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Appendix A. Tools
When I was young, I had a lot of fun playing a game called Neuromancer, which takes place in a world created by William Gibson, in the book with
the same name. The game was very good at giving a similar feeling (I now know) to that of a hacker learning about and making his way through a
system for the first time. The Internet was young at the time (1989), but the game had it all: email, newsgroups, servers, hacking, and artificial
intelligence. (I am still waiting for that last one to appear in real life.) I was already interested in programming at that time, but I think the game
pushed me somewhat toward computer security.
In the game, your success revolved around having the right tools at the right time. It did not allow you to create your own tools, so the action was
mostly in persuading shady individuals to give, trade, or sell tools. In real life, these tools would be known under the name exploits. (It was
acceptable to use them in the game because the player was fighting the evil AI.) Now, many years later, it is funny to realize that real life is much
more interesting and creative than any game will ever be. Still, the security business feels much the same as in that game I played ages ago. For
both, it is important to do the following:
Start with a solid understanding of the technology
Have and use the correct tools
Write your own tools
This appendix contains a list of tools you may find useful to perform the activities mentioned throughout the book. While some of these are not
essential (meaning there are lower-level tools that would get the work done), they are great time-savers.