Customer Reviews

Hardening Windows

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I investigated this book as I was impressed with Apress' Hardening Linux, and so I thought that this would be of the same caliber. The book was rather thin, so I assumed that this would packed full of potent content, but nopem, this book is a rehash of very basic material well over-documented from many sources.

I liked how Chapter 2 through 5 were organized by operating system, but inside these chapters was nothing new or insightful about the architectures, such built-in automatic accounts that services run under. Hassell documents common well known features in these chapters: system policy editor, GPO, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, RunAs, ICF, and Windows Firewall. Other chapters he covers is WSUS vs. SMS, IIS, Exchange, and Auditing and Event Logs.

In the scope of hardening a Windows system, I would have expected advanced material to utilize for example Windows Firewall in-conjunction with IPSec filters or securing services in case they are exploited, e.g. changing the DACLs or using custom security templates. I would have also expected more advanced ways to secure IIS and Exchange, including using a secure PKI infrastructure.

Overall, this is a decent general survey of common place tools available to help secure Windows infrastructure, not very valuable in regards to the scope of specifically "Hardening Windows".

I bought this book for $1.78 used from Amazon. I am afraid that is about what it is worth. Remarkably lacking in practical knowledge. Some information so out of date, twice I went back to the copyright page to be sure I hadn't misread the 2006 publishing date.