[TriLUG] Book recommndation for newbie

Jos Purvis purvis at metalab.unc.edu
Fri Sep 7 18:39:40 EDT 2001


	For those interested in Linux Security, a couple of recommendations to
throw into the discussion:

+  Linux System Security:  The Administrator's Guide to Open Source Security
Tools (Mann/Mitchell, Prentice-Hall PTR, ISBN 0-13-015807-0) is a great guide
to security tools and their uses.  Covers things like SSH, Tripwire, encrypted
filesystems, and other goodies that should be in any sysadmin's bag of tricks.

+  Real World Linux Security: Intrusion Prevention, Detection and Recovery
(Toxen, Prentice-Hall PTR, ISBN 0-13-028187-5) is another excellent guide to
tricks and tools for Linux security, including a lot of interesting anecdotes
by the author about how he and his friends hacked early versions of Unix while
students at Berkeley and stayed hidden from the admins there for weeks on end.
Good stuff.

+  Building Linux and OpenBSD Firewalls (Sonnenreich/Yates, Wiley, ISBN
0-471-35366-3) is a good guide for those building firewalls to protect home or
office networks.  Terrific guide to ipfilter on BSD and ipchains on Linux
(iptables/netfilter hadn't been released at the time).  Plus the authors have
a terrific sense of humor.

Finally, I'll +1 the suggestion of the "Unix Systems Administration Handbook",
which includes coverage for Linux, Solaris, HP-UX and BSD (?--I think that's
the fourth one) in their latest edition.  If for no other reason, sysadmins
should buy this book for the large chapter on dealing with the politics of
systems administration and dealing with users and managers, which has proved
invaluable to me in the past (politics and money being the eighth and ninth
layers of the OSI network model.  :)

	Enjoy!

		From the Left Coast,

		Jos

-- 
/  Jos Purvis (purvis at melete.org) ||  Yet Another Security Geek  \
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| I just can't haiku / I can never remember / how many...MY EYE! |
|     -- Mike Sphar, demonstrating his poetic abilities in SDM   |



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