Gray Hat Hacking The Ethical Hackers Handbook, 3rd Edition [Paperback]

Critical reviews are my least favorite aspect of my Amazon experience, but I believe readers expect me to be honest with them. Gray Hat Hacking, 3rd Ed (GHH3E) has a lot of potential, but it needs a reboot and a ruthless editor. I read and reviewed the original edition 6 1/2 years ago but skipped the 2nd Ed. This 3rd Ed (published in Jan 2011) features several exceptionally talented authors (such as Allen Harper and Chris Eagle), so my expectations remained high. Unfortunately, after finishing the book I had collected a pile of notes that I will try to transform into constructive commentary for a 4th Ed, which I would enjoy seeing!

The GHH team needs to revisit first principles and decide just what it is trying to accomplish. I recommend the authors ditch the first three chapters, or radically concentrate on the ethical disclosure debate. The rest of the so-called legal material reads like a brain dump, almost like a blog post that never finishes. In some cases the authors of the sections stray from their topic, such as the "Vendors Paying More Attention" section on p 71. Cut it out! Be ruthless! Similarly, the section on social engineering (ch 4) needs a major overhaul if it is to survive into the next edition.

Other chapters have issues. Ch 7, on BackTrack, is basically just installation instructions. Ch 17 only devotes 17 pages to Web app security; either remove it or add substantially to the material. Ch 18 is supposed to be about VoIP, but it's mainly a discussion of the VoIPER tool. Ch 19 is supposed to be about SCADA attacks, but it's really just talk of the Autodafe and TFTPFuzz tools. In ch 28, the author doesn't explain how Nepenthes acquires a malware sample, besides letting it run on a cable network for a few weeks. Having deployed Nepenthes I know how it works, but I expect a reader who wants to learn about Nepenthes would want to understand it based on the text he or she bought.

The organization of the book needs an overhaul too. It seems to promote a progress of less complicated to more complicated, but at this point it needs to be reconstructed in a fourth edition. Why does Part IV, Vulnerability Analysis, follow Part III, Exploiting? Doesn't exploiting require doing vulnerability analysis? In other cases, material seems redundant. Ch 28 and ch 29 cover similar material but are likely by different authors; I recommend combining them and dropping duplicate material.

For me, some of the chapters are on the right track and could lead the fourth edition to a more solid foundation. I recommend expanding Ch 16 (featuring nice coverage of a .pdf exploit). I would really like to see a chapter or more on Javascript for malicious purposes. Overall, I think the GHH team could be very successful if they looked for topics not covered in other books, and addressed those issues in GHH4E. Why try to summarize coding in C, assembly, Python, etc., into a chapter, when other subjects (like Javascript for the hacker/analyst) aren't really explained in any other book? Similarly, it's probably not necessary to cover social engineering, BackTrack, or Metasploit now that individual books are devoted to those concepts.

There's a lot of good technical information in GHH3E, but I don't see myself recommending it to analysts in a CIRT or similar group. I think if the book rebooted with a focus on specialized material not found elsewhere, leveraging the talents of people like Harper and Allen, GHH4E would be THE book to buy on those topics.

I had this as a supporting text along with "legend" (William Stallings) "Internetworking with TCP/IP" text for a graduate course on Advanced Networks and Network Security.

I agree with many of the reviews that several of the chapters needed some more significant editorial review just to deliver topics in a clear and concise manner. That said I also completely disagree with the "for white hats by white hats" characterization. The book offers reasonably good overviews of numerous topics plus realistic examples of how most penetration attempts unfold. It also offers an appropriate discussion without "rendering judgement" about the nuances and conflicting interests surrounding defect disclosures and/or remediation (patches).

While versions constantly evolve, GHH would do well to include/add/expand on Linux "pen testing" distributions (BackTrack, Network Security Toolkit, security tools distribution, etc.), but not really spend much time on the mundane (installing, Live images, etc.) and more on which tools prove the most effective (The powers Metasploit can unleash should scare just about anyone!).

I also find it somewhat surprising with the pervasiveness of malware that only two chapters of the book focus on malware. Likewise I find it amazing that the book has a "one-chapter 'chat' on programming" (so often poor code exposes/provides the exploitation vector), but doesn't even mention CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration), etc. except as a footnote/reference.

As always the "Kindle edition" of a book leaves much to desire (especially the PC/Tablet "version" of the reader software). Someday someone at Amazon will look at an well-designed Adobe PDF and say, "Oh! I get it."

SenseiC bows out.

Let me start by saying that my background is in enterprise configuration, system configuration and trouble-shooting, and information security policy. With that said I would heartily recommend that anyone working in the IT field would benefit from the lessons and skills which can be learned from this epitome of concise writing. Thank you for a wonderful read full of things which can never be learned to well!