I just realized I started learning C 3/4 of a year ago because (qv) WBAI's "off the hook" had their quarter annual pledge drive offering Jon Erickson's "HACKING: the art of exploitation". I knew some perl, hadn't read a really interesting book in a long time and -- being really impovrished yet, selfish, and to this day feeling guilty -- I couldn't afford their $75 pledge so ordered it at a discount from some bunch of creepy capitalists! And I still haven't finished it!
I might as well say it's the best book on computers I've ever read, as there's less than twenty of those anyway (!shame). And I just said it's ten months later and I still haven't finished it yet! I could have written a book twice this length in time it has taken me to get half way through!
So I intend to update this when I'm done. The book is not strictly on C. There is a bit of perl and shellcode, etc. I'm not and never have been interested in computer terrorism and neither is the author, who is even younger than me but claims to be a "vulnerabilty researcher and security specialist". It's a serious attempt to be exactly what I'm about to claim: a very serious introduction to the discipline using (mostly) networking and cryptology as the focus, but assuming the reader at page 1 has little to no programming experience. I would never recommend it as a language using book for anything but C, tho. But I'm recommending it hardily for C.
There's a CD and gcc and gdb and of course it's about exploitation so right away you get introduced to pointers, overflows, and what your memory is. Technically, I'm at page 241 of 473 and the left half is thick with greese. It's kind of "meta-"; a layman would need another intro C text to proceed closely thru the discussion. But the purpose really is "meta-" technical. I say this in a greatly admirationable way because i appreciate it and you might too! Of course my observations about the whole form of the thing will have to wait BUT
It's literary in it's procession, like you were investigating a mystery -- first you get let in on this stuff about memory allocation, and then you get let in on the potential exploits related to memory allocation and overflow, and how this relates to networking, including little tidbits like how a ubiquitous fencepost error was exploited in early SSH. There's no jokes or garbage, he proceeds quickly and cleanly thru the material. Sockets, network layers, a mini-web server, etc.
Mostly I think it is a very great introduction to memory management issues, including lots of practical examples in an intriguing context, for total beginners (like me) with serious intent. It would be especially great for linux types, since's that's the cd, or possibly for anyone wanting to learn linux while programming, since that's the setup.
