In the preface to his book Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
Its important to understand what this book tries to cover. Erikson covers specific hacking techniques. He stays close to Linux and C to illustrate the techniques and he exploits a lot of open source software. The goal is to familiarize the reader with the different modes of exploitations.
Later in the book (Chapter 6), he explains: "The state of computer security is a constantly changing landscape...if you understand the concepts of the core hacking techniques explained in this book, you can apply them in new and inventive ways to solve the problem du jour. Like LEGO bricks, these techniques can be used in millions of different combinations and configurations. As with art, the more you practice these techniques, the better you'll understand them." Clearly, Erickson is passionate about the subject matter he covers in his book.
Any ability to exploit vulnerabilities requires a thorough understanding of the underlying subject. Here, Erikson's book offers a number of quick primers on topics such as C programming and network protocols. These introductions are valuable because they introduce the subject and give you deep dives into specifics. They give you some sense of how hacking can lead to a greater understanding of the system under exploit. For example in Chapter 4, Erikson goes from introducing us to the OSI model to socket programming in four pages. But because of a very engaging writing style, it doesn't feel like a hurried course.
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