Customer Reviews

Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense

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

 

 

So you heard all this hype on Web Hacking, and want to know more about this matter.

Well, if you think about the web as an e-commerce platform, then just Buy 'Web Security, Privacy & Commerce' by Garfinkel and Spafford, an excellent and classic book.

Are you interested in 'pure hacking'? I mean 'perl scripts', cross site and traversal attacks, hackers jargon, and all the related issues..... then buy 'Hacking Web Applications Exposed' by Scambray and Shema. Excellent book too, and excellent authors. But beware, it is not for newbies. You MUST have a lot of background to fully understand the attacks.

Now, what about an easier generic book, covering the same issues as the others but in a step by step and kinder way.? A book to start from zero, but leading to understand all the currently related themes. Well, if this is what you want, then 'Web Hacking' is your book. It covers all that need to be covered in this area. In an easy and well structured way. The reading is very light and the authors 'break down' of the matter, makes the contents very intuitive.

The book is structured into four main sections (covering the same areas as the previously referred books) :

** The E-commerce Playground
** URLs Unraveled
** How Do They Do It?
** Advanced Web Kung Fu

It includes also, several interesting appendixes (specially useful the 'cheat sheet' appendix).

A lot of simple case studies (of the kind 'Bob and Alice') are presented as well as some more technical analyses (Code Red, Nimda etc.)

If I were to select a book as a reference for a first course on web security, 'Web Hacking' would be my choise. Definitively.

This book has a wealth of information on the subject of Web Hacking. As an administrator responsible for the well-being of various web servers, it is important for me to keep up with the vulnerabilities and know the tactics of crackers, and this book filled me in with more than enough knowledge.

The book starts out with good introduction on the topic of web languages, and leads you to various topics such as finding and exploiting buffer overflows. There is a _lot_ of ground covered in this book including databases, cracking tools, SQL code injection, countermeasures, etc.

If you are responsible for any host sitting on the internet, this is your bible.

Web Hacking, Attacks and Defense by Stuart McClure, Saumil Shah and Shreeraj Shah is an excellent introductory level book to the world of web hacking. If you are a seasoned professional you will also enjoy having this book in your collection, as it is an excellent resource book.

Ever wonder how anyone can enter a web site and see more than what's presented? With a clear understanding of the protocols, web languages, an understanding of the processes behind e commerce and a bit of historical knowledge you too can hack a web site, and wind up on the FBI's most wanted list. But by the same token, a little bit of knowledge is a powerful thing, with the information presented here you can easily get started on the road to keeping the hackers out, and damage to a minimum if they do get in.

The chapters are clearly laid out, and include code with explanations of the weaknesses, referrals to more in depth study, precautionary measures you can take to help secure your site and a look at the various tools available to harden your site.

IIS and Apache are reviewed, along with Oracle and SQL Server to show some of the more popular Web Servers and Databases, how they work, are exploited and ways to harden them against attack. The protocols used by the web, web programming languages, and an explanation of how a browser interprets commands are graphically laid out with examples presented. It would be hard to come away from this book with out an understanding of the concepts, as they are so clearly defined.

Everything from setting a common understanding of terms to basic E Commerce concepts to unraveling Code Red and a truly unique presentation of IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) is presented and well worth the time it takes to read.

Enjoy!

During the last several years we have seen a sharp rise in the number of methods employed to hack into computer systems worldwide. The frequency of such attacks is alarming and the consequences are staggering. Clever minds, basic computer and programming skills, and knowledge of system exploits coupled with the intent to cause harm of one kind or another is a hard combination to beat.

Stuart McClure, Saumil Shah, and Shreeraj Shah have written Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense to provide solid insight into the very strategies involved to successfully hack into vulnerable computer systems. This book features extensive coverage of popular and lesser known exploits that allows successful hacking to take place. Readers will read up on them, they can actually challenge them - hopefully against their own systems, and they can prepare their own strategies to counter possible future hacking attempts against their own systems.

I was truly amazed as I read one system exploit after another - it seemed so easy for people to go hacking these days. Case studies were intriguing - Website defacement, intercepting and deleting e-mail messages, determining passwords, stealing identities, shopping cart shoplifting, credit card fraud, and more. I easily concluded that just about anyone with basic programming skills could have a serious go at hacking into a computer system if armed with the information provided in this book.

The authors walk readers through actual hacking processes using programming code lines, screen shots, graphical diagram analysis, and they discuss in plain English how hacking attempts and other forms of mischief takes place. In short - readers are put in the hacker's seat and shown how to do it. Readers are also introduced to a number of popular hacking tools used to apply the hacking craft - username and password crackers, Web proxies, cookie programs, and other tools used to insert and extract useful information.

The intention of the book is clear - to create serious awareness of hacking threats and to offer readers - individuals, IT department professionals, Web developers, business leaders, and other concerned parties, the information they need to adequately safeguard their systems and client data. They will learn how various servers, server software, and program languages work and how best to deploy them for optimum security. Although no computer system may be 100% hack-proof, taking serious precautions and putting into use the countermeasures and advice provided in this book will reduce the likelihood of major intrusion attempts.

Although the contents of this book appears overwhelming at times, readers should take heart in knowing that they are learning about the serious nature of hacking and criminal activity associated with it. Some hackers are people with easily obtained computer tools who are out to prove their skills while others want to steal or exact revenge. Regardless of their skill levels and intentions, they pose serious threats to a lot of people. The content of this book is essential reading. There's much to be gained by reading and applying it to current Web communication and commerce strategies. It's highly recommended.

Web services infrastructure for electronic commerce. So hard to built,
even harder to secure. With this great book, it is sooo easy to
subvert, destroy, corrupt and otherwise blast it to really small
pieces. Rival the glory of Mr Lamo with just the book and the web
browser!

Humor aside, the new book is a valuable resource for security
professionals. As other awesome books written by the Foundstone folks,
it provides the wealth of often exclusive information on the new and
dangerous security domain - web application and services hacking.

Amazingly, I believe the book will also help web developers to
understand the implication of their actions and design decisions. It
is indeed hard to write a book that appeals to both "in-the-know"
crowd and more general populace, but Stuart McClure team managed to
succeed at that.

An important advantage of this book is the detailed review of modern
web technologies. From HTML and XML feature summary to web application

architectures the book covers many web commerce and web services
components on front end, back end and middle tier. Moreover, security
implication are emphasized for every outlined feature and technology.

Starting from Java and HTML primers, the book unfolds its exciting
story all the way to SQL injection and IDS evasion via Unicode and
SSL. The detailed coverage of web reconnaissance techniques such as
URL and page headers fingerprinting and site linkage analysis is
provided. Another cool information gathering techniques is eliciting
error messages from back end web application for their identification
and penetration. Truncated URLs, invalid resource requests and
parameter tampering are have a chance to produce an elusive and
informational message from the applications and databases.

Case studies, while reminiscent of bad comic books (such as the one
about an bad Russian hacker, Boris), do serve to illustrate the web
hacking concepts and are quite informational.

Web defacers and ID thieves will also pick up a lesson or two from the
authors. Several techniques for subverting web application into
uploading your own content and stealing access credentials (such as
cookies) are covered in the book, often with the excruciating level of
detail.

Every self-respecting web hacker should be able to keep up with their
adversaries by reading their email. Several tricks for hacking web
mail systems are also shared by the authors.

Overall, my impression is that the book is not as brilliantly written
as previous Foundstone titles. However, this is understandable since
it is very hard to beat such masterpieces as "Incident Response" and
"Hacking Exposed". It is a definite "must get!" While providing many
defense methods and "best practice" designs, the book is stronger on
the attack side.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA is a Senior
Security Analyst with a major information security company. His areas
of infosec expertise include intrusion detection, UNIX security,
honeypots, etc. In his spare time he maintains his security portal

Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense is quite similar to `Hacking Exposed Web Applications' by Joel Scambray & Mike Shema.

Both Hacking Exposed Web Applications and Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense will clearly open one's eyes to the risks of web hacking. Forgetting for a minute the myriad vulnerabilities that effect many software products (including Windows, Apache, ColdFusion, and more), both books show how poorly written software, and misconfigured web servers make the penetration of web servers child's play.

Both books provide step-by-step instructions in a easy to read style for hardening web servers against attack. For those that have read previous and are comfortable with books in the Hacking Exposed serious, Hacking Exposed Web Applications uses the same easy to read and well organized style. Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense has almost the same amount of content, but is written in a slightly more technical manner.

Both books clearly explain how hackers gather information, acquire targets, gain control, and afterwards cover their track. Anyone interested in ensuring their web servers are secured should definitely read these books.

Both books have a lot of value even for those who are not so security conscious. For those with an interest in security, one's eyes will be open to the myriad places where vulnerabilities lie, from software, to scripts, mark-up files, and more. Anyone concerned with web server security should definitely read these books, or at least ensure their system administrators do.

Although this book's primary purpose is to explain how to defend against web hacking, it's also one of the most thorough descriptions of how web servers, applications servers and database servers work. Moreover, it's so well written and engrossing that it is hard to put down - I read it in a weekend.

My role regarding security is more process-oriented, although I have a fairly deep knowledge of the technical aspects. I, like many others, assumed that HTTP (port 80 services) poses nominal security exposures. Before I was finished with the first chapter that erroneous belief had been completely destroyed. What make the magnitude of the risks and exposures of seemingly secure aspects of web systems behind a firewall so real is the way you're walked through how to breach backend systems via HTTP. In addition, each language and scripting environment commonly used in web systems are examined for security implications. Seeing these was the second major surprise in the book.

As the book progresses the technical detail gets deeper, and the ways systems can be breached get more sophisticated. Each of the exposures that the book highlights can be independently verified by following the procedures given on test systems (of someone else's system if you have a malicious bent).

Even if security isn't your major concern you'll greatly benefit from this book because the authors completely explain how web systems work at a deep technical level, and do clearly. If you are involved in security you'll find exposures and risks in places you never suspected, such in intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and even comments in scripts and mark-up files.

This book can be read and understood by moderately technical readers, such as IT managers, and should be read by developers who want to harden their code, auditors and security assessment team members, and systems and network administrators who need to plug the holes left by product defaults or are targets for intruders.

I was disappointed in what this book had to offer. I was hoping for a full text of web exploits and how to defend against them. Instead the first half of the book covers information such as languages of the web and how to read URL's. It is as if the author assumes the reader has no knowledge of web technologies and systems. I am finding this to be a common problem with network security books, they are written for readers with little real knowledge of networking, let alone network security. Surly they sell many copies because "hacking" is in the title though.
This is not the book for the serious IT professional, you would do better to look elsewhere for security insights.

"Web Hacking: Attacks and Defenses" is a book the shows how, and in some cases why, web platforms are compromised. In addition to explaining common methods to victimize web systems, the authors provide a basic background on web technologies. Combined with integrated case studies, "Web Hacking" stands as a strong introduction to the art and science of attacking web platforms.

"Web Hacking" offered several appealing aspects, and several disappointing drawbacks. On the positive side, I found the numerous tables very helpful. These included lists of ISAPI filters, MS SQL stored procedures, form elements, and other web technology items. The authors also share their methodology for assessing web platforms, simulating their checklists and evaluation matrices. The appendices were appreciated as well.

On the negative side, "Web Hacking" suffers from subtle typos. This can be beyond the authors' control, but annoying nevertheless. For example, 0x11111111 is 255 decimal, not 256 as shown on page 371. More troubling was the authors' repeated criticisms of network based intrusion detection systems. While NIDS are not perfect, they do serve purposes the authors don't seem to appreciate. Encryption may prevent NIDS from collecting the content of a session, but what if we only care to collect transactional data summarizing that session?

Incidentally, Barnaby Jack's work on the buffer overflow section (chapter 14) was worth reading. Overall, "Web Hacking" belongs on your bookshelf, although many may find "Hacking Exposed: Web Applications" to be more comprehensive.

This no-fluff book weighs in at just under 500 pages that are guaranteed to quell any feelings of complacency you may have about the safety of your website. One of the gnawing concerns I live with is that my website will be hacked. I can't say this book made me feel better about that fear, but it brought to light a number of things to talk to my people about. Using real-world examples, it explains the kinds of openings hackers look for, and the ways they exploit those openings to do their damage. In some senses, this book is not just a warning, it is also a how-to for Internet security.

The general premise of this book is that no one is safe from attack, and if you're not already a victim, that's only a matter your good luck so far. Read this book. Study it carefully. Keep it on the nearest, most convenient bookshelf. New kinds of attacks are being developed all the time. But this book will prepare you for what's out there so far, and give you some insight into the kinds of things to watch for in the future.