CD-ROM Contents and Organization

The CD-ROM that accompanies this book has most of the open source security tools on it for easy access and installation. The disk is organized into directories labeled by tool. If there are separate files for Windows and Linux, they will be in their own directories. The directory "Misc" has various drivers and other documentation such as RFCs that will be of general use through your reading.

Using the Tools

Whenever possible, the tools in this book are provided in RedHat Package Manager (RPM) format. Of course, you don't have to be running RedHat Linux to use RPM. The RedHat folks originally designed it, but now it comes with most Linux versions. The RedHat Package Manager automates the installation process of a program and makes sure you have all the supporting programs and so forth. It is similar to a Windows installation process where you are guided through the process graphically and prompted where necessary. Using the RPM is almost always preferable to doing a manual installation. When you need to set custom install parameters or if a RPM file is not available for your distribution, I describe how to install the program manually. If the RPM file is provided, simply download the file or copy it from the CD-ROM that comes with this book and click on it. Your version of RPM will take care of the rest.

If you use any of the other variations of UNIX (BSD, Solaris, HP/UX, and so on), they will probably work with the tools in this book, but the installation instructions may be different. You can run most of the tools in this book on alternative versions of UNIX or Linux. Staying within the Linux family will certainly make compatibility more likely with the actual tools on the CD-ROM. If you have to download a different version of the program, some of the features discussed may not be supported. But if you are a Solaris aficionado or believe that BSD is the only way to go, feel free to use it as your security workstation. Just be aware that the instructions in this book were designed for a specific implementation and you may have to do some additional homework to get it to work. The platforms supported are listed at the beginning of each tool description.

Reference Installation

Most of the tools in this book were tested and reviewed on the following platforms:

• Mandrake Linux 9.1 on a HP Vectra series PC and a Compaq Presario laptop.

• Windows XP Pro and Windows 2000 Pro on a Compaq Prosignia series desktop and Compaq Armada laptop.

Input or Variables

In code and command examples, italics are used to designate user input. The words in italics should be replaced with the variables or values specific to your installation. Operating system-level commands appear like this:

ssh –l login hostname

Due to page size limits, code lines that wrap are indented with a small indent.

I hope you enjoy and learn from this book. There are many, many more tools that I couldn't include due to space limitations, and I apologize in advance if I didn't include your favorite tool. I had room to cover only my favorites and tried to pick the best of breed in each category. I'm sure some will differ with my choices; feel free to e-mail me at tony@howlett.org, and perhaps those will make it into a future edition.