Hey everyone, I'm going to try to word this thread the best I can. I have my own LAN setup here at home with boxes running Slack, SuSE, and XP. (irrelevant). But as I was, as far as exploits go and finding flaws in code, it is a subject I want to understand better, I will admit, I am just starting to learn to program with python, but I do have a pretty good background in network security, but never understood the inner workings of exploits. I am tempted to play with exploits on my system, but even though they are MY machines being tested on, Just the principle of it just seems Script Kiddie friendly if you know what I mean. Because I've always been the type of person when dealing with computers, wants to know what is happening, not just copying code into an editor. But the long drawn out point I am trying to make is do you guys recommend playing around with exploits on old boxes on my LAN for educational purposes, and in the near future will it help with programming skills ? Because don't get me wrong, I love patching systems against bugs, exploits etc. And I know what i'm patching against most of the time. For example if an update for SuSE is released for a race condition, I install it and go about my day, but it's just bothersome not 'really' knowing what I am protecting against. Please let me know if I am being too redundant.
Any good books, links ?