Rating: 
Summary: Useful and fun to read
Review: "Hacking Linux Exposed", 2nd edition does what few books do - it exceeds its first edition in both the extent of coverage and presentation style. Note that the first book was already a great resource.The book now appeals not only to Linux beginners, but for more advanced users and developers as well. It provides wonderfully detailed and correct technical descriptions, gives sounds and simple-to-use advice and entertains with great writing style and authors' sense of humor. The content of the book is also very current (late 2002). It shines brilliantly on the background of vaporous and unoriginal security books published today. Wireless, physical attacks and social engineering are woven into the fabric of Linux security. There are fun descriptions for classic attacks, which provide worthwhile reading even for people who already know them. Attacks against network clients sections is especially interesting as those attacks were used in some recent high -profile penetrations. Kernel security (including capabilities) gets the coverage it deserves. An entire loadable kernel module (LKM) code is included. Several common malicious LKMs are analyzed in the book. In addition, the authors show how attackers can easily modify the Linux kernel itself to hide programs and get extra privileges. A nice summary of attack methods against many network protocols is very useful as a reference. For example, many attacks against FTP are described analyzed and practical protection techniques are outlined. Description of security of various mail servers is detailed and comprehensive. I also liked the well-supported argument of DJBDNS vs BIND. An overview of classic backdoor methods is similarly useful. Crontab backdoors, .forward abuse and other techniques are all in the book. Also, a well-written overview of CGI abuses that delves into the realm of security programming is provided. Another advantage is that authors uncovered many great little known security tools for Linux and provided useful descriptions for their use. Overall, tool descriptions are kept to a reasonable size, add value to the tool included documentation and give pointers to learn more by using them. Book appendices contain a fun case study, and a great section on "Discovering and Recovering from Attacks". Be sure to read the appendix and keep the book handy as a reference. Overall, the book is necessary tool for security professionals and others dealing with Linux security. I suspect that even the most advanced Linux security experts will pick up a thing or two from the book. The book's information delivery is flawless. Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA is a Senior Security Analyst with a major information security company. His areas of infosec expertise include intrusion detection, UNIX security, forensics, honeypots, etc. In his spare time, he maintains his security portal info-secure.org
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: A good book for the newbie (like me)and the expert alike. Alot of people could save alot of time and alot of sleepless nights, not to mention alot of frantic email to security mailing lists, by reading this book. IMHO without a doubt the most readable and enjoyable tech oriented manual I have ever read. Worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Hacking Linux
Review: Although I have only a few Linux stations to worry about, this book helps me sleep at night. For great security coverage of this hot operating system, this book is a good addition to your collection.
Rating:
Summary: Solid book
Review: Any of the books in the Hacking Exposed Series are worth buying, and this book is no exception. I am a newbie who is just curious about hacking and computing in general. I am halfway finished with this book and I am already planning on reading this book again. Once just to get an idea of what is going on, and the second time more of as a reference. What makes this book so much better than many other computer books is that this book is a dynamic reading. By that I mean, it is not a book that will go out of date. The book gives you a firm idea of the fundamentals of Linux security, and yet provides tools and insites for the Linux guru. Linux people pride themselves on their knowledge of their OS and this book plays a fundamental role in fostering this image.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly honest, thoroughly enlightening
Review: Given the complexity of Linux systems, and the years spent hardening such systems against would-be intruders, it is amazing how a simple, clever idea can still translate into a full-blown security exploit. I really enjoyed the format of the book. The authors don't waste time on security theories, or explaining what Linux is. They know the reader is already familiar with these, and wants to know, in concrete terms, how a hacker sees your server, and will systematically breach its security until they get root access. The authors waste no time in revealing the tools of the trade, and the security-conscious would do well to read this book from cover to cover. It is not enough to just apply patches, and turn off unnecessary services (and surprisingly few admins even do this right). One must fully understand the mindset of the hacker, and see the server from the outside. I truly believe that no other book right now can deliver such honesty and such useful information on Linux security. If you hope to secure your servers or go into the security field, definitely read this book. You will not be sorry. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: Good book but very unorganized and poor editing. There's some good information, but too little detail.
Rating:
Summary: Full Disclosure at it's best
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it many times over!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good intro to Linux security
Review: Hacking Linux Exposed by Brian Hatch, James Lee and George Kurtz, is a nice follow-up to their bestselling Hacking Exposed . While not as groundshaking as its predecessor, the new book does provide a good reference for people just starting with Linux. Anyone who is setting up or planning to set up a Linux network should consider owning it, together with the appropriate Linux administration manuals. Hacking Linux Exposed covers security administration issues such as FTP, sendmail (but for some reason, not POP3/IMAP servers) and web server setup; it also discusses local user security issues and touches lightly on Linux firewalling and other network access controls (TCP wrappers). The book includes a big section on keeping your system updated, which outlines methods used by several popular Linux distributions (rpm from RedHat, apt-get from Debian and pkgtool from Slackware). This information is essential to the security of any Linux machine, whether a home workstation or company server. The focus is Linux, but the book also covers some other important security areas. It attempts to offer a total solution for Linux security, starting with general infosec philosophy (such as proactive security), and moving on to physical security, social engineering, Trojan programs, access control, user security and server setup. Each security problem is rated for global risk on a 1 to 10 scale, factoring in frequency, simplicity and impact. In general, the book is more encyclopedia than detailed guide, as it strives toward breadth over depth.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Hacking Linux Exposed is excellent. It really shows you
what you need to do to keep others off of your machine. It
really hit the ground running, unlike Hacking Exposed which
needed to wait until the second edition to be really good.
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