Introduction to Python Programming for Security Analysts & Professionals

An Overview of Python

• What is python?
• Python Timeline
• Advantages/Disadvantages of Python
• Getting help with pydoc

The Python Environment

• Starting Python
• Using the interpreter
• Running a Python script
• Python scripts on Unix/Windows
• Editors and IDEs

Getting Started

• Using variables
• Builtin functions
• Strings
• Numbers
• Converting among types
• Writing to the screen
• Command line parameters

Flow Control

• About flow control
• White space
• Conditional expressions
• Relational and Boolean operators
• While loops
• Alternate loop exits

Sequences

• About sequences
• Lists and list methods
• Tuples
• Indexing and slicing
• Iterating through a sequence
• Sequence functions, keywords, and operators
• List comprehensions
• Generator Expressions
• Nested sequences

Working with Files

• File overview
• Opening a text file
• Reading a text file
• Writing to a text file
• Reading and writing raw (binary) data
• Converting binary data with struct

Dictionaries and Sets

• About dictionaries
• Creating dictionaries
• Iterating through a dictionary
• About sets
• Creating sets
• Working with sets

Functions

• Defining functions
• Parameters
• Global and local scope
• Nested functions
• Returning values

Sorting

• The sorted() function
• Alternate keys
• Lambda functions
• Sorting collections

Errors and Exception Handling

• Syntax errors
• Exceptions
• Using try/catch/else/finally
• Handling multiple exceptions
• Ignoring exceptions

Modules and Packages

• The import statement
• Module search path
• Creating modules and Using packages
• Function and Module aliases

Working with Classes

• About o-o programming
• Defining classes
• Constructors
• Methods
• Instance data
• Properties
• Class methods and data

Regular Expressions

• RE syntax overview
• RE Objects
• Searching and matching
• Compilation flags
• Groups and special groups
• Replacing text
• Splitting strings

The Standard Library

• The sys module
• Launching external programs
• The string module
• Reading CSV data

Dates and Times

• Working with dates and times
• Translating timestamps
• Parsing dates from text

Working with the File System

• Paths, directories, and filenames
• Checking for existence
• Permissions and other file attributes
• Walking directory trees
• Creating filters with fileinput
• Security and File Access

Network Services

• Grabbing web content
• Detecting Malformed Input

Writing Secure Python Applications

• Parsing command-line options
• Getting help with pydoc
• Safely handling untrusted data
• Managing eval() permissions
• Potential insecure packages
• Embedding code snippets in Python
• Embedding authentication data in Python
• Potentially dangerous operations:
• File access
• Operating system access
• Calls to external services
• Called to external data sources
• Static analysis tools such as Bandit

Log File Analysis

• Raw log file manipulation
• Fail2Ban
• Customizing Fail2Ban with Python
  

Security Filters

• SQL-Injection Detection
• ModSecurity CRS filtering

Packet Analysis

• Packet Sniffing in Python

Analytics

• Security Logging and Analytics
• Attack Detection and Defense
• Python and Spark High-Level Overview

Bonus Content / Time Permitting
RESTful Web Services

• What is Flask?
• Developing a Flask Web service
• Mapping resources using URLs
• Mapping resources using HTTP
• Negotiating data content

Python Application Security

• OWASP 2021 Top Ten Overview
• Python Code Access Control
• Options for Protecting Data
• Injection and Python
• Python and Data Validation
• Python and XML Processing
• Python and Known Vulnerable Components
• Python and Serialization/Deserialization