Dr. I Doctor
Dr. I Doctor's Informational Juggernaut
May 2, 2005
Hot Off the O'Reilly Press: Network Security Tools
I'm a firm believer in open-source network security tools, both because they tend to be ahead of commercial products in paving new security roads, and because the experience they give you with security management is valuable in making intelligent commericial product choices. Alas, until recently you've had to do all your own research when setting up such open-source tools as Etherreal, Nessus, and nMap. But now you can avoid a lot of trial and error testing thanks to the new O'Reilly tome Network Security Tools, by Nitesh�Dhanjani and Justin�Clarke.
Network Security Tools is a valuable survey of the field of open-source security utilities, including such popular programs as Nessus, the vulnerability scanner; and Ettercap, an Ethernet packet capture utility. The book also covers Nikto, a Web-server scanner; Metaspoit, a test bed for developing and exercising exploit code; and a wide assortment of sniffers, port scanners, and security assessment tools.
The book explains how to write plug-ins for these tools so that you can extend them for your own applications, as well as how to remediate some common Web-based vulnerabilities. The authors explain how root kits work so you'll be able to spot them on infected machines and safely disarm them.
O'Reilly publishes the sample code for the book online so that you can readily test the authors' examples. I do wish the example code had better commenting, but when combined with the text you should have no problem understanding it. If you're experimenting with open-source security applications -- as you should be -- this volume will save you time and give you valuable insight into the security tool-building process.
Posted by mbeckman at May 2, 2005 8:51 AM
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