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The Rootkit Arsenal: Escape and Evasion in the Dark Corners of the System |  | Author: Bill Blunden
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $27.17
as of 11/23/2009 14:21 CST details
You Save: $22.78 (46%)
New (26) Used (8) from $22.85
Seller: a1books
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 46164
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 908
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 2
ISBN: 1598220616
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.8
EAN: 9781598220612
ASIN: 1598220616
Publication Date: May 4, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
With the growing prevalence of the Internet, rootkit technology has taken center stage in the battle between White Hats and Black Hats. Adopting an approach that favors full disclosure, The Rootkit Arsenal presents the most accessible, timely, and complete coverage of rootkit technology. This book covers more topics, in greater depth, than any other currently available. In doing so, the author forges through the murky back alleys of the Internet, shedding light on material that has traditionally been poorly documented, partially documented, or intentionally undocumented.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Amazing book, not just for those researching rootkits October 7, 2009
R. Wesley McGrew
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bill Blunden's book, The Rootkit Arsenal: Escape and Evasion in the Dark Corners of the System, is one of the hidden gems out there as far as computer security books are concerned, and I hope that I can convince you to give it a look. This review has been too-long to arrive, as I haven't had the time to read that I would like. That said, I felt it was very important to finally get the review up, as this is a book that I'm sure my regular readers will enjoy.
I first spotted this book on a vendor table at Defcon, and it stood out among the rest mostly because *I hadn't heard of it*. I try to keep up with new book releases, especially on attack-oriented topics that would be of interest to the penetration testers and vulnerability analysts that read this blog. It was surprising to me that one had flown under the radar. I picked it up and flipped through the table of contents [...] (which I encourage you to do as well), and was very impressed with the amount of material it covers.
I looked up the author, and was disappointed to realize that I had missed his talk at Blackhat earlier that week (looking forward to the video). I contacted him, and he was kind enough to supply a review copy of the book. It arrived very quickly, with a humorous personal note on the inside cover, and ever since, I have been learning a lot from it.
The author's style is excellent. The material is technical and has the potential to be very dry, but the text has a very conversational tone, as if it were being presented as a lecture for a (particularly good) class. Each concept is tied back to the main topic: hiding operations and data from the user and operating system, and frustrating forensic analysis. The book reads very well, presenting enough context that you can understand it if you're reading away from a computer, and enough detail that you can follow along and experiment with it if you are at your desk.
I appreciate that this book does not attempt to hold the reader's hand throughout with the ethics of developing rootkits. The author takes a brief moment at the beginning of the book to explain the legitimate needs for security professionals to be familiar with rootkit techniques and development, and points out that the information can be found elsewhere. After this point, the book assumes a level of maturity in its reader that is greatly appreciated.
The first part of the book, "Foundations", has an excellent introduction to IA32 architecture and Windows internals that I have never seen so well-described for beginners. Even if you aren't interested in rootkits, this portion of the book is something I would recommend to anyone getting started in related fields, like reverse-engineering or exploit development. Digging further into the text, the second section on "System Modification" makes up the "meat" of the book, delving into the details of subverting Windows internals in many different ways. As technical and in-depth as the book gets, though, it never seems to leave the reader behind. Each new concept is well-explained and builds upon the material the reader has already learned. You may have to go through the text slower than you had anticipated, and go back to review previous material, but you're never left feeling hopelessly lost.
The remainder of the book is a treat, as well. I can't recall another book that goes into any kind of detail on defeating forensic analysis of memory and file systems. Anyone interested in developing forensic tools or curious about how analysis with tools like Encase and FTK might be subverted, should give it a read. The author closes the text with some strategic guidelines for rootkit development, and his own thoughts on how evasion and deception can be used to similar ends on a larger scale than operating systems.
This is now one of my favorite computer security books, and I believe that if you review its contents, you'll find that you're getting a great value for your money. If you are familiar with C and have a beginner's knowledge of IA-32 assembly, you should have the prerequisites you need to follow along with this book. I highly recommend it, and hope that it becomes less-hidden of a gem that it already is.
 Knowledge Filled but Problems October 4, 2009
T. Pitchford
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book contains a massive amount of knowledge and is a great resource for anyone wanting to know more about Windows Internals or Rootkit design. My biggest complaint, hands down, is the lack of downloadable source code. There are massive amounts of source code provided in this book and none of it is available in a digital format.
While I assume the author intended this as a form of prevention for those wishing to simply "buy" a rootkit, it only succeeded in annoying me to no end. I would have loved to have worked with several of the techniques described but don't have near enough time nor patience to copy 50+ pages of source code in by hand. I even contacted the publisher seeking downloadable copies but was only provided a series of build scripts which were of no help and contained several empty directories at that.
Still a good resource but if you're like me and learn best from actual interaction with the material then this book may not be for you.
The worlds a toy. September 5, 2009
Dekker Graden (Portland OR)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is is a very hefty book and the number of topics covered were extraordinary. It seems like the author was primarily concerned with covering each subject in depth so that no part of a rootkit was left untouched. It makes for some heavy but worthwhile reading as unlike some other books like it that I have read in the past, this one tries to cover many of the fundamentals of creating a rootkit from the ground up and not just the dissection of a current kit.
Overall this is the kind of book you get and add to your library as you will refer back to it many times over the years to come.
More than just a rootkit book August 18, 2009
J. Clark
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
You cannot become an expert at developing Windows Rootkits without first gaining a thorough understanding of Intel system architecture, Windows architecture and the Windows Driver Model. This book provides some of the best coverage I've seen of those topics, in addition to providing a VERY complete coverage of rootkit development.
Awesome gigantic compilation on Rootkits August 16, 2009
Nagareshwar Talekar (Bangalore, India)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
The Rootkit Arsenal: Escape and Evasion in the Dark Corners of the System
Wow...! This was my first reaction when I received this massive 900+ pages book from Amazon. I was just spell bounded and surprised to see such an enormous amount of information compiled on the lesser known area of computer security, the Rootkits.
The book starts with basics of system internals which is essential to understand the depth of Rootkits. It covers about various memory models, interrupts, TSR, Windows architecture etc in detail. Then it delves into explaining the ingredients of Rootkit including installing and launching of the Rootkit. All these system internals have been covered in very precise and concise manner.
The chapter 5 is where the real fun starts as it goes on elaborating all the hooking mechanisms from user land to kernel and then it describes various techniques for detecting these hooking mechanisms. Later chapters does awesome job of explaining the advanced Rootkit techniques. The Anti-Forensics section is just mind blowing, no explanation needed.
One of the salient features of this book is the code samples. Every technique mentioned in this book is illustrated with well explained, working code example. This along with Rootkit detection mechanisms explored in the book sets it apart from its predecessor, Rootkit - Subverting Windows Kernel.
Its clearly evident that author has taken great pain and patience to present the darkest topic of computer arena in a very simple and understandable manner in this gigantic compilation. By far this is the very good reference book and very well recommended for any one who wants to conquer the mysterious world of Rootkits.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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