http://books.slashdot.org/books/08/02/20/1439224.shtml
Author: Jon Erickson
Pages: 472
Publisher: No Starch Press
Rating: 9
Reviewer: David Martinjak
ISBN: 1-59327-144-1
Summary An informative, and authoritative source on hacking and
exploit techniques.
"Hacking: The Art of Exploitation is authored by Jon Erickson and
published by No Starch Press. It is the anticipated second edition of
Erickson's earlier publication of the same title. I can't think of a way
to summarize it without being over-dramatic, so it will just be said: I
really liked it. The book, which will be referred to as simply Hacking,
starts by introducing the author's description of hacking. Erickson
takes a great approach by admitting that the common perception of
hacking is rather negative, and unfortunately accurate in some cases.
However, he smoothly counters this antagonistic misunderstanding by
presenting a simple arithmetic problem. A bit of creativity is needed to
arrive at the correct solution, but creativity and problem-solving are
two integral aspects of hacking, at least to Erickson. The introduction
chapter sets an acceptable tone and proper frame of mind for proceeding
with the technical material."
Chapter 2 enters the subject of programming. The first few sections in
the chapter may feel a bit slow to readers who have been coding for any
legitimate length of time. Erickson explains some fundamental, yet
essential, concepts of programming before finally moving into some
actual code. Some readers may choose to skip these few pages, but they
are necessary for brave new adventurers in the dark realm of
development. The remainder of the chapter certainly compensates for any
perceived slow-start. Each of the remaining sections presents a
sufficient quantity of technical information, accompanied by
descriptive, yet straightforward explanations.
I don't mean to disrupt the chronological progression of the book
review, but it is important to highlight the excellence of the
explanations provided in Hacking. Throughout the book, the writing
provides adequate details and the content is to the point. Many sources
on exploit techniques supply sparse information, or are too wordy and
often miss the relevant and important concepts. Erickson does a
phenomenal job in Hacking of explaining each subject in just the right
manner.
The third chapter is the staple of the book. This chapter covers buffer
overflows in both the stack and the heap, demonstrates a few different
ways that bash can aid in successfully exploiting a process, and
provides an essentially all-encompassing elaboration of format string
vulnerabilities and exploits. As I said, this is the main portion of the
book so I don't want to give away too much material here. Undoubtedly,
though, this chapter has the best explanation of format string attacks
that I have ever read. The explanations in Chapter 3, like the rest of
the book, are of substantial value.
Chapter 4 focuses on a range of network-related subjects. At first I
wondered why the chapter starts with rather basic concepts like the OSI
model, sockets, etc. Then I realized it was consistent with the earlier
chapters. Hacking presents some core concepts, then moves on to
utilizing them in exploits. In this case, these specific concepts and
techniques just hadn't been covered yet. The exploit toward the end of
this chapter includes some of the concepts in the previous chapter,
which also helps to cement the reader's understanding.
I will mention two main shortcomings. First, the material in the "Denial
of Service" section of the Networking chapter was unnecessary for this
book. Attacks like the Ping of Death, and smurfing were interesting
developments when they were first discovered, and effective on a large
scale. Now in 2008, almost all of the items in the "Denial of Service"
section are either outdated or have been covered to an excessive extent.
Rather than denial of service, I would have preferred to see a section
on integer attacks. This would have fit perfectly with the book's theme
as there are several issues surrounding numeric types in C of which many
programmers are unaware. Considering the fact that the book is about
hacking and much of the code is in C; integer attacks seem like a
natural component to include. The second pitfall in this review is
through a fault of my own. I cannot compare this second edition of
Hacking with its original, first edition release as I unfortunately do
not own the first edition. Hacking finishes out the second half of the
book with chapters on shellcode, countermeasures, and cryptology. The
chapter on cryptology is especially interesting as it contains a good
mix of information without being too hardcore on the mathematics
involved. There are plenty of gems in the shellcode and countermeasures
chapters, as well. Specifically, Erickson does a stellar job of
explaining return-(in)to-libc attacks, and dealing with the address
space layout randomization in Linux. He covers the exploit technique for
linux-gate.so in a randomized memory space before it was fixed in
2.6.18, then proceeds to demonstrate a different technique for
successful exploitation on kernels at 2.6.18 and later.
Undeniably, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation is one of the
quintessential books for its subject. A book this good is a rare find,
and certainly worth the read for any individual interested in security.
-=-
David Martinjak is a programmer, GNU/Linux addict, and the director of
2600 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He can be reached at
david.martinjak (at) gmail.com.
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