Linux Security Cookbook

I first read through the recipes in the Linux Security Cookbook about a year ago. It was a great companion to actually start securing systems that I set up for existence in a network that I didn't control. The recipes range from things like Tripwire, which seem more than the average home user needs; while the recipes for setting up ssh tunnels, iptables, and tcp wrappers are usable on just about every system.

The recipes for securing your overall system are a necessity for any multiuser system, and a good precaution for single user systems. Recipes are also handy for daily use, for example the ssh tunnel recipe or the ssh keygen recipe can make anyone more proficient with ssh. A simple ssh tunnel can often be the answer for secure connections to inside of a natted lan from outside, where the overhead or setup of a vpn connections is not possible, or unnecessary.

This was a great introduction to Linux security, and could only be enhanced by another more advanced book in the series. I found the book a great learning experience to skim through, picking out the recipes that seemed more interesting; then reading them more thoroughly and testing quite a few of them. I now use ssh tunnels regularly to test services before opening ports to the world.

This book is a great resource and very easy to read. I particularly found the ssh tunnel recipe useful. It was completely described and especially easy to implement, having never used ssh's tunneling facility I had a tunnel setup and working in mere moments after reading the recipe—and I understood it. Therefore, this book would be excellent for any Linux beginner or even helpful for intermediate users, and I highly recommend it.