Product Description

Are you serious about network security? Then check out SSH, the Secure Shell, which provides key-based authentication and transparent encryption for your network connections. It's reliable, robust, and reasonably easy to use, and both free and commercial implementations are widely available for most operating systems. While it doesn't solve every privacy and security problem, SSH eliminates several of them very effectively. Everything you want to know about SSH is in our second edition of SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide. This updated book thoroughly covers the latest SSH-2 protocol for system administrators and end users interested in using this increasingly popular TCP/IP-based solution. How does it work? Whenever data is sent to the network, SSH automatically encrypts it. When data reaches its intended recipient, SSH decrypts it. The result is "transparent" encryption-users can work normally, unaware that their communications are already encrypted. SSH supports secure file transfer between computers, secure remote logins, and a unique "tunneling" capability that adds encryption to otherwise insecure network applications. With SSH, users can freely navigate the Internet, and system administrators can secure their networks or perform remote administration. Written for a wide, technical audience, SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide covers several implementations of SSH for different operating systems and computing environments. Whether you're an individual running Linux machines at home, a corporate network administrator with thousands of users, or a PC/Mac owner who just wants a secure way to telnet or transfer files between machines, our indispensable guide has you covered. It starts with simple installation and use of SSH, and works its way to in-depth case studies on large, sensitive computer networks. No matter where or how you're shipping information, SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide will show you how to do it securely.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149973 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 645 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The suite of utility applications that Unix users and administrators find indispensable--Telnet, rlogin, FTP, and the rest--can in fact prove to be the undoing of interconnected systems. The Secure Shell, aka SSH, which isn't a true shell at all, provides your otherwise attack-prone utilities with the protection they need. SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide explains how to use SSH at all levels. In a blended sequence, the book explains what SSH is all about, how it fits into a larger security scheme, and how to employ it as an everyday user with an SSH client. More technically detailed chapters show how to configure a SSH server--several variants are covered--and how to integrate SSH with non-Unix client platforms.

As befits its detail- and variation-rich subject, this book comprises many specialised sections, each dealing with some specific aspect of use or configuration (setting up access control at the account level, for example, or generating keys for a particular SSH server). The writing is both informative and fun to read; the authors switch back and forth between text and entry-and-response listings from SSH machines. They often run through a half-dozen or more variants on the same command in a few pages, providing the reader with lots of practical information. The discussion of how SSH fits into a Kerberos Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is great, as is the advice on defeating particular kinds of attacks. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• The Secure Shell (SSH) for installers, administrators, and everyday users
• SSH design and operation
• Server setup
• SSH agents
• Client configuration
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) integration
• SSH1
• SSH2
• F-Secure
• OpenSSH for Unix
• SSH1 and SecureCRT for Microsoft Windows
• NiftyTelnet SSH for Mac OS

Review
"Still the best SSH book out there by a long shot, but too much on Tectia and not enough on OpenSSH 4." - Paul Hudson, Linux Format, October 2005 "The authors manage to convey what SSH is all about as a concept and how to use it in the real world with equal aplomb, and highly technical configuration details are explained with clarity. They are happy to related how to integrate SSH into non-Unix clients, which makes a pleasant change from the typical Unix gurus who write books such as this. Whenever with see the words "definitive guide' included in the title of a book, we usually prepare ourselves for something far from it. The exception being when O'Reilly are the publishers, and this SSH guide is certainly as definitive as any you are likely to read. And read it you should if you are seriously involved with network security." Davey Winder, PC Plus, November 2005

Will Bober, Bay Linux User Group, Saskatoon, Canada
"....SSH, the Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide is a resource that system administrators will want to keep close at hand."

Customer Reviews

Clear,detailed although an understanding of TCP/IP is needed
Continuing in the tradition of O'Reilly books, the clarity of explaination is excellent and the chapter progression is well laid out so that the topics naturally follow each other. The authors expound on ssh1, ssh1 and OpenSSH flavours which means whilst there is some redundant detail, they dont miss out on the differences between the install and running of the various versions.

The chapters on port/X11 forwarding are kept towards the end of the book so as not to frighten casual users, but the concepts are well explained with good diagrams although without a practical understanding of TCP/IP much of the content will go over peoples heads.

Misses out on one star for not showing enough humour to lighten what can at times be a dry topic (think Camel book!), and for not having details on Putty (a great,little,free Windows SSH implentation) in its Appendix.

Invaluable for anyone administering a Unix server
I received a free review copy of this book from the UK Unix Users Group, but think it well worth the cover price.

SSH is a very useful collection of tools, providing secure replacements for programs such as telnet, rlogin, rsh, rcp, ftp, xon and rxterm. Any administrator concerned about passwords and other sensitive information being stolen by packet sniffers needs to be familiar with it.

Once set up SSH is generally easier to use than the less secure equivalents, but before you get to this happy state there are a number of choices to be made and hurdles to be jumped. This book is aimed primarily at the Unix system administrator or advanced Unix user and provides a huge amount of useful information.

The book starts with an introduction to the concepts of SSH, then moves on to the meat: detailed information about SSH for Unix users and administrators. Finally it discusses some implementations for Windows and Mackintosh users.

There are currently 3 main implementations of SSH for Unix: SSH1, SSH2 and the new but rapidly developing OpenSSH. They have much in common and the authors have elected to describe all three, pointing out differences as they go along. This is an ambitious approach, and inevitably adds some clutter to the text, but the authors have risen to the challenge and written an extremely clear and helpful book. They cover server administration, client configuration, and the clever port forwarding features which allow you to tunnel other protocols such as X11 and IMAP across an insecure network.

I would recommend this book to people who simply want to get SSH working as quickly as possible as well as those with an interest in cryptography.

If you're a server admin get this book!
Everyone should have SSH on their servers! However, if like me you're struggling to impliment some of the features of SSH then this book is for you. It's excellent troubleshooting section, which refers you to more detailed earlier chapters, helped sort things out in very little time.

If you're serious about security, I recomend it!