Thread: Socket programming or....

The book I started learning C with was a network programming book*, of sorts. It was intended for complete beginners, so the first chapter is called "Programming"; the third chapter is called "Networking" and covers the socket API.

So no, I cannot even think of a subject that "it would be better for you to read first". And there is plenty of help available here, I don't think anyone who has been programming C for more than 6-12 months is unfamiliar with sockets. They are kind of essential IMO.

* No Starch Press: Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition ...great book

Originally Posted by MK27

...I don't think anyone who has been programming C for more than 6-12 months is unfamiliar with sockets. They are kind of essential IMO.
[/url] ...great book

I better get with the program then (no pun intended... )

Originally Posted by Dino

I better get with the program then (no pun intended... )

okay, lemme add a phrase "If you've been programming in C for more than 6-12 months, it won't take you more than a few hours to get to tackle".

The socket API is a few structs and a dozen commands.

Originally Posted by abachler

MK, you know better than to post hacking links...

The author is not a hacker, he is a "security consultant" . I am not really sure whether he means to use the word prejudicially or not. In the introduction he does say:

Originally Posted by Jon Erickson

the essence of hacking is finding unintended or overlooked uses for the laws and properties of a given situation and then applying them in new and inventive ways to solve a problem

which is basically positive and pretty much describes his approach to writing a beginning book on (mostly) C programming. However, he does also introduce explicit examples of how "exploitation" works -- that is how I learned why a buffer overflow can be very bad, like not just segfault bad, for example.

There are some historical examples of how people have done other bad things (how polymorphic shellcode is constructed, various "DoS attack" methods, TCP/IP hijacking, etc). By the time you are done*, if you are stupid enough, you should be ready to try out some obvious and well known exploit, get traced, and go to jail.

*actually I am not. Polymorphic shellcode is in the last chapter, "cryptology". The book has a very steep curve in it, something you keep coming back to. It also very code heavy.

Originally Posted by abachler

MK, you know better than to post hacking links...

Are you really that misinformed? A book that, first of all, discusses programming in C from a low level perspective along with network programming, and then addresses buffer overflows and cryptography is a 'hacking link' - and better yet, a 'hacking link' is a derogatory term?

Ugh.

I'll put this on my list of to-do's to get to before the end of the year. (really)