The Oracle Hacker's Handbook: Hacking and Defending Oracle [Paperback]

David Litchfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2007

David Litchfield has devoted years to relentlessly searching out the flaws in the Oracle database system and creating defenses against them. Now he offers you his complete arsenal to assess and defend your own Oracle systems. This in-depth guide explores every technique and tool used by black hat hackers to invade and compromise Oracle and then it shows you how to find the weak spots and defend them. Without that knowledge, you have little chance of keeping your databases truly secure.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Knowledge is power, and the power can be yours

While Oracle continues to improve the security features of its product, it still has a long way to go. David Litchfield has devoted years to relentlessly searching out the flaws in this ubiquitous database system and creating defenses against them. Now he offers you his complete arsenal to assess and defend your own Oracle systems.

Like The Shellcoder's Handbook and The Database Hacker's Handbook, this in-depth guide explores every technique and tool used by black hat hackers to invade and compromise Oracle. It shows you how to find the weak spots and defend them. Without that knowledge, you have little chance of keeping your databases truly secure.

• Discover how to deal with the security flaws revealed in the Oracle RDBMS
• Explore some never-before-published forays into Oracle security holes and learn to defend them from attack
• Learn why independent security assessments are not necessarily a guarantee of safety
• See how Oracle 10g Release 2 has improved its security features and where the flaws remain
• Take advantage of extensive and valuable code downloads on the companion Web site at www.wiley.com/go/ohh

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/go/ohh

About the Author

DAVID LITCHFIELD is founder and chief research scientist of NGSSoftware Ltd., a UK-based security solutions provider. He has been recognized as the world's premier expert on Oracle database security, and is the designer of NGSSQuirreL, a powerful tool for identifying and assessing database vulnerability. David is a regular conference speaker and has lectured government agencies on security topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470080221
• ISBN-13: 978-0470080221
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oracle Hacker's Handbook review, January 25, 2007

By 

X. Zhang - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oracle Hacker's Handbook: Hacking and Defending Oracle (Paperback)

The Oracle Hacker's Handbook (OHH) is a collection of techniques that could be used by an attacker to gain unauthorised access to an Oracle database server upto and including 10gR2. Most of these techniques are currently not public, so OHH is both new knowledge for an attacker and vital warning to those responsible for securing Oracle servers.
In a nutshell the new attacks include how to gain the version number remotely, brute force usernames, gain passwords/hashes from the OS, attack the listener, escalate privilege internally through PLSQL Packages and Triggers both directly and indirectly as well as defeating VPD. These attacks are illustrated both directly and through application server. By using these techniques and by accessing the Oracle files directly through the OS an attacker would be able to gain DBA privileges on most secured servers. Additionally using the code examples included an attacker could gain password hashes and then the actual DBA clear text password from the network using the password decryption code included. This will work even with complex quoted passwords.
This is the most effective public analysis of security vulnerabilities in Oracle products so far.
OHH is a technical book and not really an introduction to the subject though it could be picked up reasonably quickly as the text avoids unnecessary jargon.
The book could be enhanced by including more on defense strategies, such as, how to prepare and respond to an attack where the attacker has gained the clear text DBA password.
OHH has a free download site for pre-written proof of concept code which will helps avoid unnecessary typing. From a general readability point of view the book is concise and to the point. The sections are logically laid out and the examples have worked when tested. I would recommend those involved in Oracle security to read this book as soon as they can.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is like a knife... you can cut the bread or you can kill with it..., February 10, 2007

By 

Lukasz Feldman (Warszawa, Poland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oracle Hacker's Handbook: Hacking and Defending Oracle (Paperback)

When I have started with this book I was amazed and afraid both. By this book all those tricks of SQL injections in Oracle has started to be a public knowledge. So this book is like a knife... you can cut the bread or you can kill with it. :) But let's be honest. It is always better to know especially when you are DBA, because of you are always far behind the attackers who probably spend their lifetime on browsing the code for security flaws. For that reason everyone how is responsible for practical Oracle security should read this book and learn how to defend. I belive that this book will grow in the future and will provide more & more examples. That is the game we use to play. New releases, new bugs, new flaws, new workarounds and finally some vendor final fixes. That is how oracle security process cycle should work. It is worth to be mentioned that in terms of quality, David Litchfield has started completly new period in cycle.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Reading, August 10, 2007

By 

Edgar A. Gomez Hernandez "egomez" (Mexico City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Oracle Hacker's Handbook: Hacking and Defending Oracle (Paperback)

After reading it I thought "...well what were you expecting?, the keys to the house of Larry Ellison also?". It has interesting information for a non hacker like me, but much of the security problems are in the Oracle source code, and therefore there is not much I can do about it. Yes, now I know what not to do in the new code I program. You have to be a programmer to make sense of the code listings and have seen like dumps of snifers before. The language used by the author is clear for me.

Hope this helps