Arch Linux

zakstar

Member

Registered: 2013-12-03

Posts: 2

what opportunities can arch offer to a fresh graduate like me??

i have just completed my engineering from I.T . and has pursued training in cisco security administration(CCNA security) as i was always interested in computer security practices... i cant explain how fascinating i find reading and understanding cryptographic protocols. but i have realized that cisco administration is just maintenance... there is no crytographic implementation or any security implementation, it is just  about turning things on and off which have already been deployed... unlike me who finds the art of creativity more interesting than the art of maintaining ....

and the security practice is such that u cant secure anything until u know how it works....  so i want to learn Operating Systems and start developing what ever i can in it.... because all the configurations we make as an administrator are inputs to the OS.... i wanna create things instead of maintaining them... and Linux or BSD are the core of all networking Systems or client systems

can you suggest me some skills to perfect myself in to start doing some programming in networking and operating systems(Linux,BSD) ....

Minsc

Member

Registered: 2012-07-16

Posts: 95

Re: what opportunities can arch offer to a fresh graduate like me??

As far as crypto experience goes: install arch, setup dmcrypt or similar, see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Encryption
As for as programming in network/OSs go, grab the linux kernel source code and have a read through. If that's too much, try some basic network programming in C or basic UNIX sockets - reading: http://beej.us/guide/bgipc/ and http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/ are good start.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,791

Re: what opportunities can arch offer to a fresh graduate like me??

Moving to Arch Discussion.

Set up and play with gpg.
Understand the difference between symmetric and asymmetric keys
Understand different asymmetric key technologies (RSA, Elliptic curve)
Understand different symmetric schemes (DES, 3DES, AES)
Study Public Key Infrastructure
Understand key exchange.
Study Hashing.  Learn about Salt.
Learn about attack vectors.

Look at real world best practices.  A really good place to start is with PCI (Payment Card Industry) DSS (Data security standards.).  It has to do with the safequarding of credit and debit card transactions.  Their main site: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/  Many of their documents are publicaly available. 

Arch includes libraries for hashing, 3DES, DES, AES for use in your own code and plenty of user space applications that make use of them

Edit:  Disclaimer:  I am involved in the development of cryptographic Point of Sale financial card readers that are required to meet PCI standards.

Last edited by ewaller (2013-12-03 17:33:46)

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tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: what opportunities can arch offer to a fresh graduate like me??

Not quite what you asked, but you're being a bit dismissive of Cisco there. You've only done CCNA Security, which is the basic entry-level stuff. If you want get all creative about it, you need to continue your studies, and focus on the various Security Specialist certifications.

zakstar

Member

Registered: 2013-12-03

Posts: 2

Re: what opportunities can arch offer to a fresh graduate like me??

  try some basic network programming in C or basic UNIX sockets - reading: http://beej.us/guide/bgipc/ and http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/ are good start.

i know this question might sound childish but i was just wondering .....does sockets and IPC provide enough knowledge needed to program like some of the arch developers ?