Penetration Testing Tools
Penetration testing is applied to counterfeit cyber-attacks to assess the network's security, server, or web application to improve and prevent real threats' exploits by repairing vulnerabilities.
Ethical hackers test to determine how and where a malicious attacker exploits the target networks and makes the client mitigate the weakness before a real attack occurs. To do this penetration testing, some tools are designed to identify “unknown vulnerabilities” in the network applications and software that can cause a security breach.
Penetration testing tools are available to pen testers, but they must choose the best and organize them by category.Third parties perform this testing, but it can be expensive and outdated quickly. Large or even small organizations use these tools to perform penetration testing with their own IT personnel for their red teams (attackers) and save money.
To perform a complete penetration test, organizations and individuals must need several components and buy them. Some complementary technologies are also used to address security holes in the organization system.
List both open source (free) and commercial (paid) penetration testing tool software.
- PowerShell-Suite
PowerShell- Suite tool support the Windows platform a used for automated task discovering the weak exploitable assets on a network. It has a collection of PowerShell scripts that extract information about the processes, DLLs, handlers, and many other aspects of windows machines. These specific tasks are scripted together to quickly navigate and check the system vulnerability on a network. - Zip
The zip testing tool is supported on macOS and various Linux platforms. It's a free and lightweight scanner used to scan everything (from a home network to the entire network) and gather baseline information about a network. It is suitable for information gathering and initial triage of the attack landscape. - Xray
X-ray penetration testing tools support the windows and Linux platforms and are best used for gaining network access without help. This great mapping tool uses the OSINT framework to help guide its tactics. It helps identify open ports on a network by using DNS requests, wordlists, and any API keys from the outside looking in. - Email
This email recon tool is used to scan and identify email-related vulnerabilities. It gathers all the information on the internet regarding someone’s email address. Simply email relies on the harvest solution; for any data, it searches on the internet and provides intelligence around any given email address. This tool support Ubuntu, Kali, macOS, Docker, and Debian platforms and is used to create account lists for enterprise testing engagements.
- Nikto
This testing tool supports Linux and Windows platforms. It is an open source and a loud & proud web application scanning tool as it has web server scanner features, a misconfiguration checker, and a pre-packaged list of potentially dangerous files. Nikto is used by the SOCs or enterprise pen testers having full permission to scan the system in a purple team type exercise. It monitors the scanner activity within a SOC environment. This tool gets the job done without hiding its presence, as it is not trying to be stealthy. - Fuzzdb
Fuzzdb testing tool supports the macOS, Linux, and Windows operating system platforms. Pen testers professionals use this special tool to exploit vulnerabilities in the system or application because it contains pre-built attack payloads to run against web applications. To find out the existence of vulnerabilities by running the discovery scans and performing analysis on the response received from these scans. - Sqlmap
This testing tool supports Microsoft Access, My SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, IBM, Firebird, SQLite, Sybase, and SAP MaxDB platforms. Sqlmap is an open-source penetration testing tool focused on exploiting databases and bringing validity to SQL injection flaws that can affect database servers. It's an automated testing tool with several detailed features, including remote commands, its detection engine, and DB fingerprinting. - Nexway
Nexway is a very powerful penetration testing tool as it works in the fastest and most convenient way by aggregating & normalizing data from pentest tools. This tool provides all security data in one place, project dashboards, custom branded document reports, checklists, pentest methodologies, scan comparisons, API and team collaboration, and some knowledge-based issues. - Nmap
Nmap tool is a powerful and helpful scanning tool to scan large networks. This free, comprehensive, open-source solution uses raw IP packets to identify services and available hosts on the network. Nmap accepts custom scripts and can combine with GUI –a graphical user interfaces like Zenmap. This tool is hard to configure and master as it is full of advanced networking features. It has overwhelming options and an extensive range of commands. This is used to map the public security posture of small and large enterprises like insurance agencies, risk scorers like BitSight, or internet cartographers Like Shodan and Censys. - Burp suit
Burp suite testing tool supports the Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms. This is used by enterprise professionals in charge of application security. It's a go-to tool for pen testing web applications where it does not only vulnerability scanning but also provides full proxy capturing and command injection services. It's a top-rated software tool that does the advanced scans used by researchers, professionals, security teams, and attackers as it is comprehensive and easy to use & configure. It is harder to understand, learn and master this scanner than other scanners. It's an all-in-one solution, but it has many features that are not available in the community edition(free), and the enterprise edition is really expensive. - Invicta
This web application security scanner is available as an on-premises and SAAS solution. This automated tool finds XSS, SQL injection, and other vulnerabilities in the web application and web services. It requires minimal configuration where the scanner detects a custom 404 error page and URL rewrite rules. It provides a fully scalable solution because it features dead-accurate vulnerability detection consisting of unique Proof-Based Scanning Technologies. - Acunetix
This penetration testing tool is a fully automated web application security scanner that scans JavaScript, HTML5, and single-page applications. It's fast and scalable & detects vulnerabilities over 1200 word press core, plugin, and theme. It scans all the variants of XSS, SQL injections, and other additional vulnerabilities. It also deals with authenticated web apps, issues compliance, audit complex, and management report on a wide range of network and web vulnerabilities (out-of-band vulnerabilities too). - Intruder
It's also a powerful automated testing tool that discovers security weaknesses in the IT environment by analyzing and prioritizing scan results. It offers continuous monitoring, leading security checks, and an easy-to-use platform to the leading industries that keep them safe from hackers. It provides threat coverage over 10,000 security checks, including missing patches, configuration weaknesses, application weaknesses like SQL injection & cross-site scripting, and many more. - Catfish
Catfish penetration testing tool supports Linux operating system platform. It searches for some specific sensitive data contained in files or can provide them with additional access (such as password files). This tool makes users search for files containing a particular string with its name by exploring the system. What this tool perform is simple and highly effective. Helpful in searching file names quickly on a machine. - Radar
Radar penetration testing tool support OSX, iOS, Linux, Solaris, Windows, *BSD, and Haiku platforms. This testing tool is used by experience pen testers having vast knowledge of multiple platforms. It is one of the versatile disassembly and widely accepted tools. It has versatile features like data carving capabilities, mobile OS & multiple OS support, visualizing data structure, and file system forensics. - Resource hacker
Resource hacker testing tool supports the Windows platform. It is a reverse engineering tool with GUI (graphical user interface), easily used by novice pen testers. It works as a file editor that allows users to decompile a window file and recompile it at a later time. - IDA
Best tool which supports macOS, Windows, and Linux platforms. Further, it is used and supported in commercial validation testing. It's a Kleenex of interactive disassembler tool as well as a debugger. This tool supports all major OS system types and provides users with a whole solution as a professional. It is suitable for a professional level of malware disassembly. - Gobuster
This penetration testing tool is used to enumerate hidden directories and files quickly & can be used with Kali Linux. This tool uses brute force techniques to discover default directories and file names that are easy to spot. It extracts information like subdomains, directories, and virtual hosts. It can save output results in files and spot backup with configuration files. It accepts additional packages and wordlists, which help hide the process and status. It can be installed as a package using the command sudo apt install Gobuster. - Hydra
This testing tool support macOS, Windows, Linux, and Solaris platform. This tool simultaneously supports multiple protocols and parallel connections as it's a password-cracking tool with a twist. With this feature of hydra, the tester attempt to crack several passwords simultaneously on a different system without losing connection if unbeaten. It's best used by professionals for password cracking. - Hashcat
Sorry, this penetration tool runs best on a modern GPU like Kali VM users. It supports hash cracking on the CPU, which deals with the exfiltration of hashed passwords and exploiting the credentials. Therefore, the Hashcat testing tool is used to crack hashes and many kinds of password guessing brute force attacks (including mask and dictionary attacks). - Metasploit
This testing tool supports Linux, Windows, and macOS platforms. It's an open-source solution available on the internet, gaining popularity over the years. This tool is responsible for completing the task from a penetration perspective, like listening, vulnerability scanning, exploiting known vulnerabilities, and project reporting. It is best to test the multiple application and manage several different companies at once the pen testers. - Medusa
This tool is easy to learn and use and provides concurrency and speed. It's a powerful brute-force tool that supports thread-based parallel testing and can be extended easily. Using the command sudo apt install medusa, this tool can be installed as a Linux package. This tool supports fewer platforms and operating systems than other tools as it lacks documentation. - Other pen test tools
There are some other testing tools you may consider:- Fiddler
- Nessus
- Wp-scan
- Trufflehog
- Wifite
- Ncrack
- Social engineering toolkit (SET)
- Aircrack-ng
- Zed attack proxy
- John, the ripper
- Wireshark
- Kali Linux
- Srm
- Email and chat software
- Apktool
- Linux-Exploit- suggester
- Mob SF
- HCL App scan
- Software vulnerability manager
- Security onion etc.