good way to learn about security

[johnnymier]

Hi all,
This is just an opinion/recommendation. A great way to learn about network securtiy is to dive into network programming in C. All the stuff about sockets, buffers, protocols, has really taught me a lot about security and networking in general. For example, I wrote a file transmission program using UDP. It really showed me how a poor programming practice can lead to send/receive buffer overflows. Another thing that sounds obvious now but isn't obvious the first time you hear about packets, is that a packet is nothing more than a struct in C. I never thought of it that way when I took a purely theoretical networks course, it all became clearer once I got started in network programming. I am still a newbie in the subject and it sure ain't easy but its worth it if you want to become a securtiy expert.
The main thing I want to state here is that learning about how to write networking applications really helps understand how a server or client will respond to certain events.
A good resource: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~beej/guide/net/html/
Or go ahead and get: Unix Network Programming by Richard Stevens.

just my 2c

peace,
J

[qod]

what C book did you use and would advise beginners to do.

[johnnymier]

I didn't use a specifical text to get started in C. But I have found a great text for learning C is:
Practical C Programming by Steve Oualline. As well as: www.cprogramming.com has some good tuts.