Maximum Linux Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting ... (ISBN 0672316706)

Amazon.com Review:
Linux machines serve scores of purposes on networks, but their very integration with networked environments means they're constantly exposed to attack. Maximum Linux Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Linux Server and Network provides a comprehensive picture of Linux's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to protecting your systems from bad guys. The author offers explicit advice (e.g., replace sendmail with Qmail) and general recommendations (e.g., be on the lookout for unused services and disable them). In case you're wondering which Anonymous this is, he's the same guy who wrote the very highly regarded Maximum Security. In Maximum Linux Security, readers become familiar with scores of offensive and defensive weapons, including Crack, Tripwire, linux_sniffer, mendax, and many more. For each program, the author documents the required infrastructure (such as C or Perl), the required permissions, and a URL from which the program can be downloaded. Most valuably, he walks you through the use of each program (using Red Hat Linux 5.1 and Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 on his test bed machines). Readers can follow along as the author performs various hacks, including an IP spoofing attack. He lists hundreds of hacking tools in an appendix, and includes a lot of software (Linux security products, code examples, technical documents, system logs, and utilities) on the companion CD-ROM. --David Wall Topics covered: Sniffers, scanners, firewalls, auditing tools, intrusion detectors, and denial-of-service software.

Who is this book for?:
I'll start off by saying that I am CISSP, CCSP and SANS GSEC certified. I have read a couple of the Maximum Security series books and I'm constantly disappointed. First off the book is about 5 times too long for a novice that is curious about the subject and under informative for a professional. It also seems to cover some "neeto" programs you can use to secure your system. For the amount of pages I thought it would at least delve into some kernel hacking, buffer overflow/underrun protection. The author seems to love to give scare tactic examples of attacks that happened years before the book was published. If someone is reading this book they most likely understand the threat. I don't need to the police to tell me about murders that have gone on in Baltimore to convince me to put locks on my doors. This kind of off subject garbage makes this book even heavier, and not from an information stand point. Published in 2001 it seem that is was out of date then as well. It covers, for the lack of better description, low level hacker tools in a majority of descriptions of tools. For example the "Sniffer" chapter mentions nothing about dsniff a very popular and powerful sniffing utility. I would not recommend this book to a beginner as there is way too much garbage taking you through the installation of basic pieces of software. Never mentioning some different options maybe you should be selecting during the install. There is no need to cut and paste the contents of the INSTALL file from Tripwire, most of the guides for installing are word for word from the programs own install and readme files. I would not recommend this to a professional as well as it does not go into great enough detail about anything unless you don't want to read man files and would rather have it in the form of a 13lbs book. My guess is this book was thrown together poorly with haste and by someone that has little to no experience in network security let alone security on ONE system. To sum this review up, there is nothing in this book that isn't already on google.

It's a very good book:
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.

Great Read and Informative:
This book really opens your eyes to the world of hacking (how to stop it). I presume the auther is a hacker and his insight and detail make this book a must for sysadmin. I recommend the book to basically anyone running Linux (or Unix) even beginners, because of it's great explanations.

Good introduction:
My comment goes out to the first (very old now) edition, 1999. This was the first book I've read about linux security and it's very well written, well organized and cover most importat topics about system security and internet security as well.

A MUST HAVE FOR ANY LINUX USER!!:
This is probably not just the best linux book I have ever purchased but one of the best computer books I've purchased period. The book explains things clear and to the point with real examples and many sites you can check out for further information. I've learned a great detail about network security and linux in journal. Thank you Anonymous.