Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) Review

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Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) ReviewDavid Solomon's long-awaited update to Helen Custer's original survey of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system is an excellent guide to the internals of the operating system for programmers, systems administrators, and other computer professionals. At 500+ pages, it is chock full of great information about NT that is simply unavailable from any other source. Profusely illustrated and full of very good examples. Custer's original "Inside Windows NT" book was always long on self-congratulations (she apparently was the official "historian" of the project), but short on the kinds of detail that makes hackers drool. It was also written to NT version 3, and is now considerably out to date. Solomon's revision is a total rewrite that remedies this situation. The book is current on NT 4.0, and even contains a good chapter on upcoming changes in NT 5.0. This book definitely belongs on any Windows NT programmer's bookshelf. Solomon writes in the introduction that he was given access to NT source code, and he demonstrates how to use the kernel debugger to decipher what is happening inside the operating system. Even so, he manages to keep the presentation lively and informative. He also reports he had access to the NT developers themselves to review what he had written, which guarentees the accuracy of the book. In several areas I found concise explanations of features that other less well-connected authors and experts had written either in a vague or contradictory way. I am very grateful for Solomon's book clearing up the confusion in these areas.Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) Overview

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Pthreads Programming: A POSIX Standard for Better Multiprocessing (O'Reilly Nutshell) Review

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Pthreads Programming: A POSIX Standard for Better Multiprocessing (O'Reilly Nutshell) ReviewThe strength of this book is it's brevity: 233 pp of text plus appendices. But the code samples are incomplete (fragments). You'll be able to get an idea of how pthreads work and the methods available, but you'll have a very hard time if you need to actually write code. There is an error on p.126. If you want to write code, get "Programming with POSIX Threads" by David Butenhof. It has complete code examples and is not that much longer: 305 pp of text plus appendices. But I did find this Nichols book helpful when I was curious about pthreads. I commend O'Reilly for the nice illustrations in this book -- above average. They helped convey concepts.Pthreads Programming: A POSIX Standard for Better Multiprocessing (O'Reilly Nutshell) Overview

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Programming Windows with MFC, Second Edition Review

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Programming Windows with MFC, Second Edition ReviewIf I were a practising MFC programmer at the junior or intermediate level, I'd definitely want to have this book as a reference. It is one of the most complete MFC books around, and I like the author's approach of starting off with MFC basics and wrapper classes before moving onto application framework stuff and wizards. This is one of the few books that tells you what's behind some of those macros like DECLARE_DYNCREATE and tells you where to look for it in the source code of MFC itself.
However, if you are new to Visual C++ or have never heard of MFC, this is not the book I would recommend. I would suggest picking up Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 6 instead. Real beginners need a book that tells them how to use the IDE, debug programs, and use the wizards. So what if after reading it, all that wizard generated code becomes a blur to you. That's what Prosise and other more advanced books are for.
I'm an experienced C++ developer and I had read two MFC books (Beginning Visual C++ 6, MFC Programming by Alan Feuer) and Petzold 5th ed before reading Prosise and I still found it a little difficult reading, mostly because it starts off kind of slow (as someone else mentioned too). The chapter I found most difficult was the one on OLE clipboard/drag & drop.
I really recommend reading Petzold 5th ed before reading this or any other intermediate/advanced MFC book. Petzold is more of a beginner's book for Win32 SDK-style GUI programming.Programming Windows with MFC, Second Edition Overview

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A Guide to Kernel Exploitation: Attacking the Core Review

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A Guide to Kernel Exploitation: Attacking the Core ReviewMy colleague showed me this book (full disclosure: he was a reviewer) - he made his students buy it it for his OS II class (assigned middle of the semester!) one week ago - hot off the presses. I got two copies, one for my office and one for reading on the bus.
It's one of three technical exploit books I'd take on a deserted, networked, powered island. Part 1: Journey into Kernel Land (Intro and explanations) is one of the most succinct clear intros I have ever seen. I wish I could distributed that as a document for class. The section on Windows is current and well done, also because the difference between 32 and 64 bit architectures and approaches are emphasized (this is not the case with Eilam's book alas, though very good) - this book is up to date. I think the Unix section needs to be updated, though, my colleague said that some of the exploits were possible in 2006/2007 but with kernel changes some APIs are not available etc. This needs to be updated. Cannot comment on the Mac section, because no expertise.
Website available and examples useful: [...]
Wishlist:
1) There are some unavoidable typos, sure: p.10: MAC is nor Media Access Control in a security context, it's Mandatory Access Control
2) I would have really really like an expanded section on hypervisors and virtualization (there is a mini epilogue on it at the end)- that would have made my day
3) The Linux case study was neat - for next version, do Windows Stuxnet's m.o. because it adds all sorts of interesting kernel root attack pathways
You will not regret buying this book - it is obvious and much appreciated that the authors put a lot of effort into making an readable guide for the medium to expert reader that can double as a textbook companion.
Daniel Bilar
CS Department
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Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition Review

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Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition ReviewThe book "Undestanding the Linux Kernel",
explains clearly the inner workings of the
current 2.6 Linux kernel.
The presentation is at a considerable level of detail,
the authors fully describe the important data structures,
and the significant chunks of code.
The book is indispensable to any serious
Linux kernel developer.
However, it can be used also at the context
of an "Operating Systems Design" academic course
and the students can learn a lot from the
technologically advanced Linux 2.6 kernel implementation
and can modify/recompile and install their own version!
The level of the book is advanced and I recommend
concurrently with it, the reader to study also the
book:
"Linux kernel development" by Robert Love
that presents the algorithms also very clearly,
but with a more academic view,
without zooming to all the implementation concerns.
I own both books and by studing them, I can have
the significant experience of customizing the source code
of the superior Linux 2.6 kernel.
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Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (Pro Developer) Review

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Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (Pro Developer) ReviewLate last week (around 7/2/2009), a small but heavy box showed up at my door. I'd long since forgotten bugging Mark Russinovich last December for a review copy of the latest edition of his Windows internals book: Windows Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, 5th edition, co-authored with David A. Solomon and Alex Ionescu, but there it was in my hot little hands. In my odd free moments since then, I've been plowing through this 1,260 page book to see what's new and interesting -- though I obviously haven't had time to read it in its entirety. Keep that caveat in mind as I extoll this book's many treasures.
Here's another caveat: the primary audience for this book is Windows system developers. They're the people who will get the most out of its contents, and my lack of in-depth Windows system programming experience probably explains why my eyes glaze over and my mind goes on vacation as I look at certain sections in the book.
That said, there's a tremendous wealth of information on Windows in here (and from what I can tell, thanks to having recently updated 9 chapters for the upcoming Pearson title "Windows 7 in Depth" it applies nearly 100% to Windows 7 as well as Windows Vista, thanks to relatively little changes in the kernel and other system facilities between these two most recent desktop Windows versions). In particular, these are the topics that I found most interesting and illuminating as I flipped through the book for a first quick pass over its contents (I'll report again from time to time as I dig more deeply into its contents):
Chapter 2 System Architecture: learned a thing or two about device drivers, and how to find them, in this chapter.
Chapter 3 System Mechanisms: the best coverage of the MS Hyper-V Hypervisor I've ever seen anywhere.
Chapter 4 Management Mechanisms: as in previous versions, this chapter provides some of the best information about how the Windows registry is structured, and how it works, that I've ever seen. Worth the price of admission all by itself.
Chapter 5 Processess, Threads, and Jobs: Here's a tour-de-force illustration of Mark Russinovich's knowledge of Windows internals, and how nicely the SysInternals tools work to reveal their inner workings.
Chapter 6 Security: Provides a killer walkthrough of how Windows performs access checks and uses security identifiers (SIDs) for accounts, groups, and logons. Lots of good detail here on security minutae.
Chapter 7 I/O System: includes great sections on Windows Plug and Play (PnP) operation and facilities, and ditto for ACPI/Power Manager.
Chapter 8 Storage Management: Best discussions of both BitLocker Drive Encyrption and Volume Shadow Copy Servive (VSS) I've seen anywhere.
Chapter 9 Memory Management: Another embarrassment of riches, and also worth the price of the book all by itself, especially the sections on physical memmory limits, working sets, and SuperFetch/ReadyBoost/ReadyDrive.
Chapter 11 File Systems is worthwhile because it pulls info on all the Windows file systems together in one place and because it provides lots of great information on NTFS in particular.
Chapter 12 Networking: lots of good information on the Windows IP stack, NetBIOS, MUP, NLA, LLTD, NAT, and more. I need to spend more time with this chapter to savor it more fully.
Chapter 13 Startup and Shutdown: Great excursions into BIOS boot processes, BCD and Bootmgr, EFI boot stuff, plus more on ReadyBoot/ReadyBoost interaction. The great, great section on troubleshooting boot an startup problems is another gem.
Chapter 14 Crash Dump Analysis: the second on "The Blue Screen" includes a list of the top 30 stop codes for Windows Vista, and included all my old familiars, for sure. The in-depth discussion of crash dump analysis includes basic and advanced sections, and is also sure to reward further study.
Anybody who works with Windows regularly and needs to understand its inner working will find their investment in this book amply repaid. It is worth every bit of the $38 to $70 you'll pay for it by shopping online. My only beef about this book is that it's a monster, at over 1,200 pages and 4.4 pounds, it's a bit too heavy to read in your lap or hold in your hands for very long. You'll want to plant this puppy on a table to flip through its many useful bits of information.
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