Book reviews

So I finally got around to writing a review for Justin Seitz's new No Starch Press book Gray Hat Python (Official Website / Amazon). Unlike the other No Starch Press books I reviewed in the last months my copy of Gray Hat Python is not a free review copy. I actually bought Gray Hat Python because I wanted to support Justin Seitz who I met at this year's CanSecWest conference for the first time. And because Justin seems to be a pretty nice guy I will punch a bit harder in this review than I usually do (unless the reviewed book really sucks) by giving unsolicited advice on how to improve the book for the second edition.

What is Gray Hat Python all about? The back cover of the book describes it like this: "Gray Hat Python explains the concepts behind hacking tools and techniques like debuggers, trojans, fuzzers, and emulators." And all of that using Python code and popular Python libraries. How awesome is that? Pretty awesome I thought when I first heard about the book. So awesome in fact that several months before the book was published I actually sent Justin an email asking him if everything's fine because I was concerned that the publisher is imposing stuff on him which could lead to a shitty book (see: Reverse Engineering Code with IDA Pro; if you ever meet any of the authors of that book ask them to tell you just how much Syngress sucks; it's an entertaining story).