Newbie to programming/linux - which language for security engineer?

[Grafter]

Hi all,

First off, great forum! I've been lurking for a while and have played with BT2/3 so firstly thanks to everyone who have already answered my wireless and BackTrack installation questions via the search! :-D Also thanks to all the people who make BackTrack possible - it's an awesome distro although I have reverted to Slack for now to learn the fundamentals.

Anyway, I am a security engineer (mainly Cisco and Checkpoint) who has plenty of experience working with security hardware. I have designed, installed, broken and fixed a whole range of equipment in my 10 years in networking.

However, I've always managed to avoid learning how to program! It's got to the stage however that I really should pull my finger out and learn some.

My questions are:

Which language is good for a beginner who already works in the security field?

What kinds of things will programming allow me to do that I can't do already?

I'm willing to put the hard work in if it will allow me to become better at my job but I'm asking you guys so I can direct my efforts accordingly.

I feel like a bit of an idiot saying I'm a security guy who can't program and is relatively new to Linux!! lol Most of my work involves the configuration and building of firewall and IPS's and I've never really HAD to learn programming - but I want to. :-)

Thanks in advance!

Grafter

[0m3gasw1tch]

I know exactly your situation!

I'd start off with a basic scripting language such as Bash to get your head around the basics of programming constructs (loops, if/then, case, etc). From there you could move into Python or Perl. Python is pretty simple to learn, and there are hundreds of great resources out there for free.

As far as what programming can do for you that you can't already - your imagination is pretty much the limit. You can write some pretty cool tools for security auditing, practise exploiting software (with permission of course), and distributed testing of network objects just for starters. And because languages like Python and Perl are available for just about every platform, your new skills will be transferrable.

For those who have been in the industry a while, it is interesting how the "security" role has changed (some people I know call themselves security professionals because their role is mainly updating AV definitions and performing routine scans). Don't feel like an idiot now for not getting into programming earlier - plenty of time for that when you're knee deep in home-grown programs that make you're life easier (i.e "Why didn't I start this like 10 years ago)



Switch

[vintage]

When I first started to write code on Linux I started with Shell Scripting.
Not sure there's a right way or wrong way to go as all learning is good...I just found it easier with learning Shell first.

[Grafter]

I know exactly your situation!

I'd start off with a basic scripting language such as Bash to get your head around the basics of programming constructs (loops, if/then, case, etc). From there you could move into Python or Perl. Python is pretty simple to learn, and there are hundreds of great resources out there for free.

As far as what programming can do for you that you can't already - your imagination is pretty much the limit. You can write some pretty cool tools for security auditing, practise exploiting software (with permission of course), and distributed testing of network objects just for starters. And because languages like Python and Perl are available for just about every platform, your new skills will be transferrable.

For those who have been in the industry a while, it is interesting how the "security" role has changed (some people I know call themselves security professionals because their role is mainly updating AV definitions and performing routine scans). Don't feel like an idiot now for not getting into programming earlier - plenty of time for that when you're knee deep in home-grown programs that make you're life easier (i.e "Why didn't I start this like 10 years ago)



Switch

Bash it is then! Yeah, the security roles seem to be wide and varied. I've worked in networking for quite a while now but I didn't go to university or college where they usually teach some kind of programming language on the course so I've had to learn everything from books/videos/internet.

In my working environment I'm quite senior but on this forum I feel like a complete newbie! Which is great because that means I have lots of people to learn from!

Grafter

[Oneiroi]

Bash & PHP are my personal preference.

C++ is also a good language to know, but I find I only use it rarely now

[thorin]

Here are a few existing threads related to this topic:
http://forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?t=11797
http://forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?t=13080

[secure_it]

For an ethical hacker/penetration tester and security engineer.you must be good in *NIX shell programming mainly korne,bash and C shell and PHP script,javascript,SQL,Python,perl,java is most imp. cause most of the attacks today like SQL injection need SQL query knowledege and XSS need Javascript and VBscript knowledege.perl & CGI along with ASP has become main target of web application securities.

Secure_it
MS(IT),MCSE:Security,Comptia Security+,CCNA,EC CEH,CCSP,CCIE-Security

[Grafter]

For an ethical hacker/penetration tester and security engineer.you must be good in *NIX shell programming mainly korne,bash and C shell and PHP script,javascript,SQL,Python,perl,java is most imp. cause most of the attacks today like SQL injection need SQL query knowledege and XSS need Javascript and VBscript knowledege.perl & CGI along with ASP has become main target of web application securities.

Secure_it
MS(IT),MCSE:Security,Comptia Security+,CCNA,EC CEH,CCSP,CCIE-Security

How on earth do you find the time to learn and practice everything? I work pretty hard and there still isn't enough hours in the day! I'm doing CCIE Security just now and I'm already CCNP/CCSP/MCSE/CCSE. I've pretty much worked my ass off the past 5 years and yet still don't have a clue about programming.

At the moment my job is network security consultant but it seems like I have at least another five years on the hamster wheel before I'll be accomplished at what I do. Network Security is a very broad subject to learn and work in, which I suppose, is a good thing!

I got some bash scripting instructionals so I am going to go through them, make Linux my OS of choice at home for everyday use and make the programming side of things my hobby for now until I can get some commercial experience on it.

Right now just Linux itself is cheesing me right off but I'll get there eventually and make it my b*tch lol

How did you find the CCIE Sec btw?

Grafter

ps. thanks for all the other replies in the thread

[secure_it]

Currently I am also doing CCIE-Security.playing with CISCO NAC,CSMARS On my laptop only.I been able to get them work on my laptop using Recovery ISO of CSMARS and NAC. as well as cisco IPS too.currently I am playing with the source code of IPS 6.1 so that it can be emulate in VMware.i like to do wireless penetration testing a lot.so 2 things all together.network security as well as information/system security.