Customer Reviews

J2EE Security for Servlets, EJBs, and Web Services

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was quite disappointed in this book, which is both drawn-out and shallow in its coverage of j2ee and web services. With 425 pages (11 chapters), the book only talks about J2EE component security in 2 chapters (Chapter 9 and 10) and stops at high-level with spending pages on configuring tomcat and weblogic 7. The author comfortably skipped discussing content over complex issues and finally completely forgot about illustrating real-world security issues and measures.
Although the book covers some very basic aspects of Java security, ultimately it provides a dreary drawn-out overview of j2ee security which is better found more in google and elsewhere.

The title is, definitely, misleading: it does not cover the subject of J2EE security. One cannot build a secure application with this book! There are lots of great books on the Standard Edition security, and there is no need to go over it again, particularly when J2EE presents so many new issues and problems one needs to take care in order to build a commercial application. Otherwise the book is easy to read and understand.

This book is similiar to sun java security tutorial with little additions specific to weblogic 7.0 and apache axis 1.0. The code examples don't run on j2ee 1.4 platform. The book also needs a new edition with revised examples to include newer security mechanisms with j2se 1.5. Except for chapter 1 - A Security primer, all other chapters are technically obsolete.

If you wish to pick a good alternative book, choose Core Security Patterns by Chris Steel et all - that is the best book I have seen for Java security.

It was my struggle with keystore formats, certificates, cert-chains, private keys, CSRs, CRLs, Java system properties and other such stuff that prompted me to buy this book and I must say that I got more than what I paid for. The JSTK (JSTK stands for Java Security ToolKit, the software downloadable from book's website -- You will have to get the book to get the URL, though) alone is worth the price of the book. With this, I could list all the CSPs installed and configured within my JRE, algorithms supported by them and can even issue signed certificates -- not to mention about all other cool things, such as signing and encrypting files, sending data over SSL and making performance observations etc., I can experiment with without writing a single line of code.

The first few chapters appear to be introductory and could be turn-off if your interest is only in pure J2EE stuff such as RMI, web apps, EJBs, Web services and EISs. However, as I went through the later chapters, it dawned upon me that I would never have followed these concepts and examples without the background stuff in the earlier chapters that talked about cryptographic APIs, SSL, policy based access control, XML-Encryption and XML-Signature. Perhaps this is the reason the author chose to leave out certain other security topics related but non-critical to J2EE: applets, byte code, Java web start, guarded objects and so on.

The emphasis on performance measurement is again something that appealed to me. A lot of times we decide not to incorporate security stuff because we are afraid of the runtime performance overhead. It certainly helps to know the amount of overhead and how to measure this within a given environment.

At the end, I am glad that I bought this book. It may not have everything I may need to know but it does have a lot of good stuff.

Security is like spinach - it's good for you but not too many people like it. Most security books bore me to tears with page after page of description accompanying three lines of code. This book is different. This book is geared towards actual developers who are looking for not just explanations of security but useful examples showing how to make security work in their applications.

The first section of the book is an introduction to security in general and Java security in particular. The next section looks at the basic technologies and APIs used for encryption, authentication, and authorization. This section starts with a look into cryptography and covers JCA and JCE. It continues with coverage of digital certificates and then looks at controlling access to resources by using policy files. This section ends with a look at SSL and securing XML messages. The final section examines using these technologies in various J2EE applications such as RMI, Servlets, EJBs, and Web Services.

The explanations throughout the book are clear and easy to follow with plenty of code samples to demonstrate how to use the various APIs associated with security in Java programs. The best part of the book is the many code samples provided and the detailed descriptions accompanying these code samples. In addition, the author has provided a group of tools to assist with security development. Over all this is one of the best J2EE security books on the market.

Note: In general, J2SE security is only covered when it involves J2EE issues but then this is "J2EE Security".

If J2EE containers are to be used for commercial web applications, then a built in means of securely encrypting and decrypting traffic is essential. Such a thing should be independent of any specific crypto algorithm, since new ones come into being, and sometimes existing ones are found to be inadequate. We should also be able to handle symmetric and public/private key systems.

Ideally, such capabilities would be as intrinsic to J2EE as, say, Exception handling is to standard java.

Well, is this so? Kumar shows in this book that for the most part, this is indeed so. Numerous code examples covering many aspects like https, Enterprise Java Beans and certificates. He points out one shortcoming; namely that RMI usage is not inherently secure. This was a legacy of when java got started and before it moved into enterprise applications. Still, he does show examples of how to add in security to RMI, though it may not be totally fullproof. In any event, today's J2EE applications have RMI relatively superceded, and the book's attention reflects this.

As a quick note, Kumar describes a 'person-in-the-middle' attack. There is an important, insidious mutation of this, popularly known as 'Phishing'. He never uses this term or explains this variant. Pity, given its multiple recent incarnations (the emails purporting to be from Paypal, eBay, BestBuy...) in mass mailings to millions, and the subsequent broad publicity in the mainstream media.

This book is an excellent compilation of security concepts explained in simple terms and with lots of well illustrative example code. Kumar has even provided benchmarking code to help developer choose appropriate technology for their own applications. Great book to have for security developers and students!

In my opinion, this book is the best Java Security book that is available today. I personally own Java Cryptography (Oreilly), Professional Java Security (Wrox), and Java Security (Oreilly) - and this book blows them all away. The author has created a free security toolkit that is very handy for real world applications. If you need to add any type of security feature to a J2EE application, then this is the book to buy.

First the things that I really liked about the book
- Provides a very good overview along with some fabulous code samples. I am not beginner with Java ..but having code samples often make the task of putting theory to practise a lot easier.
- Really liked the way the author tackles different aspects of Security technology like basic cryptography PKI with Java,SSL

Some wishlists
- Issues surrounding Single Sign On would have been very useful.
- Some design related aspects on how to build in security with at the application design stage apart from focussing on the APIS only..which is also helpful.

Overall, I would recommend this book for developers looking to get a good understanding of security concepts. This book is more suited for beginner to intermediate java developers. This is really a good book if you are looking to learn about security and then hit the ground running.

This is one the best books that I have ever read. The writing is very lucid and the author explains concepts in very clear and easy to understand manner. The utility tools are very, very useful. I have have been using them on a regular basis. The book also has good code snippets, diagrams and screen shots where necessary. But no space filling techniques ever.

The coverage of topics is very good. Security, cannot have one sided view. The author did a good job of pulling together all aspects of securing a Java application (from code access security and class loading to cryptography to securing components to securing webservices) - he covers the whole gamut without getting lost.

Ever since I bought this book, I have been carrying to work everyday. I buy LOT OF computer books, but rarely do I fall in love so much with them. I would put it on the same level as UML Distilled, J2EE Patterns and Bruce Eckel's Java. If you are doing Java Security, this is the one and only book you will ever read. To me, it has been inevitable.

I sincerely thank the author and the publishers for not making this another 1200+ page book. This is about 400+ pages and doesn't put you off with its weight!