Red Hat Linux Security and Optimization [With CDROM]

I want to begin with whats good about the book. It does a good job of covering Linux security concepts, and centralizing them in a well laid out, easily referenced book. Others have pointed out that a lot of this information is available on the net for free, however without a reference like this they wouldn't know what they should be looking for. (How many folks know their BIND server should run in a chroot environment to even begin the research?).Despite having Red Hat in its title, and being released as a redhat Press book, the book is surprisingly generic in its treatment. While that may be a welcome releif to Suse/Debian/etc users, its a bit annoying to redhat users who were expecting more specific help, and perhaps less conflicting help. Several of the security measures covered in the book have already been implemented in the default redhat install, except using different usernames, file paths, etc.Some of this may be an artifact of the book not covering the latest release, but some have been around long enough to convince me the book was written to a far more generic audience originally then given a new title. Which isn't bad by itself, just not what a novice user would expect, and might not catch. My final concern is that some of the implementation steps are just flat wrong. The section on running BIND in a chroot environment is one, it describes the process in 7 steps (only 6 are enumerated) and does not mention redhat's prefered method of passing the options to the daemon. However, since knowing that it should/can be done is half the battle in linux, the correct procedure can be found on the web.

The author takes the time to explain things out. Most books just skip right by the fact you might not a be a guru with everything. I hope Redhat will keep this up! I would recommend this book for your collection as it is very readable. Jeremy

I bought this book to help me learn more of the configuration options for my server and what they did. While this book presents the majority of options, it is contradictory in places and follows old school techniques.For instance, in the chapter on Apache, the author tells you how to compile Perl into Apache. This is great, but the more preferred method to including things into Apache is to use a DSO so that you don't have to stop and recompile the server everytime you add something. Then it goes on to Squid. In my experience using Squid, it has run on port 3128 and the authoer mentions that, but as an afterthought and not until after he has already told you to run it on port 8080.In addition, this book neatly seperates content on security and optimization. However, do not buy this book with the thought that it will show you how to build a server or setup your web services. This book is meant only as a resource for tuning your stuff and will not tell you how to install it. You really need to have a knowledge of Linux beforehand.To put it plainly, buy this book as a corraborative resource or buy it and prepare to refer to other resources on the internet to get a second opinion. Buy this book if you are comfortable tinkering with things. Though, if you are running a Linux system, you had better be comfortable tinkering and not faint of heart or else you'll never get anything done!

I bought at local bookstore after reading the chapter on LIDS and I went to work next saturday and implemented LIDS using the latest 2.4 patches found at the LIDS.org site. It is owesome; no more root hacks! I also liked the LibSafe section.It is an amazing book for someone who wants to learn more about security fast.

'RH Linux Security and Optimization' is the perfect vechicle to upgrade your skill level and linux system expertise. From performance basics,network performance, security tools, firewalls, vpns and dealing with compromised systems; this book has all the information you will need to maintain both your corporate and personal linux networks.