This informal, step-by-step guide will empower every network and system administrator to defend their network assets, whether or not they have security experience. It covers both Unix and Windows platforms, presenting in-depth descriptions of the inner workings of the most destructive hacker tools, and proven, step-by-step countermeasures. Skoudis begins by presenting the hacker's view of networks and their vulnerabilities, with especially detailed coverage of how hackers view the TCP/IP protocol suite. He introduces all five phases of hacking: reconnaissance (targeting of a network); scanning for network vulnerabilities; gaining access and exploiting the system; maintaining access; and preventing detection. Counter Hack presents in-depth descriptions of the most widespread and dangerous attack scenarios, and the most widely-used hacker tools, including war dialers, port scanners, firewall scanners, sniffers, session hijackers, and more. For all system administrators, network administrators, security specialists, and others directly involved in protecting network and computing infrastructure.

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From the view of a security newbie, this book provides an all-encompassing view of hacking and counteracting it. The book starts out with a simple introduction to various system and network technologies, and then details the ways to hack into, and then prevent hacking into these technologies. The book takes a great view in each chapter. First it explains the evil hacker's view and how they could exploit vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Then it follows it up with how to shore everything up and prevent such hacking.

This book also goes into the tools, websites, and methods to hack and to counter hack, providing an invaluable reference without annoying the reader with too much information. Include this with its remarkable readability, and I would say this should be required reading for anyone administrating networks or writing software applications.

In short, I could not imagine a better security book around.

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

This book is a keeper !!Sep 06, 2001
By R. Desouza
For those of you out there who are new to computer security, or who understand theory and concepts and want some practical explanations about what's out there, this is a book you cannot do without. If you are really serious about wanting to know details about what you are up against when protecting your organization, or your PC from attacks you will not just want to glance through the book but read it from cover to cover. The is not a book that will teach you theory about encryption, PKI and all the mathamatical and computer science concepts that Computer Science or Computer Engineering majors usually learn. There are plenty of good books out there for that. This book is more of a practical hands-on approach to how attacks are executed and how to stop and defend against them.
Ed Skoudis has really done a phenomenal job presenting the material in an organized, easy-to-follow format without making it like a 'security for dummies' type of book. He gives you knowledge and techniques you can apply. Ed begins with 3 chapters on the basics of TCP/IP, UNIX and Windows NT/2000. I found these three chapter very helpful in preparing for the rest of the book even though I have read books on and worked with all three before. Ed presents a few ideas about the vulnerabilities of these systems without going into detail. That comes later. Then he serves up the main course. The 5 phases of an attack are outlined and the following is a brief description:

Phase 1: How do attackers do research on their targets ? This includes web sites where they look up their info, social engineering techniques, etc.
Phase 2: How do they find vulnerable systems ? This includes war dialers, port scanners, network mappers etc. He also gives you detailed information about where you can find these tools how to use the most popular ones and how they actually work internally.
Phase 3: What can an attacker actually do once he has found the vulnerabilities in your system and breached security ? This tells you about cracking passwords in UNIX and NT, how to attack web apps by finding bad cgi scripts, stack buffer overflows, packet sniffing, IP spoofing, etc. This once again has detailed explanations on where to get the tools and how they are used.
Phase 4: How does the attacker maintain access to the system ? This tells you about trojan horses, back doors, Rootkits, etc
Phase 5: How does the attacker cover his tracks ?

Ed finally ties it all together by describing attacks using the phases and tools he talks about above with examples along with a discussion of mistakes made by system admins. I should also mention that for all the attacks mentioned in the book, Ed always fills you in on how to defend against them so you don't feel like you are fighting a losing battle as a system admin. The book is written in a way that is very easy to follow. It is almost like someone standing in front of you in a classroom and explaining things to you. Ed uses personal experiences along with light-hearted comments about system administrators and hackers that will make you smile so that the reading doesn't stay too serious.

This book is worth reading and keeping as a reference. I gave it 5 stars because it is the best book I have seen on practical computer security.

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