Book Image

Mastering Python for Networking and Security - Second Edition

By : José Ortega
Book Image

Mastering Python for Networking and Security - Second Edition

By: José Ortega

Overview of this book

It’s now more apparent than ever that security is a critical aspect of IT infrastructure, and that devastating data breaches can occur from simple network line hacks. As shown in this book, combining the latest version of Python with an increased focus on network security can help you to level up your defenses against cyber attacks and cyber threats. Python is being used for increasingly advanced tasks, with the latest update introducing new libraries and packages featured in the Python 3.7.4 recommended version. Moreover, most scripts are compatible with the latest versions of Python and can also be executed in a virtual environment. This book will guide you through using these updated packages to build a secure network with the help of Python scripting. You’ll cover a range of topics, from building a network to the procedures you need to follow to secure it. Starting by exploring different packages and libraries, you’ll learn about various ways to build a network and connect with the Tor network through Python scripting. You will also learn how to assess a network's vulnerabilities using Python security scripting. Later, you’ll learn how to achieve endpoint protection by leveraging Python packages, along with writing forensic scripts. By the end of this Python book, you’ll be able to use Python to build secure apps using cryptography and steganography techniques.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Python Environment and System Programming Tools
4
Section 2: Network Scripting and Extracting Information from the Tor Network with Python
8
Section 3: Server Scripting and Port Scanning with Python
12
Section 4: Server Vulnerabilities and Security in Python Modules
16
Section 5: Python Forensics

Logging in Python

When you write scripts that are run from the command line, the messages usually appear in the same terminal where they are running. We can improve this aspect by introducing some type of message recording mechanism, either in a file or in a database.

Python provides the Logging module (https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.html) as a part of the standard library. Logging in Python is built around a hierarchical structure of logger instances. Among the main use cases of this module, we can highlight the following:

  • Debugging: Where source code is examined when searching for bugs and errors.
  • IT Forensic Analysis: In order to identify the cause of security incidents, such as hacker attacks, we may have a log file available.
  • IT Audit: A log audit can help determine whether user actions are occurring as expected and whether the security and integrity of the data are guaranteed.

After introducing the logging module, we will continue to study...