Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #720375 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 864 pages

Synopsis
Intended for beginning hackers and business managers interested in security, this guide explains how to break into the Windows operating system, network servers, e-mails, instant messages, and web sites. The 20-year-old author walks through input validation attacks, buffer overflows, social engineering techniques, password cracking, denial of servi

Customer Reviews

Unofficial ... meaning 'Unauthorised'
Aside from any moral qualms about the legitimacy of such a book (of which I remain neutral) this is clearly not written by an 'authority' on this subject, so any serious hacker would find it no more dangerous than halitosis in a gas station.

Lots of waffle and posturing. Not convinced he actually understands the more advanced 'code' snippets he introduces (e.g. he manages to confuse a c 'header' with a 'library', also why would any serious security hacker write a keylogger in pascal!!!? Many parts are REALLY badly explained and have basic errors for a 2nd edition (see p356 - the first Xor table has a basic error in third row). Several bits of the text look suspiciously familiar (i.e. possibly cut and pasted from unacknowledge sources, which might explain the inconsistencies).

I gave two (generous) consolation stars because (a) the breadth is to be commended (at least he tried), and (b) the fact that you can still pick things up interesting snippets from this book; so long as you suspend the urge to yell WRONG! at it, and (c) this book states on the last page that it is aimed at 'beginners'.

Unimpressed...

Not worth the money
This book simply glosses over some hacking concepts.
Go for "Hacking: The art of exploitation". A much better book for those interested in software security.

3-4 stars
I picked it up because I have always been interested in ethical hacking and security, I found some parts of the book interesting but like the first reviewer said it does focus on windows 9x which is a bit behind the times. It does show the principles behind most of the security problems, the software used and how to protect you against these attacks which is quite good. If you are a programmer then you might find the source code for various programs interesting and educational (the asm virus code is sweet). For me it does outline the basics but it could go into a bit more detail on the programming side of things but fair play to the guy he's only a few years older than me so publishing such a book is very good.
I hope he does bring out another security book focusing on programming but we will have to wait and see.
Overall it is worth getting and reading and keeping as reference if you are interested in that field.