Rating: 
Summary: Understandable and Effective Advice
Review: Although not oriented towards Red Hat, this book contains many recomendations that have now been incorporated into Red Hat distributions since it's publication. However, this book contains advice and instructions to make them easier to understand and work effectivly. It also contains many system enhancements that havent been included in any distro. Any network manager or home user could put several enhancements into service, with very little work. In my opinion, the included CD by itself is worth much more that the purchase price of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: A step in the right direction for "Maximum Security" titles
Review: I am a senior engineer for network security operations. I read "Maximum Linux Security" (MLS) to learn more about defending Linux hosts in hostile environments (i.e., the Internet). Compared to recent editions of "Maximum Security," MLS is more useful and accessible. I recommend this book as a supplement to "Hacking Linux Exposed" and "Real World Linux Security."
MLS is less list-oriented than the typical "Maximum Security" book. Useful advice on practical security measures takes the place of exploit listings. While you'll find discussions of older vulnerabilities, the most ancient are isolated in appendix B. The appendix also offers lengthy, detailed command listings and glossaries, unlike any I've recently seen.
The friendly tone of the book reminded me of a mentor speaking to a novice. Furthermore, the authors clearly know their material. For example, Linux frequently demands compiling tools from source code. Sometimes this process requires tweaking the code before running 'make'. The authors regularly give specific advice on the changes needed to get the code working properly. This attention to detail impressed me, and helped me run some of the example applications as I read the text. The authors also gave great clues on applying patches, a task required of every system administrator.
Beyond its specific use as a Linux security text, MLS also lets readers learn of other resources useful to security practioners. I was pleased to check out the Linux Cross Reference project, where I can browse and link to several incarnations of the Linux kernel.
On the negative side, the back cover advertises MLS as an "intermediate-advanced" text. While I thought the diagrams and explanations of the introductory chapters were well-done, they clearly depicted basic material. I also felt the discussion of intrusion detection failed to reflect front line experience with that technology and process.
If you're looking for a more defensive-minded Linux security book, give MLS a try. Those with an offensive mindset (like penetration testers) should stick with the Hacking Exposed series. Readers looking for the high end of Linux security theory will like Bob Toxen's "Real World Linux Security."
(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publisher.)
Rating:
Summary: A step in the right direction for "Maximum Security" titles
Review: I am a senior engineer for network security operations. I read "Maximum Linux Security" (MLS) to learn more about defending Linux hosts in hostile environments (i.e., the Internet). Compared to recent editions of "Maximum Security," MLS is more useful and accessible. I recommend this book as a supplement to "Hacking Linux Exposed" and "Real World Linux Security."
MLS is less list-oriented than the typical "Maximum Security" book. Useful advice on practical security measures takes the place of exploit listings. While you'll find discussions of older vulnerabilities, the most ancient are isolated in appendix B. The appendix also offers lengthy, detailed command listings and glossaries, unlike any I've recently seen.
The friendly tone of the book reminded me of a mentor speaking to a novice. Furthermore, the authors clearly know their material. For example, Linux frequently demands compiling tools from source code. Sometimes this process requires tweaking the code before running 'make'. The authors regularly give specific advice on the changes needed to get the code working properly. This attention to detail impressed me, and helped me run some of the example applications as I read the text. The authors also gave great clues on applying patches, a task required of every system administrator.
Beyond its specific use as a Linux security text, MLS also lets readers learn of other resources useful to security practioners. I was pleased to check out the Linux Cross Reference project, where I can browse and link to several incarnations of the Linux kernel.
On the negative side, the back cover advertises MLS as an "intermediate-advanced" text. While I thought the diagrams and explanations of the introductory chapters were well-done, they clearly depicted basic material. I also felt the discussion of intrusion detection failed to reflect front line experience with that technology and process.
If you're looking for a more defensive-minded Linux security book, give MLS a try. Those with an offensive mindset (like penetration testers) should stick with the Hacking Exposed series. Readers looking for the high end of Linux security theory will like Bob Toxen's "Real World Linux Security."
(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publisher.)
Rating:
Summary: A step in the right direction for "Maximum Security" titles
Review: I am a senior engineer for network security operations. I read "Maximum Linux Security" (MLS) to learn more about defending Linux hosts in hostile environments (i.e., the Internet). Compared to recent editions of "Maximum Security," MLS is more useful and accessible. I recommend this book as a supplement to "Hacking Linux Exposed" and "Real World Linux Security."
MLS is less list-oriented than the typical "Maximum Security" book. Useful advice on practical security measures takes the place of exploit listings. While you'll find discussions of older vulnerabilities, the most ancient are isolated in appendix B. The appendix also offers lengthy, detailed command listings and glossaries, unlike any I've recently seen.
The friendly tone of the book reminded me of a mentor speaking to a novice. Furthermore, the authors clearly know their material. For example, Linux frequently demands compiling tools from source code. Sometimes this process requires tweaking the code before running 'make'. The authors regularly give specific advice on the changes needed to get the code working properly. This attention to detail impressed me, and helped me run some of the example applications as I read the text. The authors also gave great clues on applying patches, a task required of every system administrator.
Beyond its specific use as a Linux security text, MLS also lets readers learn of other resources useful to security practioners. I was pleased to check out the Linux Cross Reference project, where I can browse and link to several incarnations of the Linux kernel.
On the negative side, the back cover advertises MLS as an "intermediate-advanced" text. While I thought the diagrams and explanations of the introductory chapters were well-done, they clearly depicted basic material. I also felt the discussion of intrusion detection failed to reflect front line experience with that technology and process.
If you're looking for a more defensive-minded Linux security book, give MLS a try. Those with an offensive mindset (like penetration testers) should stick with the Hacking Exposed series. Readers looking for the high end of Linux security theory will like Bob Toxen's "Real World Linux Security."
(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publisher.)
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS SECURE!!
Review: I can't imagine how the author of this book wrote it!!! It's a legend, If you're a bigenner or a Linux god, you must get this book, I wish I can say more, it WILL help you understand how to secure your linux box. Once you buy it and read the Index, you wont stop reading it until you finish!!!! Note to Security Books Authors:" WE NEED BOOKS LIKE THIS. " And I know that there wont be a better book than this ". All I can say is BUY IT AND ENJOY IT.
Rating:
Summary: It's a very good book
Review: I got this book a week ago and I have been reading it ever since. It is a very good book that gives you a good idea about Linux "do" and "don't" in term of setting up secured Linux server. I am kind of new in Linux, and this book does help me a lot to merge to open source.
Rating:
Summary: It's a very good book
Review: I got this book a week ago and I have been reading it ever since. It is a very good book that gives you a good idea about Linux "do" and "don't" in term of setting up secured Linux server. I am kind of new in Linux, and this book does help me a lot to merge to open source.
Rating:
Summary: Much better!
Review: I liked the first book, but I think this revision really cleans things up. No more pages listing 500 lines of tarfiles. Some of the additions - such as the stuff on steganography ? are really cool too.
Rating:
Summary: Much better!
Review: I liked the first book, but I think this revision really cleans things up. No more pages listing 500 lines of tarfiles. Some of the additions - such as the stuff on steganography ? are really cool too.
Rating: 
Summary: Still doesn't work for me.
Review: I was dissapointed in the first edition of this book because it was little more than a big list of things. This edition is not much better. It gives more information about the tools, which was sorely missing in the first version, bit still it requires too much work on our part to see what tool fits the job.As a definitive list of all the security tools you could use for Linux, this is a good book, however you better expect to investigate each on your own. If you're looking for a book that is more geared to teaching you as well as overviewing products, I suggest Hacking Linux Exposed or Real World Linux Security. The former is probably the better of the two, but both are better than this one. I'm happy to see that the author has de-anonymized himself somewhat, though.
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