Reviews for Beginning ASP.NET Security (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

1. Excellent all round coverage of ASP.net security

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   Beginning ASP.net security begins by introducing the reader to security principals such as defence in depth, never trusting user input etc. The author then ensures the reader understands how the web and ASP.net function by providing an overview of HTTP & ASP.net processing of events, form submissions and Viewstate- all essential concepts to understand the security issues surrounding ASP.net applications.
   
   The book is divided into 16 easy to read chapters. Chapters contain small snippets of code and demonstrate various security issues ensuring the reader understands the problem being discussed. Detailed advice is then given and solutions provided to fix the various issues.
   
   Issues are supplemented with real world examples and the author's own experience (I chuckled at the index server example) and help provide some colour to what can be a difficult topic to keep interesting.
   The book covers all major web based security issues such as XSS, XSRF, Sql Injection and also related topics such as securing IIS and issues surrounding the file system. Important concepts such as encryption, hashing and certificates are also covered in depth. The final chapters cover advanced topics such as CAS, Securing IIS and third party authentication solutions.
   
   So what could be better? very little the book is clear, easy to read and contains concise examples. I would have perhaps liked to see an example of implementing a custom membership provider and a bit more on client side scripting/ajax related issues but the book does a great job covering the major areas and pointing the reader towards further resources.
   
   I liked that the book provides recipes for dealing with complex problems such as implementing certificate based authentication and implementing Open ID. Several useful tools I wasn't aware of are also referenced.
   
   Before I began reading Barry's book although no security expert I considered that I had a pretty good knowledge of security and was glad to see for the most part the book confirmed my understanding! It always surprises me how many web developers have so little knowledge of basic security concepts and best practice. There is no excuse now and if you have never looked into security this book should be required reading!
   
   However don't think that this book has nothing to offer the intermediate/advanced developer as it had many gem's for me (correct implementation of salting passwords, certificates, ViewStateUserKey, WCF security).
   
   This book is a great introduction to security and related concepts and will serve as a useful reference/cook book to more experienced developers.