Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Maximum Linux Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Linux Server and Workstation is designed for system administrators, managers, or Linux users who wish to protect their Linux servers and workstations from unauthorized intrusions and other external threats to their systems' integrity. Written by an experienced hacker--someone who knows which systems are vulnerable and how crackers get into them--this unique guide to Linux security identifies existing and potential security holes and faults, and then describes how to go about fixing them.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• This Book's Organization (p. 2)
• How This Book Is Cross-Referenced (p. 2)
• amadmin (p. 4)
• Using This Book (p. 5)
• Odds and Ends (p. 5)
• Summary (p. 6)
• Part I Linux Security Basics (p. 7)
• 1 Introducing Linux (p. 9)
• What Is Linux? (p. 10)
• Linux as a Standalone System (p. 14)
• Linux as an Intranet/Internet Server (p. 15)
• A Linux Security Overview (p. 16)
• Summary (p. 25)
• 2 Physical Security (p. 27)
• Server Location and Physical Access (p. 28)
• Network Topology (p. 30)
• Network Hardware (p. 36)
• Workstations and Security (p. 39)
• Summary (p. 52)
• 3 Installation Issues (p. 53)
• About Various Linux Distributions, Security, and Installation (p. 54)
• Partitions and Security (p. 57)
• Choosing Network Services During Installation (p. 77)
• Boot Loaders (p. 79)
• Summary (p. 82)
• 4 Basic Linux System Administration (p. 83)
• The Basic Idea (p. 84)
• Creating and Managing Accounts (p. 85)
• Performing Administrative Tasks with su (p. 96)
• Access Control (p. 99)
• Permissions and Ownership (p. 99)
• A Closer Look at Groups (p. 111)
• Bringing Down Your System (p. 116)
• Summary (p. 117)
• Part II Linux User Security (p. 119)
• 5 Password Attacks (p. 121)
• What Is a Password Attack? (p. 122)
• How Linux Generates and Stores Passwords (p. 122)
• The Data Encryption Standard (DES) (p. 126)
• Case Study: Cracking Linux Passwords Via Dictionary Attack (p. 128)
• Password Shadowing and the shadow Suite (p. 138)
• After Installing the shadow Suite (p. 154)
• Other Password Security Issues (p. 158)
• Pluggable Authentication Modules (p. 162)
• Still Other Password Security Solutions (p. 163)
• Summary (p. 165)
• 6 Malicious Code (p. 167)
• What Is Malicious Code? (p. 168)
• Detecting Malicious Code (p. 173)
• Other File Integrity Checking Software (p. 186)
• Summary (p. 189)
• Part III Linux Network Security (p. 191)
• 7 Sniffers and Electronic Eavesdropping (p. 193)
• How Sniffers Work (p. 194)
• Case Studies: Performing a Few Simple Sniffer Attacks (p. 196)
• Other Sniffers and Network Monitoring Tools (p. 215)
• Risks Posed by Sniffers (p. 217)
• Defending Against Sniffer Attacks (p. 219)
• Further Reading (p. 222)
• Summary (p. 223)
• 8 Scanners (p. 225)
• What Is a Scanner? (p. 226)
• Scanner Building Blocks and Scanner Evolution (p. 234)
• How Scanners Fit into Your Security Regimen (p. 244)
• Various Scanner Tools (p. 245)
• Defending Against Scanner Attacks (p. 262)
• Interesting Resources (p. 268)
• Summary (p. 269)
• 9 Spoofing (p. 271)
• What Is Spoofing All About? (p. 272)
• TCP and IP Spoofing (p. 272)
• Case Study: A Simple Spoofing Attack (p. 275)
• Preventing IP Spoofing Attacks (p. 280)
• ARP Spoofing (p. 281)
• DNS Spoofing (p. 283)
• Other Strange Spoofing Attacks (p. 285)
• Further Reading (p. 287)
• Summary (p. 288)
• 10 Protecting Data in Transit (p. 289)
• Secure Shell (ssh) (p. 290)
• scp: The Secure Copy Remote File Copy Program (p. 306)
• Providing ssh Services in a Heterogeneous Network (p. 307)
• ssh Security Issues (p. 315)
• Additional Resources (p. 316)
• Summary (p. 316)
• Part IV Linux Internet Security (p. 317)
• 11 FTP Security (p. 319)
• File Transfer Protocol (p. 320)
• FTP's Default Security Features (p. 323)
• SSLftp (p. 329)
• Specific FTP Application Security (p. 331)
• Summary (p. 332)
• 12 Mail Security (p. 333)
• SMTP Servers and Clients (p. 334)
• sendmail Security Basics (p. 340)
• Replacing sendmail with Qmail (p. 355)
• Summary (p. 359)
• 13 Telnet Security (p. 361)
• Assessing the Need to Provide Telnet Services (p. 362)
• Telnet's Security History (p. 362)
• Secure Telnet Systems (p. 364)
• deslogin (p. 365)
• SRA Telnet from Texas AandM University (p. 371)
• The Stanford SRP Telnet/FTP Package (p. 372)
• Summary (p. 373)
• 14 Web Server Security (p. 375)
• Eliminating Nonessential Services (p. 376)
• Web Server Security (p. 384)
• Adding Directory Access Control with Basic HTTP
• Weaknesses in Basic HTTP Authentication (p. 402)
• HTTP and Cryptographic Authentication (p. 403)
• Running a chroot Web Environment (p. 405)
• Accreditation and Certification (p. 406)
• Summary (p. 409)
• 15 Secure Web Protocols (p. 411)
• The Problem (p. 412)
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) from Netscape Communications Corporation (p. 412)
• Installing Apache-SSL (p. 416)
• Other Secure Protocols: IPSEC (p. 435)
• Summary (p. 436)
• 16 Secure Web Development (p. 437)
• Development Risk Factors: A Wide Overview (p. 438)
• Spawning Shells (p. 438)
• Buffer Overruns (p. 448)
• Paths, Directories, and Files (p. 451)
• Other Interesting Security Programming and Testing Tools (p. 453)
• Other Online Resources (p. 455)
• Summary (p. 456)
• 17 Denial-of-Service Attacks (p. 457)
• What Is a Denial-of-Service Attack? (p. 459)
• Risks Posed by Denial-of-Service Attacks (p. 460)
• How This Chapter Is Laid Out (p. 461)
• Network Hardware DoS Attacks (p. 461)
• Attacks on Linux Networking (p. 465)
• Attacks on Linux Applications (p. 478)
• Other DoS Attacks (p. 482)
• Defending Against Denial-of-Service Attacks (p. 484)
• Online Resources (p. 485)
• Summary (p. 486)
• 18 Linux and Firewalls (p. 487)
• What Is a Firewall? (p. 488)
• Assessing Whether You Really Need a Firewall (p. 491)
• tcpd: TCP Wrappers (p. 492)
• ipfwadm (p. 499)
• ipchains (p. 503)
• Free Firewall Tools and Add-Ons for Linux (p. 504)
• Commercial Firewalls (p. 505)
• Additional Resources (p. 508)
• Summary (p. 509)
• 19 Logs and Audit Trails (p. 511)
• What Is Logging, Exactly? (p. 512)
• Logging in Linux (p. 513)
• Other Interesting Logging and Audit Tools (p. 532)
• Summary (p. 536)
• 20 Intrusion Detection (p. 537)
• What Is Intrusion Detection? (p. 538)
• Basic Intrusion Detection Concepts (p. 539)
• Some Interesting Intrusion Detection Tools (p. 541)
• 21 Disaster Recovery (p. 553)
• What Is Disaster Recovery? (p. 554)
• Steps to Take Before Building Your Linux Network (p. 554)
• Choosing Your Backup Tools (p. 557)
• Simple Archiving: tarring and Zipping Your Files and Directories (p. 558)
• Types of Backups and Backup Strategies (p. 563)
• Backup Packages (p. 566)
• Odds and Ends (p. 569)
• Summary (p. 569)
• Part V Appendixes (p. 571)
• A Linux Security Command Reference (p. 573)
• B Linux Security Index--Past Linux Security Issues (p. 605)
• Summary (p. 621)
• C Other Useful Linux Security Tools (p. 623)
• D Sources for More Information (p. 647)
• Linux Security Patches, Updates, and Advisories (p. 648)
• Mailing Lists (p. 648)
• Usenet Newsgroups (p. 650)
• E Glossary (p. 673)
• Index (p. 711)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

The author is an experienced computer hacker who now works as a writer, trainer, Internet and Unix site manager, and security consultant in California.