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

Chapter 5: Connecting to the Tor Network and Discovering Hidden Services

In recent years, privacy has become one of the fundamentals of security and information technology. At this point, Tor can help us achieve what many users have been asking for to guarantee minimum levels of anonymity. Tor is a global network of computers run by volunteers to provide online anonymity to anyone who needs it.

The chapter will start by explaining how The Onion Router (Tor) Project can help us to research and develop tools for the online anonymity and privacy of its users while they're surfing the internet. Tor does this by setting up virtual circuits between the various nodes that make up the Tor network. We will also study how Tor works from an anonymity point of view, stopping websites from tracking you. Thanks to packages such as requests, socks, and stem, Python lets us simplify the process of searching for and finding secret services. At this point, we will review the crawling method...