SSH, the Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide

SSH:- A complex and hard to master protocol (protocols).- An invaluable defensive weapon against several types of attacks.- In short time, SSH will be the 'de facto' privacy standard for remote connections and transference.The Approach:Three extraordinary introduction chapters, clearly and well written, lead you step by step into SSH internals. Several clever graphics, and a lot of basic definitions makes these chapters absolutely self contained.The rest of the chapters are carefully dedicated to issues related to implementation and use of SSH, and to ports to several Operating Systems.The Book:540+ Pages well structured into 17 chapters and two appendixes.Clever conventions, and a very useful 'Which Chapters Are for You' guide.Plenty of 'real world' examples and 63 pages of special case studies.The Covered Protocols:- SSH1.- F-Secure SSH1.- OpenSSH.- SSH2.- F-Secure SSH2.The Intended Audience:Quoting the authors: " We've written this book for system administrators and technically minded users. Some chapters are suitable for a wide audience, while others are thoroughly technical and intended for computer and networking professionals."The Bottom Line:Being a computer security professor, I constantly assign to my students complex laboratory works related to SSH. Well, with the only help of this book, they usually succeed in their tasks and even improve the original projects.It is a worthy book and really deserves to be purchased.

If you are a UNIX/Linux admin or user, and want the best documentation on SSH then this is the book. I personally don't like reading HOWTOs, FAQs, etc on the Computer screen (trying to save my eyes). Anyway, this book gives a well ordered explaination of ssh giving you the ability to read by topic. For example, if you are interested in the options available to configure the authentication process, it is not simply lumped in the list of sshd_config options, but is ALL located in the same place with a good discussion of the option. It is well indexed to find what you need quickly. One of the best features of the book is that it covers ssh1, ssh2, and Openssh. Using the authentication example, the book gives you how ssh1 handles it first, then ssh2, and then Openssh. Which is important since they will sometimes handle things differently.This is only the second book I have used that covers SSH, and it is without a doubt, the better of the two. If you use SSH for production systems, this book is a must.

I consider myself a prolific reader of O'Reilly books, and out of the many I have read, I find this book one of the best. Its strong points are its excellent writing style, excellent formatting, and comprehensive treatment of the subject.I find the writing style to be very easy to read, and entertaining, but more importantly, the authors make every effort to clarify important SSH concepts, and then relate them to later chapters. The fact that the authors take the time to review and relate the information covered in previous chapters is something most authors miss, yet is very effective in making sure the reader will remember the information in the long term.The format too is excellent in subtle ways. When the authors refer to a concept in another chapter, they mark the chapter and section number in brackets nearby. This makes looking up information much easier, and is another thing computer writers tend to overlook. I sincerely hope these guys write more books for O'Reilly.In terms of covering SSH, this book can't be beat. Admittedly, the focus is very much on SSH for Unix, but the authors admit that from the start and point out chapters that are useful for PC/Mac users. This book covers every facet of SSH1,SSH2, and OpenSSH, and covers all three effectively. To summarize, anyone interested in SSH is strongly encouraged to read this book, particularly if you use Unix/Linux. I feel that reading this book was time very well spent, and feel much more confident in regards to using SSH.

Simply a great book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in SSH. Also great for anyone interested about basic client-server cryptographic services on the net. This book is well written and good reading.

There is a good reason why people write superficial messages on post cards: post cards afford no confidentiality and there is no expectation of privacy. The Internet can be compared to a post card; it is one large system where data is freely interchanged. While common sense tells us that post cards are open to the public, there is a misperception among non-technical Internet users that Internet data is kept private. However, nothing could be further from the truth; on the Wild West net,all data is inherently open and unregulated.There are solutions to this predicament. One solution is called SSH (Secure Shell). SSH provides a way to take that "postcard" and have it securely delivered by a courier.In a nutshell, the book SSH, the Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide expands on two basic ideas: - Privacy is a basic human right, but on today's computer networks, privacy isn't guaranteed. - SSH is a simple idea, but it has many complex parts. But the truth is that the need for privacy and security on today's networks is far too important to be encapsulated in two bullets. This book is so loaded with valuable and important information that anyone using or administering SSH should read it thoroughly.As an introduction, SSH is a protocol that enables secure communications between computer systems that are communicating over insecure channels. SSH is more than simply a point-to-point encryption process such as a VPN. SSH allows users to authenticate themselves to remote hosts. After authentication, users can securely execute commands on a remote machine. SSH fills in for the security deficiencies that are inherent in applications such as telnet, ftp, rlogin, rsh, and rcp. The book also shows how SSH can be used to secure other protocols, such as POP, SMTP, IMAP, and others.SSH was developed in response to the Unix "r" commands' (rsh, rlogin, rcp) vulnerability to attack. Some of these vulnerabilities include password and protocol sniffing, spoofing, eavesdropping and connection hijacking.SSH, the Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide is everything you need to know about SSH and lives up to its bold claim of being a definitive guide. After an introduction to SSH -- why it came to be needed and its features and history -- the book goes into the core of the administration and use of SSH. The authors explain that SSH is in reality, not a true shell. The two versions of secure shell are SSH1 and SSH2; the book distinguishes between the two and describes when to use each version. Chapter 2 details the basic client use of SSH. It shows how remote sessions are managed by the program and the various ways a user can authenticate to an SSH server.Subsequent chapters cover the aspects of installing and compiling SSH. A myriad of different configuration possibilities are discussed. As the authors maintain, SSH is at its foundation a simple idea, but it has countless complex parts. SSH allows for a highly configurable architecture and provides both strong