Hacking
by Jon Erickson · first published 2003
69% recommend31% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Hands-on introduction to low-level exploitation, covering C programming, debugging with GDB, and how programs get cracked. It bridges the gap for learners new to systems-level work.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Hacking is the art of creative problem solving, whether that means finding an unconventional solution to a difficult problem or exploiting holes in sloppy programming. Many people call themselves hackers, but few have the strong technical foundation needed to really push the envelope. Rather than merely showing how to run existing exploits, author Jon Erickson explains how arcane hacking techniques actually work. To share the art and science of hacking in a way that is accessible to everyone, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition introduces the fundamentals of C programming from a h
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If you enjoyed this, then you'll certainly enjoy the programming chapter of 'Hacking: The Art of Exploitation' by Jon Erickson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking:_The_Art_of_Exploitatio...). The first half of the book is a similar exploration of C programming using GDB to explain…
on “Learning C with gdb” ↗Metasploit is an open-source penetration / auditing framework written in ruby. I also liked this book: http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Art-Exploitation-Jon-Erickson/...
on “Ask HN: Where did you learn about security/attacks?” ↗Hacking: The art of Exploitation by Jon Erickson http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm
on “Ask HN: Are there any good self development/hacking books out there” ↗…Singh - The Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection | Richard Bejtlich - The Cuckoos Egg | Cliff Stoll - Linux Pro Magazine - Black Hat Python | Justin Seitz - Hacking: The Art Of Exploitation | Jon Erickson
on “Ubuntu Security Podcast: Best Infosec Books” ↗Hacking: The Art of Exploitation (ISBN 1-59327-007-0), Jon Erickson Really helped me bridge the gap with low-level, debugging, and C approx half a lifetime ago.
on “Ask HN: Top 10 Timeless Software Books That ChangedLife as Software Engineer?” ↗- Neuromancer, William Gibson - Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson - Anathem, Neal Stephenson - Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell - Brave New World, Aldous Huxley - Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, Jon Erickson - The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle - Prometheus Rising, Robert Anton Wilson - Mystical Qabalah, Dion Fortune - Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
on “Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?” ↗Along the same lines, I would also recommend "Hacking" by Jon Erickson.
on “Implementing a web server in a single printf() call” ↗I would really suggest purchasing a good book about it. From my point of view, I would go for "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition" from Jon Erickson which goes in depth about how to crack programs using gdb and other tools. It's really a wonderful book if you want to learn more about the world…
on “I was asked to crack a program in a job interview” ↗…Yeah, it has literally everything you would want to know. But good luck trying to understand all of it in a reasonable amount of time. I learned x86 while studying buffer overflows in college. We used Hacking: The Art of Exploitation which walked us through most of the core concepts really well. https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Art-Exploitation-Jon-Erickson...
on “A Crash Course in X86 Assembly for Reverse Engineers (2013) [pdf]” ↗What are the books to learn the hacker culture? What is the best for you? I know there is "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation" by Jon Erickson but the last edition was in 2008.
on “Ask HN: What are the books to learn the hacker culture?” ↗…Français - Elida Maria Szarota (actually The C++ Programming Language by Stroustrup) #13 Compilers - Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi #14 Inside the C++ Object Model #15 Code - Charles Petzold #16 Hacking, 2nd Edition - Jon Erickson #17 C Plus Plus Primer - Stanley B. Lippman, Josée Lajoie, Barbara E. Moo #18 C Interfaces and Implementations - David R. Hanson #19 Language Implementation Patterns…
on “The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow” ↗My favourite resource for these types of exploits used to be phiral.com (see Wayback Machine circa March 2007 [1], since it doesn't exist anymore), belonging to author Jon Erickson who wrote "Hacking: the Art of Exploitation" [2]. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20070305111749/http://phiral.com... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking:_The_Art_of_Exploitati...
on “Shellcode Injection” ↗I'm the same as you. I got this book: https://www.amazon.ca/Hacking-Art-Exploitation-Jon-Erickson/... Which I've dabbled in, and haven't gotten further than what I already know from my CS education, but the consensus seems to be it's a good book to learn from.
on “Shared thoughts after 6 years in Pentesting” ↗