Rating: 
Summary: best book for novice and reference
Review: I have found the book to be useful as a checklist. It has also been helpful as an orientation tool for summer interns.I'm looking forward to the second edition. I expect my employer (a major electric utility) will buy several copies.
Rating:
Summary: Very thorough, very readable book
Review: I love this book; it covers the subject thoroughly and in a very
readable way. I might be biased, since I know the author, but
when I recommend it to friends, they all tell me they like it too.
The friends that don't buy their own copy keep borrowing
mine from me (it's out on loan even now). I know a fair amount about security issues, and I thought
about writing a book like this some years ago (I even spent
a few months on preparatory research), but Toxen has done a
far better job on the topic than I ever could have.
Rating:
Summary: bible in security
Review: I'm only half way through the book but I feel the need to let other people know what a good book this is. I've been playing with linux for a couple of years and I decided to get serious about it so I bought this book to read over my holidays... Now I can't stop reading and all I want is to go back home and fill all those security holes I must have on my firewall! This book is simple going at start and gets more in depth as you go along. It's a great referance book if you just want to patch the security holes you have for a particular program (sendmail, samba, dns, ...). Best of all is if you read the book description. It's all of that and more. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much help to new or home network admins
Review: In the introduction, the author wrote "There are many useful details here, both for the person with a single Linux box at home and for those supporting multinational corporations...". Don't be fooled! On passwords, he urges you to "...convert to shadowed MD5..." because "DES only uses 4096 different salt possibilities; MD5 uses 2**128." After screening Contents from beginning to end and following relevant keywords in the index, I simply could not find any reference to how that could be done. In another chapter, as if spending 5 lines telling you how to disable a startup script by changing the first character of the name of a link in rc3.d from "S" to "s" is not enough, he has to actually show you the command line necessary: "mv S08iptables s08iptables". The rest of the chapter is spent on explaining the firewall rules found on the accompanying CD. You won't understand them unless you have read books similar to Ziegler's Linux Firewalls. What's my point? There are lots of unnecessary details in a book at this level but you'll often not find what's really needed. Having said that, the book does however give some ideas on what can be done to harden your linux system. But if you want to implement any of them, you'll have to look elsewhere for instructions. 'Hacking Linux Exposed' is a much better book on securing your linux box.
Rating:
Summary: Not much help to new or home network admins
Review: In the introduction, the author wrote "There are many useful details here, both for the person with a single Linux box at home and for those supporting multinational corporations...". Don't be fooled! On passwords, he urges you to "...convert to shadowed MD5..." because "DES only uses 4096 different salt possibilities; MD5 uses 2**128." After screening Contents from beginning to end and following relevant keywords in the index, I simply could not find any reference to how that could be done. In another chapter, as if spending 5 lines telling you how to disable a startup script by changing the first character of the name of a link in rc3.d from "S" to "s" is not enough, he has to actually show you the command line necessary: "mv S08iptables s08iptables". The rest of the chapter is spent on explaining the firewall rules found on the accompanying CD. You won't understand them unless you have read books similar to Ziegler's Linux Firewalls. What's my point? There are lots of unnecessary details in a book at this level but you'll often not find what's really needed. Having said that, the book does however give some ideas on what can be done to harden your linux system. But if you want to implement any of them, you'll have to look elsewhere for instructions. 'Hacking Linux Exposed' is a much better book on securing your linux box.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful for newbies and experts alike
Review: In this book, Bob Toxen uses real-world examples (hence the title), clear writing, and even humor to guide SysAdmins through the "twisty little passages" of Linux security techniques. Rather than confounding the reader with page after page of arcane code, Toxen talks you through such tasks as constructing firewalls with IP Chains or IP Tables. Both the home user with one desktop system and the harried SysAdmin in charge of a e-commerce Website will find practical uses for this book. It also contains a CD with useful programs on it. Well worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Helpful for newbies and experts alike
Review: In this book, Bob Toxen uses real-world examples (hence the title), clear writing, and even humor to guide SysAdmins through the "twisty little passages" of Linux security techniques. Rather than confounding the reader with page after page of arcane code, Toxen talks you through such tasks as constructing firewalls with IP Chains or IP Tables. Both the home user with one desktop system and the harried SysAdmin in charge of a e-commerce Website will find practical uses for this book. It also contains a CD with useful programs on it. Well worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Still useful for newbies and sysadmins alike!
Review: In this second edition of his excellent and helpful guide to Linux security, Toxen once again avoids the trap of padding the book with page after page of arcane code. Sections on constructing firewalls with IP Chains or IP Tables have been updated. The extensive index of resources in the back has also been updated, and new sections have been added in the text as well. It's still a great practical guide, and also (as in the first edition) contains a CD with useful programs on it. Still worth your money!
Rating:
Summary: Cover your backside against the real world
Review: It's simple, I don't have time to take care of all the different avenues of approach that some geek will use to try to punch a hole in my security. Toxen covers both the mechanical and psychological aspects of security. This manual allows me to focus on aspects of linux development while Toxen takes care those little details I would never have uncovered before getting hacked to pieces. Until the computer thinks for itself, I will let Bob take care of security.
Rating:
Summary: Been hacked? It ain't nice. Read Bob Toxen first...
Review: My server was hacked. I was suffering from procrastination and had left a well known hole wide open. It was a good lesson. I can't emphasize enough how exactly this book fit my needs - I wanted to be able to get to a "safe enough" place very quickly, and then learn more in order to start overengineering my security picture over time. This book is not only an excellent practical guide, but is also a very readable didactic tool. I am finally able to satisfy my intellectual curiosity regarding security and have confidence that I've made life much harder for the next hacker. If you want a complete picture, and you want it quickly, this is an excellent book.
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