One Review, One Pre-Review

Amazon.com just published my four-star review of Exploiting Software. From the review:

I read Exploiting Software (ES) last year but realized I hadn't reviewed it yet. Having read other books by these authors, like McGraw's Software Security and Hoglund's Rootkits, I realized ES was not as good as those newer books. At the time ES was published (2004) it continued to define the software exploitation genre begun in Building Secure Software. However, I don't think it's necessary to pay close attention to ES when newer books by McGraw and Hoglund are now available.

I'm looking forward to reading Network Warrior by Gary A. Donahue. This book has the second-best subtitle of all of the technical books on my shelves:

Everything you need to know that wasn't on the CCNA exam

I quickly skimmed this book at USENIX and I think it will be valuable. I like books that take nontraditional look at networking issues.

If you're wondering what my favorite subtitle is, it appears in the nearly ten-year-old book The Next World War by James Adams, original founder of iDefense. The book makes silly mistakes (discussing the "Iraqi printer virus") but it was cool to see it talk about the AFCERT and name one of our lieutenants (who was there before I arrived). It was published in 1998 (not 2001 as indicated at Amazon.com) with the subtitle:

Computers are the Weapons and the Front Line Is Everywhere

That is still true today.