Penetration Testing - Tools



Penetration testing, normally consists of information gathering, vulnerability and risk analysis, vulnerability exploits, and final report preparation.

It is also essential to learn the features of various of tools which are available with penetration testing. This chapter provides information and insights about these features.

What are Penetration Testing Tools?

The following table collects some of the most significant penetration tools and illustrates their features −

Tool Name Purpose Portability Expected Cost
Hping

Port Scanning

Remote OC fingerprinting

Linux, NetBSD,

FreeBSD,

OpenBSD,

Free
Nmap

Network Scanning

Port Scanning

OS Detection

Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, OS X, HP-UX, NetBSD, Sun, OpenBSD, Solaris, IRIX, Mac, etc. Free
SuperScan

Runs queries including ping, whois, hostname lookups, etc.

Detects open UDP/TCP ports and determines which services are running on those ports.

Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 Free
p0f

Os fingerprinting

Firewall detection

Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows, and AIX Free
Xprobe

Remote active OS fingerprinting

Port Scanning

TCP fingerprinting

Linux Free
Httprint

Web server fingerprinting SSL detection

Detect web enabled devices (e.g., wireless access points, switches, modems, routers)

Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Win32 (command line & GUI Free
Nessus Detect vulnerabilities that allow remote cracker to control/access sensitive data Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Apple, Oracle Solaris, Windows Free to limited edition
GFI LANguard Detect network vulnerabilities Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows 7 Ultimate/ Vista, Windows 2000 Professional, Business/XP, Sever 2000/2003/2008 Only Trial Version Free
Iss Scanner Detect network vulnerabilities Windows 2000 Professional with SP4, Windows Server 2003 Standard with SO1, Windows XP Professional with SP1a Only Trial Version Free
Shadow Security Scanner Detect network vulnerabilities, audit proxy and LDAP servers Windows but scan servers built on any platform Only Trial Version Free
Metasploit Framework

Develop and execute exploit code against a remote target

Test vulnerability of computer systems

All versions of Unix and Windows Free
Brutus Telnet, ftp, and http password cracker Windows 9x/NT/2000 Free
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