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| Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition |
Posted by
timothy
on 2003-01-07 8:00
David Schaffter writes "I bought Hacking Linux Exposed
when it first came out. What struck me about it at the time was that it
was unlike the other hacking books that were out there. Most seemed to
play on the hacker craze, and were essentially lists of cracks. Hacking Exposed,
presumably the model for HLE, was very much like this. Topical,
overblown, and in the end it was outdated by the time you got it." Read on to see what David finds has changed (or not) in the second edition.
Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition
|
author |
Bri Hatch, James Lee |
pages |
720 |
publisher |
Osborne McGraw-Hill |
rating |
10 |
reviewer |
David Schaffter |
ISBN |
0072225645 |
summary |
This
second edition of the best selling Hacking Linux Exposed shows you in
great detail how to secure your Linux box - or break into one. |
HLE on the other hand was much more like a good
textbook -- it taught you how to think about security, to see how each
problem was caused and how to combat them. As the years went by, my
copy of HLE was still as useful as it was the day I got it. For this
reason, I was skeptical what they could put into a second edition --
the first seemed to stand the passage of time just fine.
Nonetheless, I bought it, and was surprised to
find that the second edition is even stronger than the first, yet they
have made it still work on its own -- you don't need to buy the first
edition to have a complete understanding of Linux security. You should
probably read their reviews page which has links to reviews of the original, as well as the Slashdot review from last time which have detailed breakdowns of what you'll find. I'll concentrate on the changes in this review.
The new edition deprecates or cuts a lot of old
material that is no longer applicable -- the emphasis is on OpenSSH
configuration vulnerabilities, rather than RLogin/RSH/etc, for example,
which is fine since no Linux system comes with Rlogin installed by
default any more. The second edition is 100 actual pages longer, but
due to the condensing of old material, it's effectively 200 pages
longer at least. They took out some of the material that isn't needed
in the paper copy and put it online too, which was a great idea.
So, from my perspective, here are the noticeable differences:
- More tools are covered in detail -- Exim gets
equal play with Sendmail and friends, DJBDNS gets covered as much as
BIND. (For configuration, that is. Nothing can match BIND for
vulnerabilities.)
- There's a whole new Denial and
Distributed Denial of Service chapter, that covers the gamut - much
more than just your simple TCP-connect floods.
- There are three new chapters about
post-system-compromise tricks the crackers will play on you, showing
you exactly what kind of things you'll need to clean up if they get in.
This stuff was absolutely amazing, and the authors could probably write
a whole book on this if they wanted to.
- More distribution-specific information.
- Step-by-step instructions on how to
patch and rebuild your kernel using the existing kernel configuration
parameters, detailed enough that any newbie could do it. They have
specific variants for Red Hat and Debian as well.
- The best discussion of network-based
attacks (ARP spoofing, Man-in-the-middle, session hijacking, etc) in
any book, anywhere. You could easily use the stuff in this chapter to
take over Windows machines too.
- More custom tools and code than before.
- Just passing references to things
like the Morris worm, the Ping of death, ipfwadm, and other hacks and
tools that are so old and irrelevant today that they shouldn't be
discussed in depth any more. They get their nod, but the authors spend
quality time with things of current relevance only, rather than wasting
the space just to make the book look thick.
- Even more integration with the website.
That last one needs a bit of explanation. Brian
Hatch, the lead author of HLE, has a weekly security newsletter called
Linux Security: Tips, Tricks, and Hackery. (You can read the article archives
or subscribe.)
These often have very detailed implementation instructions, such as installing
DJBDNS and migrating away from BIND, using /proc to investigate cracker activities, and occasionally has contests too.
The nice thing is that Hatch has built up a body
of free online instructions, and thus rather than copy and pasting them
into HLE, he can point to the online articles from within the book.
This saves lots of paper, and keeps you focused on the goal of the book
-- to learn attack methodologies and how to stop them.
One thing that these guys prove in their book is
that "code is speech." Rather than having wordy passages such as "The
user then needs to run the command 'nc client-ip-address 80' on server
'freddie' from the /etc/
directory where client-ip-address is the actual ip address of the target, and type ..." they show it all through a command-line view, embedding this
extra location and user information in the prompts and formatting (bold/italics/etc) like this
jdoe@freddie:/etc$ nc client_ip 80
GET /some/web/page
<head><title>This is some web page</title> ...
They always show you what's actually going on
behind the scenes -- an actual SMTP or POP conversation for example --
so you know how things really work, rather than living in a black box
where Nessus says "vulnerable" and you don't know how to determine it
on your own.
Here's a very quick table of contents:
- Part I: Linux Security Overview
- Chapter 1 -- Linux Security Overview
- Chapter 2 -- Proactive Security Measures
- Chapter 3 -- Mapping Your Machine and Network
- Part II: Breaking In from the Outside
- Chapter 4 -- Social Engineering, Trojans, and Other Cracker Trickery
- Chapter 5 -- Physical Attacks
- Chapter 6 -- Attacking over the Network
- Chapter 7 -- Advanced Network Attacks
- Part III: Local User Attacks
- Chapter 8 -- Elevating User Privileges
- Chapter 9 -- Linux Authentication
- Part IV: Server Issues
- Chapter 10 -- Mail Security
- Chapter 11 -- File Transfer Protocol Security
- Chapter 12 -- Web Servers and Dynamic Content
- Chapter 13 -- Access Control and Firewalls
- Chapter 14 -- Denial of Service Attacks
- Part V: After a Break-In
- Chapter 15 -- Covert Access
- Chapter 16 -- Back Doors
- Chapter 17 -- Advanced System Abuse
- Part VI: Appendixes
- Appendix A -- Discovering and Recovering from an Attack
- Appendix B -- Keeping Your Programs Current
- Appendix C -- Turning Off Unneeded Software
- Appendix D -- Case Studies
The HackingLinuxExposed.com
website has a more complete list of contents, as well as a sample chapter.
The other nice thing is the authors have put all
their source code, tools, and example cracks online for free download,
released under the GPL. You may notice that you need to type a password
to get in, but if you have half a hacking cell in your body, you'll
find that the authors think a password requirement is stupid as we do.
If I could change one thing about this book, it
would be the risk ratings. These are the dumbest things I've seen.
These are little boxes at the beginning of each 'Attack' that list
three values: "Popularity", "Simplicity" and "Impact." It then
averages these and comes up with a risk rating. Since all the Hacking Exposed books have them, I can only assume it was
a requirement of the publisher -- I don't know if Hatch and Lee care
for them one bit, but I can tell you I find them useless. (Of course,
I give this book a 10 in spite of this fact.)
These numbers are presented as quantitative, but
it can't possibly be. I can argue giving many different values in each
category, so what does this actually tell us? For example take open
X11 servers. Impact could be 10 because you could type a root
password that's intercepted, or it could be 7 because it only gives you
user-level access. Popularity could be 3 if you say most people don't
set it up this way, or you could say it's 9 because many crackers look
for open servers. I'd rather they just used impact, gave it a scale of
1-10 and were done with it. The popularity and simplicity factors
override the impact in too many cases to make the final value anything
but specious.
Aside from that drawback, which is easily ignored, the book is absolutely solid.
When I was about to buy my copy, I noticed that the authors are donating all online proceeds to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, so
you should order through their
website, regardless what the Slashdot link may be. ;-)
In my opinion, there's no Linux user who should
be without this book. It's 720 pages of answers you need to keep
yourself secure from the blackhats, or 720 pages of ways to become a
blackhat yourself, depending on your ethical alignment. Either way,
you won't be able to put it down, except to type as you follow along.
If David did not convince you otherwise, you can purchase Hacking Linux Exposed, Second 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.
| |
Book Reviews |
Need something to read? Slashdot's book review section is full of
reader-submitted reviews of books you should know about.
- Brook Conner reviews War of
Honor, "Sometimes turgid and complex political sci-fi," with a
"CD-ROM worth the cover price by itself."
- Danny Yee reviews The
Neanderthal's Necklace, "a nice introduction to the
Neanderthals."
- David Kennedy reviews Questioning
Extreme Programming, "A critical but fair re-examination of all
of XP."
- Spencer Marks reviews Java
Development with Ant, which explains "how to use Ant to meet all
(or most of) your poject's software configuration needs."
- Stella Daily reviews Science
Askew: A Light-Hearted Look at the Scientific World: "Geeks
poking fun at themselves, with mixed success."
- Liam reviews Professional
Apache Tomcat, a "comprehensive guide to Apache's Tomcat
server."
- ianb104 reviews Behind
Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess
Champion, "a real-life historic triumph of the nerds."
- stern reviews Electronic
Life: How to Think About Computers, which he describes as "a
curiosity, not worth buying at a garage sale unless you are a Crichton
completist.
- czarneki reviews Empire of
Dreams and Miracles, "a good science fiction anthology of new
authors."
- Spencerian reviews Teach
Yourself UNIX System Administration In 24 Hours, which he calls
a "rosetta stone for beginning or intermediate UNIX sysadmins."
- Rob ("robo") Oostendorp reviews the beginner-friendly SQL
Fundamentals, "a crash course in the basics of SQL; of limited
but real use to those who already are familiar with SQL."
Add your name to this list! Submitting your own review for consideration
is easy. Just read the Slashdot book
review guidelines, and then use the web submission form.
Update: 20021122 11:15 by timothy
|
|
< Cryptome Log Subpoenaed
| Setting CPU Priority on NT/Citrix? >
|
Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition
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The Fine Print:
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
We are not responsible for them in any way.
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I was afraid for a sec... (Score:5, Funny)
by mschoolbus (627182)
on 2003-01-07 8:28 (#5033022)
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At first I thought this said something about "Linus Exposed"... Thank God I mis-read that...
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Re:I was afraid for a sec... (Score:2)
by GuyMannDude (574364)
on 2003-01-07 10:22 (#5034068)
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Actually,
I'm still kinda spooked visualizing nerds in trenchcoats down in their
mother's basement busy hacking their kernel, unaware that their doodle
is hanging out...
GMD -- RIAA Headquarters: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy
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DDos (Score:4, Funny)
by gmuslera (3436) <gmuslera.internet@com@uy>
on 2003-01-07 8:31 (#5033041)
(http://www.internet.com.uy/gmuslera)
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The book list slashdot as the distributed denial of service main source?
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Hacking Linux? (Score:2)
by grub (11606) <grub@grub.net>
on 2003-01-07 8:32 (#5033053)
(http://www.grub.net/)
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What is it? Just the source code to BugBear? --
-- Cult: (n) a small, unpopular religion. Religion: (n) a large, popular cult.
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Yep, it's just cut/paste (Score:5, Funny)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 9:46 (#5033785)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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Yes, HLEv2 is a complete rewrite of the original. Instead of adding
new content and updating old things, we decided it'd be much faster for
us to scrap everything we had. Instead we have code listings of the
following, cut and paste from the original source:
- WU-FTPD versions. All of them.
- BIND. Only the ones that have had critical bugs. (About half.)
- A complete copy of /etc/services, uncommented, in case you don't have your Linux machine around at the time.
- A chapter on security problems when writing Pascal code, cribbed from something on USENET from 1983
- A complete byte-by-byte deconstruction of an shttp session, explaining exactly how it works. (And yes, I mean shttp, not https)
- A copy of the Linux tulip ethernet driver code, for no aparent reason.
We decided that this sort of content would provide the quickest
time-to-market without any need to tech edit. By providing 0% useful
information, it should be able to be read in whole as fast as you can
turn the pages - no reading required. We found that people were not
able to read the reviews on slashdot in their entirety, so why should
we expect them to read ~700 pages about Linux Security? ;-)
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Re:Yep, it's just cut/paste (Score:2)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 12:27 (#5035144)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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I make it a rule never to make any public comments about books that
could be considered 'competition'. If I were to say they're bad,
you'd not know if I were being honest or devious. If I say they're
good, then OMH can get on my case for "allowing my name to be
associated with competing works, blahblahblah". Unfortunately, I bet even "complementary" books could be
considered "competing" in the minds of lawyers, so I stay away from
talking about books that could be considered competition, even
if I don't agree. So that's why you won't see me commenting about
RWLS, for example, though I will comment about non-RWLS topics in that
thread. However, yes, when writing the joke above (it should be
moderated "funny" not "informative, for goodness sake!) I did have a
very specific book in mind after which I modeled my list, and of course
I can't say what it was.
And no one has guessed my /. password. I
don't even know it. I use the terribly insecure 'bookmark this link'
method. If anyone guesses it, I'm screwed. Call me lazy, but I
prioritize what should be super secret and what's not worth the effort.
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Except that it should be called... (Score:4, Insightful)
by Boss, Pointy Haired (537010)
on 2003-01-07 8:35 (#5033095)
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"Cracking Linux Exposed", it's a great book.
As
someone not that familiar with Linux (at the time I read it), it was
very easy to read , and handy in helping me secure a Redhat box that
hangs off my cable modem.
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Beating a dead horse. (Score:5, Informative)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 9:25 (#5033623)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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Ok, I knew the hacking vs cracking thing would come up. Go read our response [hackinglinuxexposed.com] to this.
For a quick bulleted list:
- I tried to get them to call it 'cracking linux exposed'. I lost.
- Much of the "cracking" process requires good "hacking" skills, so it's not actually a bad title anyway.
- Each and every time we use "hacking" in the book it's used as the purists would (and I'm one of the purists)
- When it's hacking with a malicious intent, we call it
"cracking", "attacking", or "malicious hacking" as best fits the
situation.
The only exceptions to this rule are the front and back cover, on which we were either overruled, or gave up the good fight.
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Re:Beating a dead horse. (Score:2)
by alienmole (15522) <tontobius@hotmail.com>
on 2003-01-07 10:29 (#5034126)
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It's nice to hear that the authors weren't responsible for this travesty.
I could care less about what the mass media calls a "hacker". But
the problem I have with this book title is that it's horribly
misleading. I first thought, based on the title, that it might be a
book I would be interested in - a book about hacking Linux, sounds
great. Then I found out it was all about security. It took a while
for this to completely sink in to the point where I finally realized
that I'm really not that interested in the subject matter. The title
makes no sense whatsoever!
Next time, explain to your editors/publishers that even if they don't understand the terminology, the target market just might!
I realized, in trying to conclude my mild rant, that the real
problem I have with this title is that no-one will be punished for it.
I want justice! Revenge! Heads must roll! Stupidity must be stamped
out! Death to idiots!
Aaaaaaaahh... that's better.
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just a thought (Score:2)
by Ender Ryan (79406)
on 2003-01-07 12:31 (#5035160)
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Why not plug your books in your sig? Or indirectly, you could just link to this /.
review. Lots of people do it, and I haven't noticed anyone who minds.
FYI, I just purchased your book, thanks to this glowing /. review.
And while I'm typing at you, I'm really glad that you're donating
money to the EFF. There are just too many people who simply don't put
their money where their mouths are.
Cheers
-- Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
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"Marketing" in sigs (Score:4, Insightful)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 14:41 (#5035819)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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Why not plug your books in your sig? Or indirectly, you could just link to this /. review. Lots of people do it, and I haven't noticed anyone who minds.
In my email program (mutt
[mutt.org]), I have a perl script pick randomly from ~800 different
signatures. (Most new additions seem to be from the "witty comments
from my daughter" category.) The script must have some sort of AI in
it, because it freqently picks things that are relevant to the text.
Having just a static signature for /. seems less interesting. Manually changing it certainly more work than I'm up for.
I don't want folks reading my /. posts and
thinking I'm just writing them to have my sig get more notice. I don't
want folks seeing my posts and assuming that they has more or less
relevance because of the info in the sig. If folks want to see who I
am, it's easy enough to click on my home page or /. area.
And I am very very bad at self promotion. Anything I'd write for a sig would sound pompous.
I'm really glad that you're donating money to the EFF. There are
just too many people who simply don't put their money where their
mouths are.
I don't have the time, energy, or know-how to do what the EFF
does. But they seem to fall on the same side of every issue that I do.
So I do the best I can - send them cash. Now if only we could fund EFF
as well as some corporations fund lackeys on capitol hill.
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Re:Except that it should be called... (Score:2)
by Latent IT (121513)
on 2003-01-07 9:09 (#5033478)
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No, that's still cracking. Breaking security is cracking, period.
Skilled coding, and especially using or improving things so that they
can do more than before, is hacking.
For
example (and this is a paraphrased quote, since I can't remember who
said it, and can't seem to manage to look it up) a good example of a
hack is using that lamp on the wall over there to get me a beer. -- C'mon, New York. Let's show the world we still have some balls [wtc2002.com].
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A play by play review (Score:3, Informative)
by Trin2 (632824)
on 2003-01-07 8:36 (#5033119)
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I was planning on doing a review of Hackin Linux 2nd edition, but
obviously was too late. The one above is accurate, but not helpful if
you didn't read the first ed. Here's my more descriptive review of the
book's contents:
Hacking
Linux comes in six parts, each of which is worth the price of the book
in whole. Part one: security overview covers all the basics like file
permissions, setuserid problems, buffer overflows/format string
attacks, tools to use before you go online, and mapping tools like
nmap. Part two comes in from more of the hacker angle with social
engineering and trojans, attacks from the console, and then concludes
with two excellent chapters about netowrk attacks and TCP/IP
vulnerabilities.
All the stuff to this point assumes the hacker
is on the outside. Part three takes over and shows you what the hacker
will do once they've gotten on, such as attacking other local users
including root, and cracking passwords. It becomes obvious that you
need to protect things from insiders as much as from the outsider,
because the outsider will usually get in as a normal user first, and if
you can prevent him or her from getting root access, the damage cannot
be nearly as severe. A lot of books don't cover this angle at all, and
it's done superbly here.
Part four covers common problems in
internet services. First they discuss mail servers. Sendmail, Qmail,
Postfix, and Exim each get covered in detail - it's nice to see more
than just Sendmail discussed in a security book. Of course, it'd be
even nicer to see something other than Sendmail installed on a Linux
machine by default. Next they cover problems with FTP software and
problems with the FTP protocol. I'd never seen "beneath the hood" and
realized how wierd FTP really was, and why it's not supported by
firewalls very well, and the authors show you the inner workings of it
so anyone can understand the problems. They continue with Apache and
CGI/mod_perl/PHP/etc problems, both from a coding standpoint and how to
secure against outsiders and your own web developers. Next it's on to
Firewalls (iptables and TCP wrappers) and lastly (distributed) denial
of service attacks. The countermeasures for the DOS problems are
excellent, and a must for anyone with a server.
Part five covers
everything a hacker can do once they've broken in. They describe trojan
programs, trojan kernel modules, and configuration changes that can be
used to keep root access, or hide the hacker activity, or let them get
back in should the computer be partially fixed. This was not only
complete, but scary in how many different things they showed. It works
both as a blueprint for what you need to defend against, how to clean
up after a hacker has gotten in, and also how you could back door a
machine if you get in. I'll leave the ethics up to you.
Lastly
we have part six, which is the appendicies. While most times I ignore
appendicies, these are really an integral part of the book, and are
referenced throughout the book all over. (This very good, because it
keeps the book from having too much repeated countermeasures.) They
discuss post-breakin cleanup, updating your software and kernel, and
turning off daemons (both local and network ones) and a new case study.
The book is good about covering Linux from a distribution-agnostic
standpoint (it doesn't assume you use RedHat, unlike everything else
out there) but in these appendicies they cover the differences you may
encounter. They show you how to use dpkg/apt-get as much as RPM as much
as .tgz packages, discuss both inetd and xinetd, and even svscan/supervise. They are extreemly complete.
Hacking Linux Exposed 2nd Edition is required reading for anyone with a Linux machine, period.
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Nothing can match BIND for vulnerabilities. (Score:3, Funny)
by wiredog (43288)
on 2003-01-07 8:38 (#5033137)
(Last Journal: 2001-10-01 15:53)
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I dunno, ever use Outlook? --
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. [aspectus.com]
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A Good Series (Score:5, Informative)
by orin (113079)
on 2003-01-07 8:38 (#5033145)
(http://www.certtutor.net/)
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This is a good series for a person with an average level of
experience to get some form of understanding what sort of expoits are
out there. Many of these computer security type books go a little too
much for the hype (watch out for the 31337 haX0rz!) and not enough
stepping you simply through why and how an expoit works. Someone new
to Linux admining will pick up more about Linux security reading this
book than they will many others. It contains a good list of the most
popular expoits. Of course your box won't be entirely secure if you
read this book (security is a process) and to a seasoned sysadmin much
of this will be old hat. It will however mean that your system is
probably less hackable than some other administrators who has a similar
level of experience but hasn't read this book.
This
series Windows 2000 offering is very good as well - not a lot of hype
but tends to get down to the brass tacks of how to start to secure an
out of the box installation.
The only problem with these books
is how quickly they do become dated. You won't get an amazing amount
of use out of them in 5 years time except for as some sort of
historical perspective. Not a lot of depth into the methodology of
locating exploits - just more a list of exploits and how to understand
their use.
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Re:A Good Series (Score:2, Insightful)
by blahlemon (638963)
on 2003-01-07 10:58 (#5034346)
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The
only problem with these books is how quickly they do become dated. You
won't get an amazing amount of use out of them in 5 years time except
for as some sort of historical perspective.
It doesn't matter how dated the book is, I've found the entire
"exposed" series is great for getting you think in the right direction
how to plug holes and where the next holes might be. Anyone who reads
them strickly as an instruction manual will be easily comprimised. The
person who reads them to understand the fundamentals will be much more
secure.
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I am so confused... (Score:4, Insightful)
by The Breeze (140484)
on 2003-01-07 8:42 (#5033179)
(http://www.desertzephyr.com/employees/calabrese)
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Is it just me or does the intro to this article bear little relation to the body? The
"summary" uses the words "overblown, outdated and obsolete" while the
review itself goes on to rave about how wonderful the book is. Quite
odd.
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exploits are *not* outdated (Score:4, Insightful)
by josephgrossberg (67732)
on 2003-01-07 8:55 (#5033265)
(http://josephgrossberg.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: 2002-10-21 6:22)
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You're assuming all network admins keep tabs on the vulnerabilities,
update their software frequently and have the necessary time to
dedicate to such important things.
But they don't always. Yes, even on Linux. --
Joe
http://josephgrossberg.blogspot.com [blogspot.com]
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Yes, exploits of particular versions are outdated (Score:5, Insightful)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 9:18 (#5033566)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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I disagree. If the book were filled with "Here's how to break into
wu-ftpd version x.y.z, it would be pretty useless. I'd hope that by
the time the book was in print, a new version of the software would
have been written that fixed the problem. A book that simply lists one
crack after another for their own sake is not helpful. However if you show different types of attacks as a teaching tool
-- "Here's how an off-by-one error in OpenSSH caused it to be
exploitable" for example -- then you can show different classes of
attacks so the reader understands the actual problems that occur in
many different software products. The goal was to show different kinds of vulnerabilities as
explanation. Anyone who is still running older buggy software isn't
maintaining their system properly. (And yes, we cover how to upgrade
packages in great depth.) On the other hand, sometimes the problem is configuration: I
can have a perfectly secure OpenSSH version, but if I ssh to an
untrusted host with X11 forwarding on, the X11 server on my client is
easily compromised. No new version of OpenSSH will fix this, it's an
inherent problem with the all-or-nothing nature of X11. So
configuration-based vulnerabilities do stand the test of time. I'd never just write a book with a list of BIND
vulnerabilities that are based on bugs in the source code, but problems
with the DNS protocol itself (it's easily spoofable, leading to MITM
attacks) are fair game for in depth coverage. So, version-specific attacks are only covered if they help
teach a concept. Configuration-specific attacks are covered if they
are likely to stand the test of time. Protocol-related vulnerabilities
(FTP bounce attacks/etc) are fair game until the protocol is destroyed
with a big huge mallet.
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Re:Yes, exploits of particular versions are outdat (Score:2)
by josephgrossberg (67732)
on 2003-01-07 10:42 (#5034225)
(http://josephgrossberg.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: 2002-10-21 6:22)
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Wow, a response from an author! I'm very flattered.
Can you provide some insight on why the price went up 25% in under two years?
Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition by Bri Hatch, James Lee List Price: $49.99 Paperback - 720 pages (Dec, 2002)
Hacking Linux Exposed: Network Security Secrets and Solutions by Bri Hatch, James Lee, George Kurtz List Price: $39.99 Paperback - 608 pages (Mar, 2001)
Are
the extra 112 pages that nice? Not to be cynical, but are you trying to
be agressive about the people who already own version 1 (like me)?
Joe
P.S. Lest you get the impression otherwise, I liked the book. --
Joe
http://josephgrossberg.blogspot.com [blogspot.com]
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Price increase (Score:5, Informative)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 10:58 (#5034347)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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I didn't even notice that the price increased until right now. I
have nothing to do with the price of the book. I have no idea how they
set it. Maybe the higher price means we will make minimum wage for our
troubles this time... In actuality, there are about 200 new pages, since we cut out a
lot of older stuff, condensed things that are not as relevant that
still deserve a good nod, and put the original three case studies
online instead.
Chapter 10 grew to be three chapters all told. Chapter 11 needed to be
split because it was too big for both Mail and FTP in one chapter. We
covered many new attack methods and tools. Everything grew
substantially, in spite of trimming out the old and tightening up what
we had. And we fixed a bunch of errors and added completely new ones.
Everything in HLEv1 is still valid. If you own the first, I'd suggest you compare the contents [hackinglinuxexposed.com] of the two books to decide if you want it or not. Or browse it at the store. Unfortunately, the sample chapter
[hackinglinuxexposed.com] is again chapter 1, which is one of the least
modified chapters, so it doesn't give you the best indication of what's
new.
This is my best stab at a response. I am so much not a marketing guy, I'm a geek.
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Re:exploits are *not* outdated (Score:3, Insightful)
by Daytona955i (448665) <<Christopher.John ... <at> <drexel.edu>>
on 2003-01-07 9:23 (#5033612)
(http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~cjf24)
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Most users who do not update their software probably also don't
recompile their kernels and would instead get a new copy of red hat
thus installing new updated versions of their software.
I
think most people who want to keep a stable kernel would take the time
to update their system or keep track of vulnerabilities in the software
they do run. The only people I know that don't update their software
and OS are windows users. Though they tend to update to the latest
major release. (except for some people I know who still run 98) -Chris
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A perfect 10? (Score:2, Insightful)
by watzinaneihm (627119)
on 2003-01-07 8:59 (#5033322)
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I have a copy of the book, and the way the book is written it seems it is more useful for the sysadmin types.
But the problem is that any good sysadmin would know atleast half of
this stuff already, making the reading kind of boring. Now what I want
is a good way of finding how to secure "my" system. When I read about
how to set up NFS securely I really don't want to know that sun solaris
had a vulnerability in their OS a few years ago which allowed elevation
of privileges etc., what I want to know is how to do it now, with the
right packages on Linux.
But as a general read the book is full of anecdotes and examples and makes a good reading.
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Interview with HEL author (Score:2, Interesting)
by Anonymous Coward
on 2003-01-07 9:07 (#5033441)
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I I just noticed that one of the HEL authors was interviewed by LinuxSecurity.com. It's available here [linuxsecurity.com]. Here are some interesting parts:. And no, this is not karma whoring - I'm posting AC. LS: Supposing you had
free time, what would you be doing with it?
Brian: I'd devote some time to helping out the Linux Security Module
project. I hope to help port systrace to LSM next year. Currently it is
a kernel patch, and I think the community would be served better in the
long run by having it available as an LSM module, which would make it
more accessible to those who fear kernel compilation.
And some day I hope to get around to turning some of the megs of perl
code I've written over the years into well defined Perl modules for
CPAN. Then I won't be the only one supporting this spaghetti code. ;-)
If I had infinite time, I'd learn to play the Hammered Dulcimer and
French Horn. There's nothing in the world as musical as a well-played
French Horn. LS: In your opinion, what is the most interesting thing about Linux and Security?
Brian: The first thing is that, with Linux, security is a possibility.
It is not an end point - you must constantly keep abreast of new
attacks and revisit your security posture - but there is nothing that
is unavailable to you if you want to look. Closed source systems can
never offer this. By design, be it chosen for monetary reasons or to
prevent competition, closed source products always hide details from
the users and administrators that could be critical to understanding
how thing function, and how they can be broken.
One of the beauties of Linux (and other open systems, such as *BSD) is
that you can use them to boost the security of those closed source
machines. By the liberal application of Linux machines throughout your
infrastructure, you can keep those exploits-waiting-to-happen locked
down where they can do less harm. For more of my ranting on this topic,
see my article Linux is Securable -- I won't waste time rambling here.
What is most intriguing right now on the Linux horizon is the evolution
of security controls. In the beginning, all you had to work with were
file permissions. Root could do absolutely anything unchecked, and root
access was required for some things such as binding low network ports
or opening raw sockets, which meant use of set userid bits on programs,
which frequently were broken to gain root access.
Next came capabilities, where each bit of root's power was defined in
more specific terms. When determining if a process could bind port 80
originally you'd check to see if uid==0. Now you'd check if the process
had the CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE capability. In theory, you could now
remove capabilities from the system - for example removing the ability
to load kernel modules ever again, which is good for defending against
malicious LKMs. It goes on quite a bit - a good read.
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Linux versus Windows Challenge (Score:3, Informative)
by schaftmstr (627387)
on 2003-01-07 9:36 (#5033717)
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One thing I forgot to put in my review is this:
The HLE authors have a Windows vs Linux Security Challenge
[hackinglinuxexposed.com] where they want to have a Linux security team
and a Windows security team install and secure a Linux and Windows
machine at the same time, documenting what they do and how long their
machines are vulnerable. I'd love to see this. It'd be a great way to
see exactly how bad Windows machines for both generic installation
(imagine counting the number of reboots for one vs the other as you
update service pack after service pack, a reboot after installing IIS,
another when you change your password ;-) and security (locking down the machine so that IIS doesn't have a billion holes from the default installation). I'd pay good money to see this.
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Re:Linux versus Windows Challenge (Score:3, Interesting)
by ostiguy (63618)
on 2003-01-07 10:14 (#5034014)
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You ought to try windows more often, if you want to make comments
like this. I slipstream service packs in all of my win2k distribution
points, so my minimum is win2k+ sp3. You then can chain together
hotfixes, and reboot once.
ostiguy -- The MCSE with > 50 karma. Do *you* believe in miracles?
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Default install of *anything* is buggy (Score:5, Interesting)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 10:22 (#5034073)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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Any well-featured Linux distro is not secure unless it ships with
everything off, which is seldom the case. This is a big beef of mine,
but it's getting better over time. It's an ease-of-use vs security
situation. You install Apache, the distro assumes that you want to run
it, so it sets up the links in /etc/rc?.d and /etc/init.d so it runs. So, there's no real difference between Linux (speaking generically of all distros) and Windows here.
However the process of hardening them is very different. I bet I
can install Debian with minimal packages and achieve all the
functionality I claim within an hour or two, with one reboot just to
make sure it would come up correctly if it's out in a remote datacenter
somewhere. But that's really no the point - I'd like to see good
explanations of what's needed to secure both. It's not just a
competition to say Linux is easier /faster
to secure (though I suspect that would be the consensus.) It's a way
to create more documentation for everyone, Linux and Windows users. In
that respect, it's more noble than just a pissing contest.
If I ever got off my butt and tried to actually make the thing happen.
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Re:Default install of *anything* is buggy (Score:2)
by strobert (79836)
on 2003-01-08 2:48 (#5038815)
(http://www.strobe.net/)
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hopefully I won't start a flamewar, but seeing you mention in an
hour or two makes me wonder if you have ever tried kickstart under
redhat (the main reason we haven't looked at debian seriously).
Because of kickstart's automated abilities limited package secure
installs in 5-10 minutes. Combine that with treating most machines as
disposible. Makes recovery real easy. archive a copy of the server
for analysis (optional) and re-install (since as most people know and
apparently you point out in your book recovering from a break in
without a reinstall is not exactly a trivial matter)
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Context: Windows vs Linux Security standard inst. (Score:2)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-08 8:25 (#5040305)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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The context of this thread is for my proposed
Windows vs Linux Security Challenge
[hackinglinuxexposed.com] which is meant to model what a normal user
would need to go through to create a secure install from scratch.
Sure, I can set up a very detailed list of packages and specific
application configuration for a big web farm and install with
kickstart. I could even set up a disk and clone it with 'dd' and a few
shell scripts to change IP addresses. But that's not going to help
teach new Linux users what the securing process looks like. So I do not dissagree with you -- your solution is definately
optimal for creating lots of good machines -- but the goal was to show
how to install and secure one machine in a standalone environment with
a set suite of server software. As to the actual time I'd take to do the install and lockdown,
I think 2 hours is plenty, given the proposed packages that must be
installed and configured:
Including the (secured) operating system itself, the final server configuration must support (as secure as possible)
- A Web Server, preferably with dynamic-content generating
capabilities, such as ASP or mod_perl. No documents need be installed,
however all default-install documents/programs must be deleted. In
other words, every possible request should return a 404.
- Anonymous FTP Server (read-only)
- Mail Server (able to accept email for itself and send to other Internet machines)
- DNS Server (able to act as a primary for 'OS.example.com' and as a cache for the local network)
- Firewall rules that allow only the above protocols, and
any other packets necessary for system administration and normal
functionality. (Inbound SSH, DNS Replies, etc.)
The software I'd probably choose would be Apache (mod_perl), DJB's
publicfile for anon FTP access, Postfix for the mail server, and DJBDNS
for the DNS server/caching server.
Now that 2 hours includes keeping a log of what I'm doing, or at
least explaining it to someone who can keep a good running log,
includes download time of updates (like I said, this should be like an
end user, so the packages should be out of date on the install CD) and
time to go get and consume a grande non-fat extra carmel carmel
macchiato from starbucks.
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I just bought this book too. (Score:2)
by farrellj (563)
on 2003-01-07 9:47 (#5033789)
(http://www.courts-of-chaos.com/mozilla/)
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I was tremendously impressed by the approach they took with the
book, with code examples, and explaing why things work, and how/why
they approached the problems with the solutions they did....rather than
just saying "Do this not to get cracked". I also picked up the 3rd
edition of _Essential System Administration_, another ongoing classic.
These two books are must-have tomes for any serious SysAdmin!
ttyl
Farrell -- --- "...a little anarchy, but not the hurting kind!"
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Stands on its own? So what? (Score:2)
by p3d0 (42270)
on 2003-01-07 14:38 (#5035803)
(http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~doylep)
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...yet
they have made it still work on its own -- you don't need to buy the
first edition to have a complete understanding of Linux security. When do you ever need to read a 1st edition to
understand the 2nd edition? Does that ever actually happen? It's not
like we're talking about a sequel here. -- -- Patrick Doyle My comments do not reflect the opinions of my employer.
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Re:Where's the 'hacking OpenBSD' chapter? (Score:5, Insightful)
by mangu (126918)
on 2003-01-07 8:54 (#5033255)
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Yes, and still more interesting is the total absence of chapters on
stock-car racing or cajun cooking. Wonder why? See, it's a book on Linux, OK?...
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Re:Where's the 'hacking OpenBSD' chapter? (Score:2, Insightful)
by malloci (467466)
on 2003-01-07 9:36 (#5033719)
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well, consider the fact that openBSD runs openssh like linux, apache
like linux, bind like linux, and a slew of other application level
software that linux also does and wammo, you have something that
relates to openbsd.
How
many exploits can actually be attributed to the underlying operating
system alone? On the whole, not many. Most are a consequence of what
applications the sysadmin/user are running atop the os.
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Re:Here's a copy of the article in case it gets /. (Score:2)
by Cy Guy (56083)
on 2003-01-07 10:25 (#5034090)
(http://www.digitalri...04_affiliatesLP.html | Last Journal: 2003-01-06 11:52)
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If David did not convince you otherwise, you can purchase Hacking Linux Exposed, Second Edition from bn.com.
Or you could get it for $5 less from here [amazon.com].
I
don't mind SlashDot having a financial incentive to provide links to
the book at bn.com (I have an incentive to have you buy it through the
above link), but what I fail to see is why they would want to see the
SlashDot users consistently overcharged for tech books. SlashDot
should sell its books through whatever site that can offer the lowest
price, and compensate them fairly for providing the link. If they are
against Amazon because of their stance on Intellectual Property, then
they should make that clear as the reason for linking to BN.
-- Get Real World Linux Security $35 [amazon.com]
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Theory doesn't grow old (Score:3, Funny)
by yerricde (125198) <tepples&spamcop,net>
on 2003-01-07 10:29 (#5034118)
(http://www.losingnemo.com/ | Last Journal: 2002-12-28 12:08)
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Especially IT books, get outdated very fast!
Books that cover 1. theory and 2. mature environments grow outdated much more slowly than (say) a book on Visual Studio .NET version 7.
-- Hate Disney? Tell me about it! [slashdot.org]
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Re:Donations to EFF - How Much? (Score:5, Informative)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 10:37 (#5034184)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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We set up amazon and barnes and noble afilliate accounts. If books
(be they HLEv2 or others) get credited to us through that, those are
the monies that get donated to EFF. To do that, you need to click on
the links on our books page
[hackinglinuxexposed.com] and add it to your cart from their. Amazon
also credits books purchased if you came from our site originally, even
if you didn't see them on our page. For the last quarter I think we
got $150 from Amazon and about $10 from B&N which we'll be sending
to EFF. Not much, but it's a good way to funnel money their way. I
particularly like the irony of having Amazon, creators of some pretty
questionable patents, paying EFF. An even better way to support the EFF is for you to find the
cheepest copy of HLEv2 you can get at a local book store (save on
shipping) and then donate the difference to EFF directly. Or don't get
HLEv2 and send the whole schebang to EFF. Become an EFF member or donate at www.eff.org [eff.org].
No, I'm not affiliated with them, other than being a paying
member, but I endorse them. And some day I may need them to defend me,
given that HLEv2 can be considered a tool that could be illegal under
the DMCA.
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Update: Donations to EFF from /. effect (Score:2)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-09 11:37 (#5049202)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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For those keeping score, here's a quick update.
Checking our Amazon affiliates account, it looks like about 70
products were ordered on the day this slashdot review was published. I
can't see actual monetary amounts until the items are shipped,
unfortunately. But based on last quarter's average of $2.78/item, that
means we'll be sending about $200 to the EFF for that day alone.
Also, I'd like to thank Alex Lewin who didn't buy through our links, but wrote:
Your book sounds good, and relevant to what I do (Linux
adminstration and development). I'm planning on buying it. Without
looking too hard, I found it for $24.91 on Y! Shopping.
I'll make a corresponding contribution to EFF.
That's the spirit, guys!
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Re:How does the EFF donation apply? (Score:2)
by Bri Hatch (523490)
on 2003-01-07 19:14 (#5037404)
(http://www.ifokr.org/bri/ | Last Journal: 2003-01-09 11:48)
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See the original /. comment [slashdot.org] as well as our website [hackinglinuxexposed.com] for our reasoning behind giving money to the EFF [eff.org].
In short, yes, the donation will apply to any books that get
credited to our affiliate accounts. You can go through the book links
on any of the following sites:
- Hacking Linux Exposed [hackinglinuxexposed.com]
The book that caused yet another "Hacking" vs "Cracking" thread on Slashdot. I apologize.
- Building Linux VPNS [buildinglinuxvpns.net]
A book by Oleg Kolesnikov and I, reviewed on slashdot last year, other reviews here [buildinglinuxvpns.net].
- Onsight.com [onsight.com]
James and my company.
- Open Source Web Development with LAMP [opensourcewebbook.com]
A top-notch web development book by James Lee (co-author of HLE and
HLEv2) and Brent Ware. I tech edited this book, and also benefited
from it in a user capacity, for example setting up the handler that
controls access to the 'auto linux hacking' [hackinglinuxexposed.com] software.
Going through any of those links will work. If you prefer, you can
just send money to the EFF directly and cut out the middle man.
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