The .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security (Microsoft Net Development Series)

Rating:
Summary: nice crypto explanations
Review: Bill Gates has recently and repeatedly stated that Microsoft should give a high priority to developing secure products. A reaction to the rising tide of viruses and worms that target his company's desktop. He was primarily referring to what Microsoft itself sells as finished products, like the WinXP operating system. But if you are an independent programmer, developing on a .NET platform, you should heed his advice as also applying to your coding. Hence the importance of this book.

It provides an easy to read technical description of various security issues. The book has 75 of what it calls items. Think of these as tips or hacks. Each addresses a security concept. The items are grouped into broad areas like Access Control Lists. What they are and how to maintain them.

The discussions on Kerberos and other crypto related items are fluently explained, without recourse to maths. To actually implement, you may need texts that delve into more detail. But the overviews provided here are very understandable and hit the key concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Terse cookbook style overview of .NET Security
Review: I wasn't thrilled with the organization of this book. The chapters, which are essentially recipe answers to security questions are sometimes very short (2-3 pages). The text is very focused and terse. The coverage of the book is excellent though. It's wide ranging, and as long as you can keep up, relatively in-depth. The coverage of privileges and sessions is very good. Worth a look for security professionals.

Rating:
Summary: More like a cookbook
Review: Its more like a cook book written in bunch of 4-5 page sections that describe how to do what with .Net sceurity namespaces. If you are looking for book that described windows security then get Keith's "Windows Security Programming" book.

Rating:
Summary: A great intro to security for a coder that wants to know
Review: This book is not for everyone, but if you are a programmer and you want an introduction to what you can do to create more secure programs integrated into Windows 2000 -> Server 2003 in a .NET framework, you will find this book worth the read.

If you are already security saavy and you do not know much about programming this book will help you ask your coders the right questions.

The first 35 pages are the fundamentals of security. The next 30 pages show the interface to security in the windows environment. The real value for me as a reader started on page 65. From there to the very last page there is example after example.

Keith Brown continues to be the master of clear writing, no fluff, everything is in consise topics that tell you the straight scoop you need to know about that topic.



Rating:
Summary: Just what I was looking for!
Review: This is a great book for an experienced programmer looking to learn about Windows Security settings.

In particular I found that the treatment of programmatic security, CoInitializeSecurity(), is the best and most thorough discussion on the topic that I've found anywhere. I especially appreciate his terse, clear writing style. Easy to understand and you don't have to wade through pages and pages of dense prose.