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Top 10 Ethical Hacking Tools
Even though the software is faster and better at processing data than humans, hackers can still beat computer systems’ automated defenses. This is because hackers are clever and can develop creative solutions that software cannot.
Ethical hacking tools are certain software tools that ethical hackers mainly use to identify any security vulnerabilities in a computer system/network. These ethical hackers use their top-notch skills to probe the system and expose any flaws that could be exploited by malicious hackers.
Once they successfully identify these weaknesses, they inform the system owner so that they can fix them and prevent any potential attacks. If you wish to know more about ethical hacking tools, then continue reading!
Top 10 Ethical Hacking Tools
Below mentioned are the top ten ethical hacking tools. Let’s look at them!
1. Nmap
Nmap, which stands for Network Mapper, is a tool used by ethical hackers to gather information about a target computer system. It can be used on different operating systems, such as Mac, Linux, and Windows. Due to its powerful searching and scanning features, this reconnaissance tool has grabbed a crucial spot in the hacking community.
- Wireshark
This software is available for free as an open-source program. It lets you deeply analyze network traffic in real time. Wireshark is well-known for its sniffing technology that can identify various data security issues and solve general networking problems in any network.
- MetaSploit
This is a framework that helps create and run exploits against a target system. It is often used by newbie ethical hackers to practice their skills. With MetaSploit, users can replicate multiple websites for social engineering and various phishing purposes.
- Acunetix
Acunetix is a tool that helps ethical hackers keep your computer system safe from malicious intruders who are always in search of spots to get in. It keeps a constant check for security problems in web apps using special technology to scan different parts of the code. This helps to protect against different types of attacks.
- Nikto
Being a popular hacking tool that comes with Kali Linux, Nikto is primarily used to check the security of web servers by testing them for any vulnerabilities.
With its simple command-line interface, it’s easy to use against a target. It keeps an eye on various server configuration items such as multiple index files, HTTP server options, SSL support, and parked domain checking.
- SQLninja
This exceptional tool is used by ethical hackers, and it comes bundled with the Kali Linux distribution. SQLninja is primarily designed to target and exploit web applications that use MS SQL Server as the backend database server. Its main purpose is to help identify and fix potential vulnerabilities in a system’s security.
- Netcat
Netcat is a tool used by ethical hackers that can perform a plethora of tasks related to computer networks. It can connect to networks using TCP and UDP protocols and can be used for both attacking and securing a network.
When it comes down to attack, this tool is considered highly customizable using scripts. However, when used for security, it helps to investigate and find problems on a network with ease.
- Burp Suite
This tool is an excellent one when it comes down to gathering information and carrying out attacks. You can easily collect information about a target in one tab and then move it to another tab to launch an attack.
This ethical hacking tool can use a wide range of methods to attack a network, including replay attacks, network flooding, packet reading, and brute-force password cracking.
- SQLmap
SQLmap is a unique hacking tool that is used to attack databases located at the backend of web applications. It tries many a wide range of ways to query data from the database server using SQL.
It is used to exploit the vulnerability, mainly known as SQL injection. This vulnerability happens when the developers do not check the data that comes from users before using it in SQL queries, making the web app highly vulnerable to multiple SQL injection attacks.
- Ettercap
Ettercap is a hacking tool used to perform Man in Middle attacks on LAN networks. It can easily intercept and analyze network packets on various protocols, including Telnet, FTP, IMAP, SMB, MySQL, LDAP, NFS, SNMP, SSH, HTTPS, and more.
It can infect traffic with malware, manipulate traffic between two hosts, sniff passwords, and fake provision certificates. It works on OSI layer two and supports active and passive scans.
Wrapping Up
The security and dependability of corporate information have increased with the development of automated ethical hacking solutions. Finding security flaws in local or remote applications is made easier with the help of penetration testing and reporting activities.
It assists in the quick identification and remediation of system flaws. Turn to Education Nest and enroll in various informative courses to dig deep into the field of cyber security.