Press Release
July 24, 2003
"Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++": Security Begins with Well-Written Code
Sebastopol, CA--Over the next three years, private organizations and
government agencies will spend an estimated $21 billion on network
security to fight off password sniffing, spoofing, buffer overflows,
denials of service, viruses, worms, and other attacks. Despite this
tremendous effort, experts including John Viega, coauthor of the
Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++ (O'Reilly, US $49.95),
assert that many security problems boil down to one fundamental cause:
poorly written, poorly tested, and insecure code underlying
applications that run the very systems everyone is trying so hard to
secure.
That's not something system administrators can fix at the network
level, Viega explains, but depends on programmers to write code that
attackers cannot exploit. "Writing secure code is difficult, even for
experts," he points out. "Unfortunately, programmers generally hold a
world view that they write correct code all the time, and only
occasionally do mistakes occur. In reality, mistakes are commonplace in
nearly everyone's code." He points to a recent NIST study that
estimates the computer industry in the United States alone spends $60
billion a year patching and customizing poorly written software.
Viega is one of the pioneers in the field of software security who
wrote the first publicly available tool to help programmers find and
fix security vulnerabilities in their own code. His new book,
co-written by Matt Messier, takes the same practical approach to
fortifying code. Rather than recite principals and guidelines, "Secure
Programming Cookbook for C and C++" is a nuts-and-bolts reference that
teaches by example, focusing on two of the most widely used programming
languages available.
"There are already several other books out there on the topic of
writing secure software," Viega explains. "Many of them are quite good,
but they universally focus on the fundamentals, not code. None of them
show you how to do such things as SSL-enable your applications
properly, which can be surprisingly difficult."
The book shows how to eliminate common problems by providing code
solutions that programmers can insert directly into their applications,
along with explanations of why and how the code samples work. Viega and
Messier cover a wide range of security topics, including cryptography
(both symmetric and public key), random numbers, safe initialization,
input validation, networking, authentication, access control, email,
and anti-tampering. Altogether, there are more than 200 recipes to help
programmers secure the C and C++ programs they write for both Unix
(including Linux) and Windows environments.
Viega assumes that programmers who pick up "Secure Programming Cookbook
for C and C++" already understand security basics, but that "strangely
enough, programmers make the same mistakes over and over again," he
says. "Most security problems have been seen before. It's rare to
actually see a new one. We give people the tools they haven't had
before, so they have a fighting chance."
Additional Resources:
Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++
John Viega and Matt Messier
ISBN 0-596-00394-3, 790 pages, $49.95 US, $77.95 CA, 35.50 UK
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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