[.ca] Radius: Securing Public Access to Private Resources (ISBN 0596003226)

From Amazon.com:
There's far more to information security than usernames and passwords; it's not just a matter of letting legitimate users "in" and keeping bad guys "out." Users who have authority to use certain parts of a system may not be authorized to see everything, and businesses, for billing purposes, often want to track how long users spend in a system. The Remote Access Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) solves all of these engineering challenges, but you have to implement it correctly in order to achieve maximum benefit and keep your systems safe. RADIUS provides an architectural and technical guide to RADIUS implementation, enabling its readers to design RADIUS-secured systems properly and choose products wisely. Jonathan Hassell's approach is to lay down a foundation of RADIUS protocol theory, then explain how to implement the protocol with a particular product (FreeRADIUS for Linux). He approaches both elements of his book with precision and detail, and provides plenty of tabular information for reference. He's also liberal with examples, which is a welcome trait if you're in a hurry to know how to format a radiusd.conf file or how to configure Cisco IOS to do RADIUS authentication. This is a comprehensive treatment of a complicated subject. --David Wall Topics covered: How the RADIUS protocol provides authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA services), and how it fits with other elements of network design. The author covers the protocol in theory before digging into its implementation in FreeRADIUS for Linux and the integration of that package with several important networking products.

Inaccurate copy of RFCs:
This book is an inaccurate and incorrect copy of RFCs with a lot of buzzwords. This should be great only because this is only book about RADIUS protocol in the world. It is better for you to read RFCs if you understand the situation that needs RADIUS.

Good to start with a Radius:
Clear documentation on Radius env but you must read another document, most on freeradius, to build a real solutions.

Good overview and reference:
I found this book a good reference to RADIUS. While some content is available in the RFCs, it's handy to have it compact and easy to read inside this book. The overview and guide to FreeRADIUS is good to have, especially considering the lack of available documentation from the project. I especially found the security chapter helpful, a candid discussion of where RADIUS fails. While there could be more coverage in this book, I think it's a great one to have available. Recommended.

Bad copy of RFC:
Let me just compare one sentence from the book and RFC: The book, page 20: Authenticator ... In this field, the most important octet is transmitted before any other ... RFC 2865, page 15: Authenticator ... The most significant octet is transmitted first. ...

Acceptable as an intro, but severly lacking details:
This book may not be bad for someone looking for a brief overview of the RADIUS protocol (perhaps a manager), but is virtually useless for anything beyond that. The book is poorly organized, severly lacks detail, and has its share of errors. Technical readers should look elsewhere.