Antonio Nappa is the author of Fuzzing Against the Machine, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Antonio: We thought that there were many scattered information on internet, we wanted to provide a clear and structured content to access very valuable information.
Q: What is the name of your book?
Antonio: Fuzzing Against the Machine: Automate vulnerability research with emulated IoT devices on QEMU.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Antonio: The work lasted 4 years before reaching the idea of making a book, it includes personal job, students B.Sc. final work. All served to a purpose which was shedding light on the topic.
Q: Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Antonio No, I don’t have a personal blog.
Q: What key takeaways do you want readers to come away with from the book?
Antonio: Chose your platform, emulate it, and find vulnerabilities!
Q: Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Antonio: https://github.com/antonio-morales/Fuzzing101
https://airbus-seclab.github.io/qemu_blog/
Q. Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Antonio: Having good reviewers makes you humble and makes your writing better and effective. Clarifying the concepts and rewriting was hard, code parts were not so much, besides exploits.
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Antonio: I liked the finalization process and also the patience when we decided to add super valuable chapters on iOS and Android.
Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Antonio: There’s no alternative right now. This is the book if you want to know what is fuzzing about and what is fuzzing about devices or programs that execute on machines different than your PC.
Q. What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Antonio: Computer Security.
Q. What advice would you give to readers jumping into this technology? Do you have any top tips?
Antonio: Be patient, things come together with time.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Antonio: I am an ACM member a university Professor and a Security Researcher.
Q. What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Antonio: These technologies are the past the present and the future, their scalability will be the key factor. Their support although not general will be customized and adapted by every vendor.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Antonio: I did, it was hard sometimes. I have kids an family. The deal was understanding the estimate time for writing the chapter, talk with my super valuable co-author and get the work done.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Antonio: Communication of ACM, Twitter, IEEE S&P.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, mention them below.
Antonio: Here you go: @jeppojeps
Q: What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Antonio: Structure of the book, if you have it clear and definitive before it may help a lot. This was our first book, we had some bumps that thanks to experience we overcome. Though if I’d redo it, I’d spend more time on structure. Sometimes though new ideas may come into the plot and one may balance tradeoffs.
You can find Antonio’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
