000-page book without straining something important? ;-D
Sendmail (a program) is not an alternative to UUCP (a protocol). Even if you are talking about the UUCP software and not the protocol, the alternative is pppd, not sendmail.
Sendmail still supports UUCP, but most distros do not enable that support, and hardly anyone uses UUCP anymore.
...I love their music :D
For more book reviews, especially on computer security, watch for Robert Slade's regular contributions to comp.risks. It doesn't look as though Robert has reviewed this one yet so I'll look forward to reading and comparing. His praise for a former edition seems uncharacteristically positive -- compare reviews of Secrets of a Super Hacker or Computer Security Basics -- so I'll be surprised if he doesn't praise this one, too...
cheers...ank
Still hoping for Gentle Treatment...
my newest requirement is to have the book in PDF format so I can simply search for keywords, saving time, and hassle. having the PDF on a few different computers and storing the book away after skimming through it works better than having thousands and thousands of pages take up my precious 500 sq ft. apartment
This book is excellent. It's the best I've read on the subject and it has surprisingly good content where you're not bored out of your mind.
Real World Linux Security
Since people frequently use tools like NIS, rdist, rsync/ssh, and LDAP to create single authentication domains that span multiple physical boxen, somebody could use one of the usual social engineering tricks to get root on a single box and then load a boot-sector infector into the
Best that *nix sysadmins remain on guard, regardless.
what about social engineering? or do they trust management and sysadmins to be socially mobile, compatible, and perceptive? i think humans are one of the weaker links in the security chain.
One of the great things about Practical Unix & Internet Security is that it is appropriate for a wide audience
I resemble that remark.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
Sounds like a nerd garage band.
Here I am. sitting at work listening to Husker Du, and I just realize that I wasted my youth - I never started a nerd garage band.
BOO! TERRO
Sample chapters of the book can be found here and here. I read this first one (the one on TCP/IP) and found that it was an excellent introducation to it. The other is on "secure programming techniques." Gotta read that.
ummmm...back to unix school for you...
777 is rwxrwxrwx : Read, Write & Excutable for all
666 is rw-rw-rw- : Read, Write for all
remember octal? r=4; w=2; x=1
r + w = 4 + 2 = 6
rho
Yes, an older edition of this book did help me back when I was a beginner. But, its also one of the books that taught me that by the time something is in print, it's already out of date.
;)
I learned all the great stuff about TCP Wrappers and how it was revolutionizing inetd. When I went to my Slackware box to try to implement, it was already done! Same for shadow passwords. Its funny in that, even being a 7 year user and an RHCE, it still seems like commercial UNIX was in the dark ages until the early 90's just based on those two features alone. Not to say MS was any better (my god no), but to require applications to have root privs to bind to a low port and have world-readable password hashes just seems like something from a million years ago. Different times, those were.
I *still* have to instruct local UNIX pros on the virtues of ssh over telnet. If the X forwarding over ssh doesn't sell them on it, password collectors like ettercap will, every time
Intelligent Life on Earth