Gray Hat Hacking. The Ethical Hacker's Handbook (All-In-One) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

'Gray Hat Hacking' (GHH) is positioned as a next-generation book for so-called ethical hackers, moving beyond the tool-centric discussions of books like 'Hacking Exposed.' The authors leave their definition of 'gray hat' unresolved until ch 3, where they claim that a 'white hat' is a person who 'uncovers a vulnerability and exploits it with authorization;' a 'black hat' is one who 'uncovers a vulnerability and illegally exploits it and/or tells others how to;' and a 'gray hat' is one who 'uncovers a vulnerability, does not illegally exploit it or tell others how to do it, but works with the vendor.' I disagree and prefer SearchSecurity.com's definitions, where white hats find vulnerabilities and tell vendors without providing public exploit code; black hats find vulnerabilities, code exploits, and maliciously attack victims; and gray hats find vulnerabilities, publish exploits, but do not illegally use them. According to these more common definitions, the book should have been called 'White Hat Hacking.' I doubt it would sell as well with that title!

Content-wise, the book mixes ethical and legal advice with tool overviews and technical information. Many reviewers note the good legal overview in ch 3, where I found the tables summarizing various laws to be helpful. The authors provide a sound rationale for penetration testing: 'Nothing should be trusted until it is tested' (p. 13). I enjoyed the disclosure discussion in ch 3 as well. I liked the brief tool descriptions of Core IMPACT, Immunity Security's CANVAS, and the Metasploit Framework. Some of the other discussions (e.g., Amap, P0f, Ettercap) didn't go deeper than already published explanations of those same tools.

I found the technical material to be accurate albeit somewhat disorganized and in some cases far too shallow. For example, the authors provide 6 pages on Python (ch 6), 6 pages on C (ch 7), and a single 21 page chapter (ch 10) mentioning system calls, socket programming, and assembly language. On p 279 and several other places the authors admit their topic 'deserves a chapter to itself, if not an entire book!' They should have trusted their instincts and required readers to have prior knowledge of programming in low- and high-level languages prior to reading GHH. Instead, short sections that are too basic for the pros but too rushed for beginners detract from the book's focus.

The five authors clearly know their subjects, but they should have coordinated their chapters better. For example, ch 7 introduces using debuggers without even a description of their purpose. Six chapters later (in ch 13), we read a description of debugging only to be followed again by another discussion of debugging in ch 14. All of this should have been consolidated and rationalized.

I think McGraw-Hill/Osborne's second edition of GHH should seek to differentiate itself from more focused books like 'The Shellcoder's Handbook' (by Wiley) and 'Exploiting Software' (by Addison-Wesley). There is a market for high-end security books without sparse introductory material included for the benefit of beginners. Authors should either commit to the beginners and give enough information to enlighten them, or tell them to read foundational references first and concentrate on the more experienced audience. Authors like Allen Harper and Chris Eagle, winners of last year's 'Capture the Flag' contest at Def Con, can deliver the goods if not constrained by a publisher's desire to address as broad an audience as possible. I would not be surprised to see this book greatly expanded in a second edition, which I look forward to reading.

This book is designed as a beyond Hacking Exposed type book. It certainly lives up to that by concentrating on more fundamental knowledge. Among it's strong points, this book is the most solid introduction to vulnerability discovery techniques I have seen. Another point to this books credit is that I was unable to find any errors in the examples I ran (about half)

The authors start out with a 4 chapters that discuss things like... what pen-testing is, ethics, legal issues. Some of the more useful discussions in this section include legal issues, and reporting vulnerabilities to vendors. Some of the less useful discussions include the difference between gray, white, and black hats. Omitted was discussion the true old schoool meaning of 'hacker.' The first 4 chapters rate three stars.

Chapters 5 and 6 discuss some cool tools including: p0f, amap, ettercap, xprobe2, metasploit, CANVAS, and IMACT. Enough information is included to get you going on each one. Also the underlying principles are discussed. Good chapters. Chapters 5 and 6 rate four stars.

Chapters 7 through 11 discuss: Programming, Linux Exploits, Shell Code, and Windows Exploits. The "Programming Survival Skills" chapter is a little light, but that can only be expected. These chapters are very well done, and this is the best section of the book. The explanations are very clear and concise. I tried many of the examples in these chapters, and they worked flawlessly. The authors attention to detail will make these chapters very valuable to those learning vulnerability research and discovery. The material here provides a solid foundation. Chapters 7 through 11 rate a strong five stars.

Chapters 12 through 15 discuss reverse engineering, writing exploits, and patching the holes. Tools discuss include valgrind, sharefuzz, SPIKE, IDA Pro, RATS, its4, debuggers, and more. This is a nice introduction to reverse engineering. It's enough to get you going, but it's not quite as deep as many will probably want. The discussions here are well done. Chapters 12 through 15 rate a weak five stars.

Overall, I rated this book a strong four stars. I would have loved to give it five stars if the first few chapters were better. I wouldn't mind seeing them removed and replaced with expanded technical content in any future editions. Based on the strengh of the remainder of this book, it's hard to imagine a better introduction to advanced vulnerability discovery techniques. I wish I had this a few years ago!

I bought this book from a store in D.C, and read it on my way back to India. I was impressed. Never found any book that deals with computer security and software vulnerabilities written so well. The reason I like this book is than others is because it does not only give you information that can help you in assessing your network security, but also gives you a basic introduction to the laws and legal technicalities. The contents of this book cover most of computer/network security related areas including technical implementation, planning, and defense. Therefore, it is not only for system engineers, but also for people managing IT departments.

My favorite chapters were those which discussed about reverse engineering, programming survival skills, and legal aspects of hacking. However, I do agree with one of the reviewers on the definition of "Grey Hat Hackers", I do agree that the authors were wrong here, and should have chosen a different title. Otherwise, the book is great and the reason it has something for everyone who deals with IT security is, because it took five authors to write this book and all of the specializes in different segments of IT security. The book is not expensive, I bought it for $45, and you can get it from Amazon for $33 and believe me that's nothing. I have spent more money on books those have attractive titles but actually are crap. Have a look at those written by Ankit Fadia, and you will know what I mean.