Exploiting Software: How to Break Code (Addison-Wesley Software Security Series) (Paperback)

by Greg Hoglund (Author), Gary McGraw (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Computing hardware would have no value without software; software tells hardware what to do. Software therefore must have special authority within computing systems. All computer security problems stem from that fact, and Exploiting Software: How to Break Code shows you how to design your software so it's as resistant as possible to attack. Sure, everything's phrased in offensive terms (as instructions for the attacker, that is), but this book has at least as much value in showing designers what sorts of attacks their software will face (the book could serve as a checklist for part of a pre-release testing regimen). Plus, the clever reverse-engineering strategies that Greg Hoglund and Gary McGraw teach will be useful in many legitimate software projects. Consider this a recipe book for mayhem, or a compendium of lessons learned by others. It depends on your situation.

PHP programmers will take issue with the authors' blanket assessment of their language ("PHP is a study in bad security"), much of which seems based on older versions of the language that had some risky default behaviors--but those programmers will also double-check their servers' register_globals settings. Users of insufficiently patched Microsoft and Oracle products will worry about the detailed attack instructions this book contains. Responsible programmers and administrators will appreciate what amounts to documentation of attackers' rootkits for various operating systems, and will raise their eyebrows at the techniques for writing malicious code to unused EEPROM chips in target systems. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to make software fail, either by doing something it wasn't designed to do, or by denying its use to its rightful users. Techniques--including reverse engineering, buffer overflow, and particularly provision of unexpected input--are covered along with the tools needed to carry them out. A section on hardware viruses is detailed and frightening.

Review
Praise for Exploiting Software "Exploiting Software highlights the most critical part of the software quality problem. As it turns out, software quality problems are a major contributing factor to computer security problems. Increasingly, companies large and small depend on software to run their businesses every day. The current approach to software quality and security taken by software companies, system integrators, and internal development organizations is like driving a car on a rainy day with worn-out tires and no air bags. In both cases, the odds are that something bad is going to happen, and there is no protection for the occupant/owner. This book will help the reader understand how to make software quality part of the design - a key change from where we are today!" - Tony Scott Chief Technology Officer, IS&S General Motors Corporation ~"It's about time someone wrote a book to teach the good guys what the bad guys already know. As the computer security industry matures, books like Exploiting Software have a critical role to play." - Bruce Schneier Chief Technology Officer Counterpane Author of Beyond Fear and Secrets and Lies ~"Exploiting Software cuts to the heart of the computer security problem, showing why broken software presents a clear and present danger. Getting past the 'worm of the day' phenomenon requires that someone other than the bad guys understands how software is attacked. This book is a wake-up call for computer security." - Elinor Mills Abreu Reuters' correspondent ~"Police investigators study how criminals think and act. Military strategists learn about the enemy's tactics, as well as their weapons and personnel capabilities. Similarly, information security professionals need to study their criminals and enemies, so we can tell the difference between popguns and weapons of mass destruction. This book is a significant advance in helping the 'white hats' understand how the 'black hats' operate. Through extensive examples and 'attack patterns,' this book helps the reader understand how attackers analyze software and use the results of the analysis to attack systems. Hoglund and McGraw explain not only how hackers attack servers, but also how malicious server operators can attack clients (and how each can protect themselves from the other). An excellent book for practicing security engineers, and an ideal book for an undergraduate class in software security." - Jeremy Epstein Director, Product Security & Performance webMethods, Inc. ~"A provocative and revealing book from two leading security experts and world class software exploiters, Exploiting Software enters the mind of the cleverest and wickedest crackers and shows you how they think. It illustrates general principles for breaking software, and provides you a whirlwind tour of techniques for finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities, along with detailed examples from real software exploits. Exploiting Software is essential reading for anyone responsible for placing software in a hostile environment - that is, everyone who writes or installs programs that run on the Internet." - Dave Evans, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science University of Virginia ~"The root cause for most of today's Internet hacker exploits and malicious software outbreaks are buggy software and faulty security software deployment. In Exploiting Software, Greg Hoglund and Gary McGraw help us in an interesting and provocative way to better defend ourselves against malicious hacker attacks on those software loopholes. The information in this book is an essential reference that needs to be understood, digested, and aggressively addressed by IT and information security professionals everywhere." - Ken Cutler, CISSP, CISA Vice President, Curriculum Development & Professional Services, MIS Training Institute ~"This book describes the threats to software in concrete, understandable, and frightening detail. It also discusses how to find these problems before the bad folks do. A valuable addition to every programmer's and security person's library!" - Matt Bishop, Ph.D. Professor of Computer Science University of California at Davis Author of Computer Security: Art and Science

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Product Details

Chapter 3: Reverse Engineering and Program Understanding [PDF]

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201786958
• ISBN-13: 978-0201786958
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #330,838 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The SW Security Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less than meets the eye, April 20, 2004

By	Ernest Friedman-Hill "JavaRanch Sheriff" (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Exploiting Software" purports to be a book aimed at helping software
professionals understand the security risks they face; it uses the
pedagogical device of teaching how software can be attacked to
achieve the goal of explaining how secure software should be
built. Unfortunately, I think it fails both as a guide to building
secure software and as a guide to being a black hat hacker.

Most of "Exploiting Software" reads more like a book proposal than a
completed work: too detailed in places (do we really need a dozen
pages on writing plugins for the IDA Pro Disassembler?), not detailed
enough in others, and generally not well organized. Far too often, the
reader is simply told that an exploit exists, and is then directed to
the original source for details. Worse, the original sources are often
white papers, personal web sites, and conference proceedings -- things
that are either hard to obtain, unlikely to be available for long, or
both. As a result, the reader learns nothing.

The preface to "Exploiting Software" explains that this is a companion
volume to "Building Secure Software," written by the same Gary McGraw
with another co-author, and this helps to explain the main failings of
this book. I must admit that the last two chapters, "Buffer overflow"
and "Rootkits", are better than the rest; they provide plenty of
concrete details. But two chapters aren't enough to vindicate this
fairly shallow work. For my money, I expect a book that can stand on its
own.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Half of the story, August 19, 2004

By	Stuart Gardner "www.sdgardner.com" (Fair Lawn, NJ) - See all my reviews

I'm an IT auditor (my main interest area is systems software). The premise of the book, that application security is now the key risk area for exploits is spot on. Exploits of applications can be devestating. This book describes basic attacks on application software; unfortunately the level of detail varies from example to example making it a little difficult to follow. It does provide valuable examples for those developing software of potentail problem areas and common faults. It is is also of potential value in planning penetration tests. There is no real coverage of secure coding practices and how to integrate security into the development process though. The book is worth getting but provides far from exhaustive coverage of code expoitation.

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Im disappointed, April 22, 2004

By	Joshua Santos (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

I admit it, I was expecting a lot of this book. I've seen one of the co-authors, hoglund, speak at various security conferences in the past, and he is one of the top minds in the industry. I was therefore very excited to find he was writing a book on "exploiting software".

That being said, I was led to believe that this book would actually teach me how to "exploit software" --- that is the title, isn't it? The first two chapters are kind of overview, talking about historical flaws in things like embedded processors, and then a lengthy tutorial on somewhat obscure topics, such as writing plugins for the popular belgian disassembler, IDA Pro. While this is all fine and dandy, at this point in the book you will start to read faster and think "when do I get to learn how to "exploit software", and write some friggen exploits?"

Well, I was hoping to find that content later in the book (obviously contributed by mr. hoglund), but all I found was some terse overviews on how these exploits are possible. NOT how to actually write them, or use them in practice. This is where I was letdown, and may I even say, misled by the marketing material for the book.

I do have to say, the final section on writing a windows xp rootkit does have some concrete examples, and is highly interesting and informative. But, it remains the only truly hands on and practical portion of the book. This book should have been titled, AND marketed as "The Theory of Software Exploitation + A Good Chapter On Rootkits".