Network Intrusion Detection: An Analysts' Handbook [Paperback]

Stephen Northcutt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735708681 | ISBN-13: 978-0735708686 | Publication Date: August 15, 1999 | Edition: 1st

PLEASE PROVIDE COURSE INFORMATIONWritten to be both a training aid and a technical reference for intrusion detection analysts and students, Northcutt's book contains unparalleled, practical experience that can't be found anywhere else. With detailed explanations and illustrative examples from his own career, Northcutt covers the topic completely, from detect evaluation, analysis, and situation handling, through the theories involved in understanding hackers, intelligence gathering, and coordinated attacks, to an arsenal of preventive and aggressive security measures. Ideal for the serious security student, Network Intrusion Detection: An Analyst's Handbook is the tool that puts you in full control of your network's security.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Network Intrusion Detection: An Analyst's Handbook explains some of what you need to know to prevent unauthorized accesses of your networked computers and minimize the damage intruders can do. It emphasizes, though, proven techniques for recognizing attacks while they're underway. Without placing too much emphasis (or blame, for that matter) on any operating system or other software product, author Stephen Northcutt explains ways to spot suspicious behavior and deal with it, both automatically and manually.

The case studies, large and small, are the best part of this book. Northcutt opens with a technical brief on the methods used by Kevin Mitnick in his attack upon Tsutomu Shimomura's server. In documenting that famous attack, Northcutt explains SYN flooding and TCP hijacking with clarity and detail: readers get a precise picture of what Mitnick did and how Shimomura's machine reacted. A former security expert for the U.S. Department of Defense, Northcutt explains how a system administrator would detect and defeat an attack like Mitnick's. Another case study appears later in the book, this one in the form of a line-by-line analysis of a .history file that shows how a bad guy with root privileges attacked a Domain Name System (DNS) server. Reading Northcutt's analysis is like reading a play-by-play account of a football match. Network Intrusion Detection is one of the most readable technical books around. --David Wall

Topics covered: Catching intruders in the act by recognizing the characteristics of various kinds of attacks in real time, both manually and with the use of filters and other automated systems; techniques for identifying security weaknesses and minimizing false security alarms.

From the Inside Flap

"The 2nd Edition of Network Intrusion Detection fortifies its position as the primary manual for front-line intrusion detectors. One of this book's major achievements is that it succinctly and thoroughly addresses the training needs of personnel operating sophisticated Intrusion Detection Systems. No other published volume gives hands-on analysts the tools to separate false positives from true alerts on a daily basis.

Buy this book if your job involves intrusion detection, incident response, or computer security in general. You will walk away wiser and better prepared to face the wiles of the Internet, and your company will benefit from an improved security posture."

-Captain Richard Bejtlich, Intrusion Technician, Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team

"This is the ONLY book addressing effective network intrusion detection and response. The content comes directly from daily "front-line" experience, and the material represents the best consensus from a variety of expert practitioners. There is not a resource out there which has more relevant than this book. I am rewriting my filters today based on what I have read." -Andy Johnston, Distributed System Manager, Office of Information Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

"I love the writing style. Conversational with just enough humor to keep it interesting. Points like "seasoned administrators can skip this chapter" and "this point is important to understanding the rest of the chapter" are great guides to helping the reader work their way through the material."

-Chris Brenton, Senior Research Engineer at Dartmouth's Institute for Security Technology Studies

"I was particularly impressed by the suggested presentations to managers for laying out a cost-benefit analysis of the overall benefits of purchasing a host-based intrusion detection system and appropriate training for analysts. Intrusion Detection Systems can be extremely costly and may seem like "money pits" to people who do not understand the need for monitoring networks. This book would be extremely useful for anyone wishing to approach corporate managers on both of these issues."

-John Furlong, Security Consultant --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 267 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Pub; 1st edition (August 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735708681
• ISBN-13: 978-0735708686
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,897,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best IDS book for hands-on implementors, January 29, 2000

By 

J. G. Heiser (Sunninghill, Berks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Network Intrusion Detection: An Analysts' Handbook (Paperback)

Of the 3 available intrusion detection texts, this is by far the best for someone who actually wants to do intrusion detection. It is breezy & chatty--like sitting down with a good friend (unfortunately, one who doesn't organize his thoughts very well and whose editor was apparently in a hurry).

This is a bits & bytes book; it assumes some knowledge of TCP/IP and security concepts, but it accomodates non-specialists. It is useful for readers of varying levels of familiarity with Internet protocols. Northcutt provides an excellent introduction to the specific mechanisms of the most common network attacks, and offers the most cogent description I've seen of the [purported] Mitnick attack on Shimomura.

I especially enjoyed his efforts at providing neophyte intrusion analysts with political advice. His insight that host-based IDS is technically superior to network-based, but politically impractical is a gem of organizational wisdom.

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable, intelligent, down-to-earth., October 1, 1999

By 

Greg Broiles (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Network Intrusion Detection: An Analysts' Handbook (Paperback)

Network Intrusion Detection is rare among technical books - it's comprehensive, accurate, interesting, and intelligent; it's got none of the "filler" chapters which seem to be prevalent in the genre. It's well worth the relatively small investment of time and money required to read and understand it.

The author has "been there, done that" which gives him a perspective unavailable to professional technical authors who write about Java one month, CORBA the next, will be assigned a firewall book next.

This book will be useful to people responsible for intrusion detection, people who manage them, and to people who need to understand attack techniques and the forensic tools needed to detect and document them. Highly recommended; it's in the same class as Cheswick & Bellovin's classic _Firewalls and Internet Security_.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Northcutt hits the ball out of the park!, August 25, 1999

By 

Richard Bejtlich "TaoSecurity" (Metro Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Network Intrusion Detection: An Analysts' Handbook (Paperback)

I am the chief of a 15 person intrusion detection team, with responsibility for centralized, around-the-clock monitoring of a global network. I believe I have enough experience to claim Steven's book is first rate and sorely needed. His reconstruction of a Christmas Eve system compromise and his analysis of Kevin Mitnick's TCP hijack of Tsutomu Shimomura's host are excellent case studies. His coverage of reset scans and other non-standard reconnaissance techniques prompted me to scour my traffic for the same events and write a paper on my findings. I do not agree with some of his conclusions on SYN ACK and reset scans, but his work made me investigate those topics. While I would have preferred slightly more explanation and examples of network traces (who wouldn't?), I hope this book begins a trend of sharing (sanitized) packet-level incident details within the IDS community. I recommended Steven's book to every analyst on my flight and every person in my unit, and I plan to build in-house training around it. I guarantee every person with a technical leaning and a position on the front line of intrusion detection will appreciate Steven's book. See you at SANS Network Security 99