Book Review: Operators Handbook

Having had for years a copy of the Red Team Field Manual (RTFM), and the Blue Team Handbook: Incident Response Edition, I recently came across a more up to date book Operator Handbook, subtitled SEARCH.COPY.PASTE.L33T;). Additionally there is a Blueteam Field Manual (BTFM) which I have not bought.

A quick background on the RTFM, BTGM and Blue Team Handbooks, these were designed as references for the respective Cyber Security teams, the RTFM being targeted at Penetration Testers and the BTFM and Blue Team Handbook being for the Cyber defenders. The books differ slightly in their approach the Field Manuals being more the form of cheat sheets with lists of commands and tables of useful data e.g. if you want to run NMAP on a target you would go to the NMAP page and all the flags available for NMAP are listed to aid in its use along with a couple of examples and this requires some previous knowledge of the tools. Blue Team Handbook is more narrative and explanatory in nature giving simple but introductory information about processes and descriptions of tools. Also the Operators Handbook is aimed at Pen Testers and Cyber Defenders and would assist other IT professions.

The first thing you notice about the Handbook is the size, compared to the RTFM this is a fairly chunky handbook.

Operators Handbook, Blue Team Handbook and RTFM.

The Operators Handbook follows a similar pattern to R& BTFMs in that the information is mostly tables of data and cheat sheets. There are a limited number of explanatory texts, one of the more detailed is under the OSINT section which breaks down into small explanatory texts before changing back to the lists.

For me an improvement over the predecessors is that all the tools are listed in alphabetical order, the RTFM broke them down into subject areas such as *nix, Networking and Tips and Tricks, so for me this was just a little too inconvenient to locate the information. The Operator Handbook however, if you are interested in Jenkins Exploits then you can head straight there.

At the start of each tools section is a line which indicates who the tool is for, What type of tool it is, and the operating system or service it relates to, under the section for MIMIKATZ this line tells us its for RED TEAM, is for ESCALATE PRIV and is WINDOWS based, and then follows with a quick two line introduction to the tool and then starts listing the useful commands and lists. The last few of the 436 pages are space for your own notes so you can add anything you need at this point.  

There is an impressive list of tools and techniques within this Handbook, although I did find a few things that we use that were absent. This would be exceptionally useful to have at your fingertips when you need a refresher for those tools that you just don't use that often, or to quickly check something whilst you are learning a new system. The book weighs in at 693 grams and would require consideration before putting in your pack and carrying around every day. 

I'm happy with my purchase and will keep this copy to hand, probably moving this to work, for the price I might purchase the Kindle version to avoid the volume an wight in my backpack on public transport. This would be a handy reference guide for anyone starting life as either a Pen Tester or in a more defensive Cyber-Security role.

As well as the Paperback copy selling for £11.76 there is a Kindle Version for £8.08, the copy I have is V1 which was released on 02 APR 2020

Hill walk starting at Rhewl, near Lllangollen, North Wales

Distance: 5 miles

Start point: The Sun Inn Rhewl, park in the car park, refreshments available from 1700.

Walking: mostly paths, trails or quiet roads, though there are a few difficult areas including a steep slope.

In October last year we popped to North Wales for the day visiting the small town of Mold where we search the local shops for a local walking book. not finding one for the local area, we did find one we liked based in the Llangollen area. Kittiwake walks around Llangollen & the Dee Valley (David Barry)

Driving over the Horseshoe Pass we headed up a side road to The Sun Inn, Rhewl and the start of Walk 17 (Foothills of Moel Morfydd). The Inn allows cars to park in the car park whilst going on walks, although it is suggested that you pop in for a drink when you have finished the walk.

Heading out of the car park down the road you get to walk alongside the side of the River Dee for a short while before heading up into the hills. After a short climb you get a good view along the valley back to Rhewl, before passing over the ridge into the next valley and down again along some roads before heading across a small ford and back onto the main trail. In the guide there it tells you to leave the fence at a second gate and head off at an angle down the hill, do follow the guide, but not too literally at this point as the gate to exit the field is higher up than you would think.

There is a possibility on this hillside to see steam trains travelling along the Dee Valley line. Although there was no steam trains whilst we were there the line of the track was highlighted by a couple of passing Diesel engines.

Following the trail according to the guide book takes you to a disused farm house and then just down from the house a barn (point 3 in the guide), with a number of fences. The guide tells you that at the left of the barn there is a style to climb over before heading up a trail into the hills. Unfortunately the fence and style appear to have deteriorated and been replaced by a gate across the path, although not impassable, the rough ground that it stands in makes it better to head back down to the main path, pass through the gates and walk up the rear of the barn.

Taking care to follow the guide, the next 50 yards are the hardest part of the walk, heading up a steep slope through some trees to the right of a stream, the trail is indistinct and this seems out of place considering the good paths that make up the rest of this walk. I paused a few times wondering if we were heading in the right direction, but as you reach the end of the trees the footpath that you are heading for appears and it starts to make sense again. Although shortly after this the path again disappears but keep following the fence up the hill before the paths become proper trails again.

Shortly after passing point 4 and at the base of the slope, take care if the ferns are tall. As you arrive at the next fence there is a style that you climb over and then shortly after turn and follow the trail on your left rather than heading up the slope.  When we visited the ferns were still up at shoulder height and this completely hid the path other than a small path trodden down through the ferns, I could just see above the ferns, but much shorter that me and all you can see is ferns. Basically head along the slope to meet up with the right edge of the trees in the distance where the path starts to reappear.

After heading down the trails past a cottage we appeared out onto a road with a cottage, the owner of the cottage was out working in his garden and directed us to head through the gate and then down some steps to a path. Following this guidance led us off the trail in the guide and we had to find our own way backto Rhewl. A quick check of the map and we headed straight down into the valley and walked back up the road alongside the Rider Dee to the Sun Inn and the car.

Overall we did enjoy this walk apart from the steep hill by the barn that just takes you the 50 yards to get back on the trail. There were some fantastic views, especially as the trees were starting to chagne into their autumn colours. At times we were expecting rain, but the weather, although cloudy and windy held out for us.

The walking was mostly on good paths, tracks or quiet roads, the route did go up and down quite a bit, though there was a good bit of downhill towards the end. 

We found the guide book quite well laid out, with easy to follow instructions, the parts were we had problems following was more down to the changing environment and reading the detail in the instructions lead us in the right direction.