Hack Proofing Your Network - Softcover

Russell, Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1928994156 ISBN 13: 9781928994152

Publisher: Syngress, 2000

Synopsis

If you don’t hack your systems, who will?

One of the reasons I put this book project together is that I believe security professionals should be hackers. In this case, by hackers, I mean people who are capable of defeating security measures. This book purports to teach people how to be hackers. In reality, most of the people who buy this book will do so because they want to protect their own systems and those of their employer. So, how can you prevent break-ins to your system if you don’t know how they are accomplished? How do you test your security measures? How do you make a judgment about how secure a new system is?

When you’re through reading Hack Proofing Your Network, you’ll understand terms like “smashing the stack,” “blind spoofing,” “building a backward bridge,” “steganography,” “buffer overflow” and you’ll see why you need to worry about them. You will learn how to protect your servers from attacks by using a 5-step approach:

1. Planning

2. Network/Machine Recon

3. Research/Develop

4. Execute Attack and Achieve Goal

5. Cleanup

And you’ll understand the theory of hacking, how to fend off local and remote attacks, and how to report and evaluate security problems.

The Only Way to Stop a Hacker Is to Think Like One.
---Ryan Russell, Hack Proofing Your Network

About this title

Review

Too many network administrators depend on the "big sky" principle of network security--they believe that the large number of Internet-connected machines out there will keep black-hat hackers away. Hack Proofing Your Network: Internet Tradecraft points out that statistics are no defense, and that such an attitude is irresponsible. The book shows steps that you can take to harden your resources against attack. Although most of the material in this book isn't up-to-the-minute (how could it be, when the tactics of attackers change daily), you can discourage hackers by implementing the strategies that it describes.

Many antihacking texts assume a fair bit of knowledge, but this one doesn't. Ryan Russell and coauthors explain many terms and concepts, such as traffic sniffing, cryptography, and file differentiation ("diffing"), and the tools that evildoers use to wreak havoc on the systems that they attack--complete with Internet addresses from which you can download them. The book walks you through sample attacks, too, such as hijacking a connection by using a tool called Hunt. Overall, this is a fine introductory-to-intermediate antihacking volume that leads well into more current and advanced resources. You might want to supplement it with two other practical computer-security books: Hacking Exposed catalogues many of the tools that bad guys use, while Network Intrusion Detection helps you analyze security logs and spot attacks in progress. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• Modes of attack, and means of defending against them
• Political environment governing software and networking
• Laws and policies springing from that environment
• Approaches to the problem of breaking into systems or denying their services to legitimate users
• Spoofing
• Sniffing
• Transmission interception
• Several other popular tactics

From the Publisher

Kevin Mitnick's quote on the Hack Proofing cover says it nicely:

“Ryan Russell has an important message for us all: "What you don't know *will* hurt you." In his book, "Hack Proofing Your Network: Internet Tradecraft" Ryan reveals the "how to" of systems penetration techniques that intruders may use against you! While "full disclosure" is a two-edged sword, the benefits include forcing software manufacturers to quickly fix security holes and informing potential victims of the vulnerabilities that exist in their infrastructures.”—Kevin Mitnick

This book brings together some of the most talented IPSec professionals and prominent grey-hat hackers to tell you how to protect your systems from attack. The focus is on the practical and the objective is to leave you with the know-how and tools to deal with virus, session hijacking, client holes, spoofing, and more.

Learn from the best: Mudge, advisor to the WHite House and Congress; Rain Forest Puppy; Elisa Levy, BUGTRAQ moderator; Blue Boar, Vuln-Dev moderator; Dan “Effugas” Kaminsky, Advanced Network Services division, Cisco Systems; Oliver Friedrichs, Co-founder, SecurityFocus.com; Riley "Caezar" Eller, Senior Security Engineer, Internet Security Advisors; Greg Hoglund, Founder, Click To Secure

About this edition

• Publisher: Syngress
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1928994156
• ISBN 13: 9781928994152
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 450