Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

Great book. Helped me a lot through my research paper.

This is an introductory text, that is entertainly written. I originally read the first edition of this book. While preparing a recent seminar I found that I wanted to reference it, but then realized that the material was somewhat dated. The second edition is from 2003, which is still 7 years old, but I find that the information is still very useful, the definition of a classic. More than a mere book on firewalls, this is a primer for the entire workings of the Internet Protocols. It has clear explanations of DNS, DHCP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, SSL, FTP and many other protocols without all the nitty gritty details that you'll find in a book like "TCP/IP Illustrated." <http://www.amazon.com/TCP-IP-Illustrated-Vol-Protocols/dp/0201633469>, which I recommend if you need more technical detail. The authors describe the risks associated with the protocols and strategies for protecting your systems. But, they go further, and explain other attacks and how they might circumvent the barriers that a sysadmin might erect. The exposition on Firewalls and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) begins in Part IV. There are specific strategies given for protecting several protocols. No specifics on CISCO PIX, sorry guys, the examples use software generally available on Unix (FreeBSD). But, that's mainly a syntax issue, the principles are the same for the large comercial firewall systems. But, once again, if you need specifics, you'll need to read the manuals. This book will give you the foundation to understand what you read in the manuals. Firewall manuals are dry in comparison and generally lack strategic recommendations. The first appendix does a decent job of explaining public key cryptography. The second appendix is "dated" though in that it attempts to give "links" to other resources. After 7+ years, you can imagine the problems with that. Likewise the bibliography mainly cites texts from the 1990's; although there is one reference from 1872: "Through the Looking Glass", Lewis Carroll. Typical of the entertaining quotes throughout the book, "When I use a word. . .it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less." And perhaps that's a fitting summary of this book's purpose, to familiarize you with the meanings of the "Carrollesque" words associated with Internet Security.

Addison-Wesley in cooperation with William Cheskwick, Steven Bellovin and Aviel Rubin have produced yet another well-researched publication. This book is all about Internet security, firewalls, VPNs and much more, all of which are hot topics and renowned buzzwords within today's IT industry. In the first chapter, the authors express their view on network security and demonstrate the different methods an Administrator can use in order to secure their network(s). This is carried out by categorizing security into Host-Based and Perimeter security. The second and third chapters are approximately 50 pages covering basic protocols, including IPv6, DNS, FTP, SNMP, NTP, RPC-based protocols and a several more like the famous NAT. The chapters are concluded with a summary on wireless security. The next five chapters (chapter 4 to 8 inclusive), analyze various attacks used against networks and server operating systems in an attempt to exploit them. There is a wealth of information concerning hacking, allowing the reader to enter the mind of a hacker in terms of what they think and how they proceed to meet their goal. One complete chapter is dedicated to various password tactics in which one can ensure that a hacker's life is made more difficult should they attempt to break into a few accounts using well-known methods related to password guessing. CHAP, PAP, Radius and PKI are also analyzed. Chapter 9 to 12 are dedicated to Firewalls and VPNs which, in passing, happen to be my favourite chapters. They offer an in-depth analysis of the Firewall concept, packet filtering, application-level filtering and circuit level gateways. It proceeds with information about the filtering services, giving detailed examples on how one could use IPChains to create a simple or complex set of rules to efficiently block/permit packets entering in and out the network. This is perhaps the only downside to this informative book, where IPTables would have been beneficial to include, since people rarely use IPchains these days. Lastly, chapter 12 talks about VPNs, their encryption methods, and considers both their weaknesses and advantages. In addition to this, the book continues with several more chapters covering general questions that may arise for the reader, such as intranet routing, administration security and intrusion detection systems. Towards the end, the authors talk about their personal experiences with people trying to hack into their companies and, as a result, explain the step- by- step process of how they managed to fight them and secure their networks. These pages are simply a goldmine for anyone interested in this area. In summary, I'd say that the book is well worth its money and would suggest it to anyone interested in network security and firewalls. I am certain they won't be disappointed simply because the book has a lot to offer...

First let me start by saying I'm new to firewalls, but have been a computer systems builder for years and configuring Windows operating systems for the past 5 years. I was looking for a primer book.. The book covers fundamentals and the authors give in-depth examples for UNIX systems. About a third of the way through the book it remarked about the Windows 95 and their new NT technology (which has been around since about 2000). i finished reading the book, allot about UNIX and non existent on Microsoft products. Not a total waste of money but I finished the book feeling like i sat down for a dinner and was only served a side salad. Back to Amazon book list for me!

This book is not just about firewalls, although that is its primary focus. Nor does it try to cover the entire field of Internet security, although it does provide a fairly good survey of that field along the way. A fair description would be that it is about building a security strategy around a firewall, which is the practical outcome with which most potential readers should be concerned. The first edition of this book was, for nearly a decade, pretty much the only work on building firewalls. This edition is a nearly complete rewrite, not so much because of the new functionality needed of firewalls, but because system administrators no longer write their own firewall software. In some ways, this has given more attention to the services being protected, reducing the emphasis on firewalls per se. Some readers will undoubtedly consider parts of this book to engage in Microsoft-bashing. I don't see it that way, for reasons that the authors sum up in the introduction, in one of their "security truisms": "Security is a tradeoff with convenience." They do consider Windows hosts on their networks to be insecure (and possibly unsecurable), but that has as much to do with letting users install software on their own machines as it does with the OS itself. Not only do the authors fully intend the implication that there will be different tradeoffs to be made for different situations, but they illustrate this in a number of situations, where they describe implications of tradeoffs that are driven by different end-user needs. The book is quite complete, although the technology changes quickly enough that this will be quite a bit less true by the time a third edition might be written. The only issue that I think deserved more attention was that of multi-homing. Protecting a multihomed network is particularly difficult because extra configuration is needed to identify packet spoofing, and any filtering done by the upstream providers will make life even more difficult. This problem deserves at least more recognition, if not a full treatment of its own. This book is not the ultimate reference on the topic that the first edition was in its time. But it is not possible for any one book to fill that role any more, and if it's no longer the only book, it's still the most important. If you are after that "ultimate reference," your best bet is probably the combination of this book and Zwicky (et. al.), "Building Internet Firewalls".

No problems, good experience.

(I reviewed the manuscript before publication for the publisher, but here I'm speaking for myself.) The first edition of this book became known as the must-have boook about firewalls, and rightly so. It defined how to build a firewall for a couple of generations of Internet security managers. Since that time, firewalls have become ubiquitous for corporate networks, and they're even common in some form for many home networks. In a world where firewalls are conveniently built into network appliances, do we need a book about how to build them? In this case, the answer is clearly "yes," but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. What Cheswick, Bellovin, and Rubin have done is given us a guide to thinking about securing networks, not just building firewalls. In a sense, the importance of the second edition of "Firewalls and Internet Security" has shifted to "Internet Security". The authors provide a way of thinking about the problems of Internet security, not a basic guide to operating firewall products on the market today. It is this way of thinking about Internet security that provides lasting value for the reader as well. The book explains critical features (and problems) of the Internet architecture and its protocols, giving the reader the context to understand how various attacks work and how they can be prevented. By emphasizing fundamentals, the authors provide valuable insight for the future as well as for today. Yet the book is relentlessly pragmatic--it is focused on securing real systems on real networks. It's also fun to read. The writing is both witty and wise, and it doesn't take an expert to understand it. However, the experienced reader will still find much insight and will undoubtedly learn a few things along the way.

(I had the pleasure of doing a pre-release review for the publisher. My wife and I enjoyed the meal they paid for. However this posting is done on my own.) When the book first came out, it defined an Internet specialty. The Internet is now a bigger, and sometimes more dangerous, place. "Firewalls and Internet Security" won't guarantee your network's safety, but failure ignorance of the material in this book will guarantee its compromise. The book provides an extraordinary combination of theory and practise, framework and procedure, technology and operations. The depth of the authors' knowledge and the pragmatic tone throughout the book make it unrivaled. The writing is unusually accessible; it neither suffers from excessively obscure technical language nor does it pander to the reader with facile, superficial discussion. The humor is nicely spaced, and martini-dry. A section on protocols is not simply one-more cursory review of what they do. Instead it provides a unique and thorough analysis of their security considerations, so that designers and network administrators can understand the strengths and weakness of the Internet's core technologies. If you run a network and care about its safety, you won't be able to do your job well enough without reading this book. If you develop Internet technology, then remember that security is almost always impossible to design-in later. If you haven't read this book, you are not likely to get the design right. /d

Este libro es una joya básica de seguridad en redes. Eso sí, el inglés no es muy accesible. Es necesario un nivel medio-alto en mi opinión.