The cyber threat landscape is continuously evolving. A large number of business firms have witnessed cyber-attacks related to COVID-19 in the year 2020. Cyber-attacks are getting more sophisticated and evolved than before. Thus, ensuring the safety of valuable information systems is the need of the hour for the organizations.Many organizations are hiring penetration testers to check the susceptibility of their IT environments. A penetration tester evaluates and exploits the vulnerabilities in applications, networks, or security infrastructure of an organization by mimicking a real cyber-attack. Penetration testing tools help in the automation of the penetration testing process.Below is the list of the best penetration testing tools used by the penetration testers to identify and exploit vulnerabilities:Nmap
Nmap (Network mapper) is a free and open-source tool used to scan ports and explore networks for vulnerabilities. Nmap is a handy tool for gathering information as it can detect open ports, applications, operating systems, and versions used by the target machine. Nmap is available both in the GUI (Graphical user interface) and CLI (command-line interface) versions.Supported platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, Amiga, Sun OS.
MetasploitMetasploit is a widely used penetration testing tool. It discovers vulnerabilities, manages security assessment, and helps in formulating defense strategies for exploitation. Metasploit has a large database of exploits to get a penetration testing team inside the target system. It can be used on networks, servers, and applications.Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux.
WiresharkWireshark is a pen-testing tool used as a network analyzer, network sniffer, or network protocol analyzer for evaluating the vulnerabilities in a network. It provides minute details of network traffic. Wireshark can capture the data packets in real-time and find out its origin and destination.Supported platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS, and Solaris.
BurpsuiteBurpsuite is used to examine the security of web-based applications. It can perform different security tests, including mapping of the attack surface of the application, analyzing request and response occurring between browser and servers.Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux.
WPScanWPScan is an open-source tool that is used to detect security issues in WordPress sites. It can scan the WordPress sites for vulnerable WP versions, plugins, themes, and perform a brute-force attack to check the susceptibility of websites. WPscan has its own database for known vulnerabilities.Supported platform: Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Hydra
Hydra is a famous password cracker and pen-testing tool that uses a brute-force attack to try different login combinations. It can perform attacks against a number of protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, SMB, FTP, RDP, and Telnet.Supported platforms: Windows, Linux, Solaris, and macOS.
SqlmapSqlmap is an open-source penetration tool that helps in detecting and exploiting the possible SQL injection flaws in a website. This automated testing tool can extract data from a database, column, and tables. It offers various salient features, including database fingerprinting, remote commands, and its detection engine and much more.Supported platforms: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, Microsoft Access, IBM DB2, SQLite, Firebird, Oracle.The risk associated with penetration testingAn organization should hire experienced and reliable penetration tester. Suppose the pen tester is not well versed. In that case, Penetration testing may end up with the loss of sensitive data, corrupted systems, and crashing of servers.Actions to take before performing penetration testingAn organization must create a backup plan and a dedicated response team to handle the situation if anything goes wrong. It is essential to decide which part of the security infrastructure should be tested. The services and processes during penetration testing should remain unaffected.Since penetration testing teams can obtain critical information while testing, organizations need to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the penetration testing team, maintaining confidentiality.Penetration testing team should not be allowed to do certain things such as modification in any record, alteration of original penetration testing tool configuration, and hiding penetration testing traces.ConclusionPenetration tests enable an organization to take preventive measures before a real cyber-attack occurs. The penetration testers use the same methodologies and tools as used by an actual attacker to break into the systems and check for vulnerabilities.Infosec Train offers various certified training programs for those professionals who are willing to become an elite penetration tester. Our dedicated labs provide a hands-on practical environment where candidates will be able to perform the best tricks to evade modern security infrastructures.
