The author, Jon Erickson, has a formal education in computer science and has been hacking and programming since he was five years old. His book, Hacking the Art of Exploitation, received rave reviews, topped best seller lists and was translated into eleven languages.

Mr Erickson's book, now in its second edition, was his attempt to combat the negativity surrounding the term "hacking". He decided it was prudent to be aware of how hackers gain illegal entry to, for example, web servers and this book provides clear explanations on just that. It lays the groundwork for comprehending basic hacking methods and the way hackers exploit weaknesses in code and then it follows up with details on how particular holes in code lead to a particular style of attack.

The author's own words describe his feelings succinctly - "Most people associate hacking with breaking the law and assume that everyone who engages in hacking activities is a criminal. Granted, there are people out there who use hacking techniques to break the law, but hacking isn't really about that. 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 - whatever it may be."

The book includes a LiveCD ( a computer operating system that is executed upon boot, without installation to a hard drive ) this one has the complete Linux programming and debugging environment. So, you'll be able to debug code, overflow buffers, hijack LAN connections, explore your way around protections and experiment with exploit weaknesses.

My take is that this isn't the easiest book in the World to read but it does contain an awful lot of information and information keeps you ahead in the battle. And, even though I mentioned the book is aimed at advanced programmers there is scope for learning because the author gives clear examples even newbies could follow. I was very curious about this book and I enjoyed the read, it's scary but enlightening and earns a thumbs up from me.