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PROTECTING NETWORKS WITH SATAN

June 8, 1998

Because SATAN (Security Administrator's Tool for Analyzing Networks) could detect weaknesses on other systems (as well as your own) through its web interface, it earned notoriety when released in April 1995 as the tool that would "wreak havoc" on the Internet. The Oakland Tribune even wrote" It's like randomly mailing automatic rifles to 5000 addresses. I hope some crazy teen doesn't get ahold of one."

But as more and more "mission critical" applications are accessible through the web, administrators are turning their attention to the danger of attempted intrusion from outside the networked host. SATAN is a powerful aid for system administrators. It performs "security audits," scanning host computers for security vulnerabilities caused by erroneous configurations or by known software errors in frequently used programs. O'Reilly's latest release, Protecting Networks with SATAN, is an invaluable tool for network and security administrators working with SATAN.

Wietse Venema, SATAN co-author, says "In this handy book, Martin Freiss explains the workings of SATAN and provides a helping hand with customizing and extending the system to match local conditions." This concise guide also discusses how you can defend your site against potential abuse by SATAN.

About the Author

Martin Freiss, after a degree in electrical engineering, started his working life in UNIX development at Nixdorf Computer AG, writing IP stacks. As soon as he got the chance, he went into Internet administration, looking after the company's mail, news, WWW and DNS servers, protecting them from abuse and generally fiddling with everything having to do with networking on the Internet. He is currently at the Competence Center IT Networks department of Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Inc. in Cologne, Germany, where his time is evenly divided between consulting on network security and Internet service and providing and giving seminars and workshops on these topics.

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Protecting Networks with SATAN
By Martin Freiss
1st Edition June1998 (US)
112 pages, 1-56592-425-8, $19.95 (US$)

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