Pentesting APIs. A practical guide to discovering, fingerprinting, and exploiting APIs

Maurício Harley

Understanding API security is crucial as APIs form the backbone of modern interconnected applications, making them prime targets for cyberattacks. Drawing on nearly 30 years of cybersecurity experience and an extensive background in network security and forensic analysis, this book provides the knowledge and tools to strengthen your API security practices and protect against cyber threats comprehensively.This book begins by establishing a foundational understanding of APIs, particularly focusing on REST and GraphQL, emphasizing their critical role and potential security vulnerabilities. It guides you through setting up a penetration testing environment to ensure the practical application of concepts. You’ll learn reconnaissance techniques, information-gathering strategies, and the discovery of API vulnerabilities. Authentication and authorization testing are thoroughly explored, covering mechanisms, weaknesses, and methods to bypass security controls. By comprehensively addressing these aspects, the book equips you to understand, identify, and mitigate risks, strengthening API security and effectively minimizing potential attack surfaces.By the end of this book, you’ll have developed practical skills to identify, exploit, and secure APIs against various vulnerabilities and attacks.

Python: Real World Machine Learning. Take your Python Machine learning skills to the next level

Prateek Joshi, Luca Massaron, John Hearty, Alberto Boschetti, ...

Machine learning is increasingly spreading in the modern data-driven world. It is used extensively across many fields such as search engines, robotics, self-driving cars, and more. Machine learning is transforming the way we understand and interact with the world around us.In the first module, Python Machine Learning Cookbook, you will learn how to perform various machine learning tasks using a wide variety of machine learning algorithms to solve real-world problems and use Python to implement these algorithms.The second module, Advanced Machine Learning with Python, is designed to take you on a guided tour of the most relevant and powerful machine learning techniques and you’ll acquire a broad set of powerful skills in the area of feature selection and feature engineering.The third module in this learning path, Large Scale Machine Learning with Python, dives into scalable machine learning and the three forms of scalability. It covers the most effective machine learning techniques on a map reduce framework in Hadoop and Spark in Python.This Learning Path will teach you Python machine learning for the real world. The machine learning techniques covered in this Learning Path are at the forefront of commercial practice.This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products:? Python Machine Learning Cookbook by Prateek Joshi? Advanced Machine Learning with Python by John Hearty? Large Scale Machine Learning with Python by Bastiaan Sjardin, Alberto Boschetti, Luca Massaron

Blender 3D Asset Creation for the Metaverse. Unlock endless possibilities with 3D object creation, including metaverse characters and avatar models

Vinicius Machado Venâncio

If you are familiar with modeling, this book will help you discover a practical and efficient workflow designed to accelerate your asset creation process for use in multiple projects, including games and the metaverse.Complete with shortcuts and tips on how to speed up the process, this book guides you in modeling assets and characters with the help of references. You’ll learn how to optimize the modeled asset for maximum rendering performance within game engines and the metaverse. Next, you’ll get to grips with unwrapping the 3D model for texturing and explore multiple texturing techniques to breathe life into your 3D models. Finally, you’ll integrate the 3D model to work seamlessly across a myriad of programs and game engines.By the end of this book, you’ll have the skills to efficiently create any type of 3D asset from scratch for use in renders, animations, or immersive gaming experiences.

Hands-On Artificial Intelligence for Banking. A practical guide to building intelligent financial applications using machine learning techniques

Jeffrey Ng, Subhash Shah

Remodeling your outlook on banking begins with keeping up to date with the latest and most effective approaches, such as artificial intelligence (AI). Hands-On Artificial Intelligence for Banking is a practical guide that will help you advance in your career in the banking domain. The book will demonstrate AI implementation to make your banking services smoother, more cost-efficient, and accessible to clients, focusing on both the client- and server-side uses of AI.You’ll begin by understanding the importance of artificial intelligence, while also gaining insights into the recent AI revolution in the banking industry. Next, you’ll get hands-on machine learning experience, exploring how to use time series analysis and reinforcement learning to automate client procurements and banking and finance decisions. After this, you’ll progress to learning about mechanizing capital market decisions, using automated portfolio management systems and predicting the future of investment banking. In addition to this, you’ll explore concepts such as building personal wealth advisors and mass customization of client lifetime wealth. Finally, you’ll get to grips with some real-world AI considerations in the field of banking. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the skills you need to navigate the finance domain by leveraging the power of AI.

PHP 7 Programming Blueprints. Rethink PHP

Jose Palala, Martin Helmich

When it comes to modern web development, performance is everything. The latest version of PHP has been improvised and updated to make it easier to build for performance, improved engine execution, better memory usage, and a new and extended set of tools. If you’re a web developer, what’s not to love? This guide will show you how to make full use of PHP 7 with a range of practical projects that will not only teach you the principles, but also show you how to put them into practice. It will push and extend your skills, helping you to become a more confident and fluent PHP developer.You’ll find out how to build a social newsletter service, a simple blog with a search capability using Elasticsearch, as well as a chat application. We’ll also show you how to create a RESTful web service, a database class to manage a shopping cart on an e-commerce site and how to build an asynchronous microservice architecture. With further guidance on using reactive extensions in PHP, we’re sure that you’ll find everything you need to take full advantage of PHP 7. So dive in now!

Hands-On Ensemble Learning with Python. Build highly optimized ensemble machine learning models using scikit-learn and Keras

George Kyriakides, Konstantinos G. Margaritis

Ensembling is a technique of combining two or more similar or dissimilar machine learning algorithms to create a model that delivers superior predictive power. This book will demonstrate how you can use a variety of weak algorithms to make a strong predictive model.With its hands-on approach, you'll not only get up to speed with the basic theory but also the application of different ensemble learning techniques. Using examples and real-world datasets, you'll be able to produce better machine learning models to solve supervised learning problems such as classification and regression. In addition to this, you'll go on to leverage ensemble learning techniques such as clustering to produce unsupervised machine learning models. As you progress, the chapters will cover different machine learning algorithms that are widely used in the practical world to make predictions and classifications. You'll even get to grips with the use of Python libraries such as scikit-learn and Keras for implementing different ensemble models.By the end of this book, you will be well-versed in ensemble learning, and have the skills you need to understand which ensemble method is required for which problem, and successfully implement them in real-world scenarios.

Monitoring with Opsview. Once you've learnt Opsview monitoring, you can keep watch over your whole IT environment, whether physical, virtual, or private cloud. This book is the perfect introduction, featuring lots of screenshots and examples for fast learning

Alan S Wijntje

Monitoring increasingly complex IT environments can pose quite a challenge. Virtualization and cloud-based applications are finding their way into many IT estates over the world. Keeping a watchful eye out for your infrastructure is now more important than ever, and Opsview allows you to do just that.Monitoring with Opsview is a practical guide to the entire Opsview product range, consisting of various examples and screenshots to help you get up and running with Opsview. This book will show you the powerful features and modules available in Opsview, and will help you create an Opsview-based monitoring system suited for your needs.Starting with the installation of your own Opsview Core system, we will then go through the basic configuration followed by the various special features of the system, using practical examples to show how we can make use of these features. After covering the Core system, we will later look at the Pro and Enterprise offerings and how their additional features can benefit you.You will learn about the unique features of Opsview like viewing (and interacting with) your IT estate from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, creating special views with keywords, and using templates for fast configurations. From there, we will move on to the Pro and Enterprise systems, looking at the powerful modules available like distributed monitoring and reporting, and finishing it all off with a discussion of the eye-catching dashboards.Monitoring with Opsview will show you the power of the Opsview system, keywords, attributes, dashboards, and all the tools you need to get that single view into your entire IT estate.

Modern Python Cookbook. 133 recipes to develop flawless and expressive programs in Python 3.8 - Second Edition

Steven F. Lott

Python is the preferred choice of developers, engineers, data scientists, and hobbyists everywhere. It is a great language that can power your applications and provide great speed, safety, and scalability. It can be used for simple scripting or sophisticated web applications. By exposing Python as a series of simple recipes, this book gives you insight into specific language features in a particular context. Having a tangible context helps make the language or a given standard library feature easier to understand.This book comes with 133 recipes on the latest version of Python 3.8. The recipes will benefit everyone, from beginners just starting out with Python to experts. You'll not only learn Python programming concepts but also how to build complex applications.The recipes will touch upon all necessary Python concepts related to data structures, object oriented programming, functional programming, and statistical programming. You will get acquainted with the nuances of Python syntax and how to effectively take advantage of it.By the end of this Python book, you will be equipped with knowledge of testing, web services, configuration, and application integration tips and tricks. You will be armed with the knowledge of how to create applications with flexible logging, powerful configuration, command-line options, automated unit tests, and good documentation.

SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook. Over 80 recipes to help you build, customize, and distribute reports using SAP BusinessObjects

Yoav Yohav

Learn Power BI. A beginner's guide to developing interactive business intelligence solutions using Microsoft Power BI

Greg Deckler

To succeed in today's transforming business world, organizations need business intelligence capabilities to make smarter decisions faster than ever before. This Power BI book is an entry-level guide that will get you up and running with data modeling, visualization, and analytical techniques from scratch.You'll find this book handy if you want to get well-versed with the extensive Power BI ecosystem. You'll start by covering the basics of business intelligence and installing Power BI. You'll then learn the wide range of Power BI features to unlock business insights. As you progress, the book will take you through how to use Power Query to ingest, cleanse, and shape your data, and use Power BI DAX to create simple to complex calculations. You'll also be able to add a variety of interactive visualizations to your reports to bring your data to life. Finally, you'll gain hands-on experience in creating visually stunning reports that speak to business decision makers, and see how you can securely share these reports and collaborate with others.By the end of this book, you'll be ready to create simple, yet effective, BI reports and dashboards using the latest features of Power BI.

Zed Attack Proxy Cookbook. Hacking tactics, techniques, and procedures for testing web applications and APIs

Ryan Soper, Nestor N Torres, Ahmed Almoailu

Maintaining your cybersecurity posture in the ever-changing, fast-paced security landscape requires constant attention and advancements. This book will help you safeguard your organization using the free and open source OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) tool, which allows you to test for vulnerabilities and exploits with the same functionality as a licensed tool. Zed Attack Proxy Cookbook contains a vast array of practical recipes to help you set up, configure, and use ZAP to protect your vital systems from various adversaries. If you're interested in cybersecurity or working as a cybersecurity professional, this book will help you master ZAP.You’ll start with an overview of ZAP and understand how to set up a basic lab environment for hands-on activities over the course of the book. As you progress, you'll go through a myriad of step-by-step recipes detailing various types of exploits and vulnerabilities in web applications, along with advanced techniques such as Java deserialization.By the end of this ZAP book, you’ll be able to install and deploy ZAP, conduct basic to advanced web application penetration attacks, use the tool for API testing, deploy an integrated BOAST server, and build ZAP into a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline.

Learn Azure Sentinel. Integrate Azure security with artificial intelligence to build secure cloud systems

Richard Diver, Gary Bushey, Jason S. Rader

Azure Sentinel is a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool developed by Microsoft to integrate cloud security and artificial intelligence (AI). Azure Sentinel not only helps clients identify security issues in their environment, but also uses automation to help resolve these issues. With this book, you’ll implement Azure Sentinel and understand how it can help find security incidents in your environment with integrated artificial intelligence, threat analysis, and built-in and community-driven logic.This book starts with an introduction to Azure Sentinel and Log Analytics. You’ll get to grips with data collection and management, before learning how to create effective Azure Sentinel queries to detect anomalous behaviors and patterns of activity. As you make progress, you’ll understand how to develop solutions that automate the responses required to handle security incidents. Finally, you’ll grasp the latest developments in security, discover techniques to enhance your cloud security architecture, and explore how you can contribute to the security community.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to implement Azure Sentinel to fit your needs and be able to protect your environment from cyber threats and other security issues.

The Professional Scrum Master (PSM I) Guide. Successfully practice Scrum with real-world projects and achieve your PSM I certification with confidence

Fred Heath

Ever wondered why you’d use Scrum over other process frameworks? Or what makes Agile just so agile? Or why you should bother with the PSM certification? This book has you covered.The Professional Scrum Master (PSM I) Guide is a comprehensive tutorial that will not only introduce you to the basics of Scrum, but build you up to be ready to pass your PSM I exam first time round. Where other books avoid detail, this guide provides you with detailed practical examples to take you from being an apprentice to becoming a master.Assuming you’re a total beginner, this book will introduce you to Scrum methodologies with detailed use cases, teaching you the secrets of Scrum in such a way that you’ll be well-equipped for the PSM I exam.This book demonstrates the real-world applications of Scrum in a variety of scenarios, all with practical examples.You’ll understand why the structure of your Scrum team matters, what you can achieve with properly planned sprints, and how to create and manage sprint and product backlogs. The chapters are regularly concluded with quizzes relevant to the exam, reinforcing the values you learn on your journey. Finally, it concludes with some exam preparation and myth-dispelling to make sure you have an edge when it comes to earning your certificate. This is a guide that’ll ensure you won’t fall behind in an ever increasingly agile world.

Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop. A practical guide to designing, implementing, and managing Azure Virtual Desktop environments - Second Edition

Ryan Mangan, Neil McLoughlin, Marcel Meurer, Christiaan Brinkhoff

Acquire in-depth knowledge for designing, building, and supporting Azure Virtual Desktop environments with the updated second edition of Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop. With content aligned with exam objectives, this book will help you ace the Microsoft AZ-140 exam.This book starts with an introduction to Azure Virtual Desktop before delving into the intricacies of planning and architecting its infrastructure. As you progress, you’ll learn about the implementation process, with an emphasis on best practices and effective strategies. You’ll explore key areas such as managing and controlling access, advanced monitoring with the new Azure Monitoring Agent, and advanced application deployment. You’ll also gain hands-on experience with essential features like the MSIX app attach, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency. Beyond advancing your skills, this book is a crucial resource for those preparing for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Virtual Desktop Specialty certification.By the end of this book, you’ll have a thorough understanding of the Azure Virtual Desktop environment, from design to implementation.

Hands-On Music Generation with Magenta. Explore the role of deep learning in music generation and assisted music composition

Alexandre DuBreuil

The importance of machine learning (ML) in art is growing at a rapid pace due to recent advancements in the field, and Magenta is at the forefront of this innovation. With this book, you’ll follow a hands-on approach to using ML models for music generation, learning how to integrate them into an existing music production workflow. Complete with practical examples and explanations of the theoretical background required to understand the underlying technologies, this book is the perfect starting point to begin exploring music generation.The book will help you learn how to use the models in Magenta for generating percussion sequences, monophonic and polyphonic melodies in MIDI, and instrument sounds in raw audio. Through practical examples and in-depth explanations, you’ll understand ML models such as RNNs, VAEs, and GANs. Using this knowledge, you’ll create and train your own models for advanced music generation use cases, along with preparing new datasets. Finally, you’ll get to grips with integrating Magenta with other technologies, such as digital audio workstations (DAWs), and using Magenta.js to distribute music generation apps in the browser.By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed with Magenta and have developed the skills you need to use ML models for music generation in your own style.

Azure Active Directory for Secure Application Development. Use modern authentication techniques to secure applications in Azure

Sjoukje Zaal

Azure Active Directory for Secure Application Development is your one-stop shop for learning how to develop secure applications using modern authentication techniques with Microsoft Azure AD. Whether you’re working with single-tenant, multi-tenant, or line-of-business applications, this book contains everything you need to secure them.The book wastes no time in diving into the practicalities of Azure AD. Right from the start, you’ll be setting up tenants, adding users, and registering your first application in Azure AD. The balance between grasping and applying theory is maintained as you move from the intermediate to the advanced: from the basics of OAuth to getting your hands dirty with building applications and registering them in Azure AD. Want to pin down the Microsoft Graph, Azure AD B2C, or authentication protocol best practices? We’ve got you covered. The full range of Azure AD functionality from a developer perspective is here for you to explore with confidence.By the end of this secure app development book, you’ll have developed the skill set that so many organizations are clamoring for. Security is mission-critical, and after reading this book, you will be too.