Good books you could use instead. (Score 5, Interesting)

I purchased all of the Hack Attacks books when they were in the first edition, and was extreemly dissapointed. The second edition promised to be better and fix all the errors and dependencies on pages of code listings, so I got Hack Attacks Revealed only. This time HAR promised all the Windows and Unix hacks you could shake a stick at.

Well, the windows stuff is pretty lame. It has lots of pages dedicated to it, but mostly describes things that were old before they started compiling (not writing) the book.

The linux part is laughable. Lists of cracks that are worthless on any machine that was installed in the last five years. Does anyone run WU-FTPD from before 1995 now? I don't think so. Why waste the space? Besides, we want to understand how to hack/crack systems, not how to run an outdated exploit. If he took time to teach how an exploit worked, that'd be one thing, but as is this book is really really lame on the unix side. THe windows readers probably don't care, since they'd best be able to be script kiddies anyway.

My recomendations are as follows:

Hacking Linux Exposed second edition for all thing Linux/Unix. Can't be beat.

Hacking Windows 2000 Exposed. Do not get Hacking exposed, it tries to cover everything, and does them all poorly. The Windows 2000 edition is the only one you should get if you need windows information. (Applies to older and XP also in many cases.)

Hack Proofing your Network, edited by Blue Boar. Covers many of the same topics of the two books above, but by different experts. Multiple voices is good...

Any of the SANS books put out by NewRiders, most of which are written in part by Steven Northcutt. Lots of IDS and security titles by that publisher.

And you can't go wrong with Building Internet Firewalls, now out in a second edition.

I'd recommend any of the books above - they are accurate, informaaive, and either up to date or timeless. Any of these is worth 500 copies of Hack Attacks Revealed.