linux

Kali Linux Tools for Hacking and Penetration Testing

1. Nmap

Nmap or “Network Mapper” is one of the most popular tools on Kali Linux for information gathering. In other words, to get insights about the host, its IP address, OS detection, and similar network security.

2. Lynis

Lynis is a powerful tool for security auditing, compliance testing, and system hardening. Of course, you can also utilize this for vulnerability detection and penetration testing as well.

3. WPScan

WordPress is one of the best open source CMS and this would be the best free WordPress security auditing tool. It’s free but not open source.

If you want to know whether a WordPress blog is vulnerable in some way, WPScan is your friend.

4. Aircrack-ng

Aircrack-ng is a collection of tools to assess WiFi network security. It isn’t just limited to monitor and get insights – but it also includes the ability to compromise a network (WEP, WPA 1, and WPA 2).

5. Hydra

If you are looking for an interesting tool to crack login/password pairs, Hydra will be one of the best Kali Linux tools that comes pre-installed.

6. Wireshark

Wireshark is the most popular network analyzer that comes baked in with Kali Linux. It can be categorized as one of the best Kali Linux tools for network sniffing as well.

7. Metasploit Framework

Metsploit Framework is the most used penetration testing framework. It offers two editions – one (open source) and the second is the pro version to it. With this tool, you can verify vulnerabilities, test known exploits, and perform a complete security assessment.

8. Skipfish

Similar to WPScan, but not just focused for WordPress. Skipfish is a web application scanner that would give you insights for almost every type of web applications. It’s fast and easy to use. In addition, its recursive crawl method makes it even better.

9. Maltego

Maltego is an impressive data mining tool to analyze information online and connect the dots (if any). As per the information, it creates a directed graph to help analyze the link between those pieces of data.

10. Nessus

Nessus can help find vulnerabilities that a potential attacker may take advantage of. Of course, if you are an administrator for multiple computers connected to a network, you can make use of it and secure those computers.

11. Burp Suite Scanner

Burp Suite Scanner is a fantastic web security analysis tool. Unlike other web application security scanner, Burp offers a GUI and quite a few advanced tools.

12. BeEF

BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework) is yet another impressive tool. It has been tailored for penetration testers to assess the security of a web browser.

13. Apktool

Apktool is indeed one of the popular tools found on Kali Linux for reverse engineering Android apps. Of course, you should make good use of it – for educational purposes.

14. sqlmap

If you were looking for an open source penetration testing tool – sqlmap is one of the best. It automates the process of exploiting SQL injection flaws and helps you take over database servers.

15. John the Ripper

John the Ripper is a popular password cracker tool available on Kali Linux. It’s free and open source as well.

16. Snort

Want real-time traffic analysis and packet logging capability? Snort has got your back. Even being an open source intrusion prevention system, it has a lot to offer.

17. Autopsy Forensic Browser

Autopsy is a digital forensic tool to investigate what happened on your computer. Well, you can also use it to recover images from SD card. It is also being used by law enforcement officials. You can read the documentation to explore what you can do with it.

18. King Phisher

Phishing attacks are very common nowadays. And, King Phisher tool helps test, and promote user awareness by simulating real-world phishing attacks. For obvious reasons, you will need permission to simulate it on a server content of an organization.

19. Nikto

Nikto is a powerful web server scanner – that makes it one of the best Kali Linux tools available. It checks in against potentially dangerous files/programs, outdated versions of server, and many more things.

20. Yersinia

Yersinia is an interesting framework to perform Layer 2 attacks (Layer 2 refers to the data link layer of OSI model) on a network. Of course, if you want a network to be secure, you will have to consider all the seven layers. However, this tool focuses on Layer 2 and a variety of network protocols that include STP, CDP, DTP, and so on.

21. Social Engineering Toolkit (SET)

Social engineering is a big deal and with SET tool, you can help protect against such attacks.