:: extra ::

Hoglund and McGraw's new book just came out. It's brilliant. Exploiting Online Games: Cheating Massively Distributed Systems is a peek into the future and an amazing recruiting tool all rolled into one.

If you already understand the kinds of security problems today's software creates, then the book gives a view into the kinds of security problems tomorrow's software is going to create. Here's a hint: Time and State. Massive distributed systems can fail in the same ways that centralized (traditional) systems can fail, but they're also likely to run trouble as they try to coordinate critical data between nodes. There is a lot of money flowing through modern games, and so any sort of defect fuels the fight between the game companies and people who seek to profit from them.

But if you just think games are cool and want to know more about what your options are for getting ahead, or if you're trying to figure out why your arch-nemesis from the next dorm building seems to have such good aim with his Crossbow of Ultimate Peril, this book has all sorts of tricks, hacks, code examples, and step-by-step information on how to get inside the mother of all massive multiplayer online games: World of Warcraft (WoW).

When I was in college, there was a whole subculture of people who learned to program so that they could extend and improve Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs), an early forerunner of WoW. This book is going to be the gateway to programming for the WoW generation. And, if everything goes as I'm sure Hoglund and McGraw have planned, those kids won't even know its possible to program without thinking about security.