Product: 1597494860

After reading this you won’t be able to go right out and compromise an operating system kernel (or know how to protect one). You will however have a decent understanding of the sorts of weaknesses present in an operating system kernel, an appreciation of what it takes to compromise or secure them, and know the steps involved. Using this book to guide your study and practice, you should be able to hone your skills well.

The authors provide an overview of the various types of vulnerabilities found in operating system kernels, and the general steps involved in a mounting a successful kernel attack. They also discuss three major operating systems (Linux, Windows, MacOS X) and the specifics of how to examine them for, and exploit, vulnerabilities. Tips and source code are present throughout, as well as a discussion of the tools required and how to use them. A case study is also given. Overall I found everything very informative and generally understandable. I think this is a good resource for those needing to learn about kernel expatiation.

The discussion of necessity has limitations. There are too many operating system kernels and processors to discuss them all in detail. The focus is on Intel processors. The authors discuss operating system kernels that they think will be the most applicable, or give the reader the most transferable knowledge. The MacOS X chapter focuses on 10.5 (Leopard), and the Windows chapter on Server 2003 SP2 and Server 2008 R2 SP2.

This is of course a technical book, and the reader is expected to have some knowledge of computer hardware, operating systems, and programming languages (C, primarily). Fortunately, that knowledge doesn’t have to be too deep to grasp what the authors are explaining.

The only downside to the book is it feels rough at times. It didn’t flow well. While this doesn’t necessarily detract from the book from a content perspective, it did make reading it bit of a chore.
Rating: 4
1597494860
Count: 6