Penetration testing is an essential part of a comprehensive security program. It is a simulated attack on the system or the entire IT infrastructure, exposing the weakness in your core attack vectors, operating systems, network devices, and application software. The idea is to find and secure vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them. Pentesting provides intelligence and insight into how to mature your security organization by understanding how you could be and likely will be attacked and what step you need to take to secure your organization.
In Pentesting, ethical hackers take on criminal hackers' role; in doing so, they will test your sensitive information security like a real criminal. They will try to gain access to your secure data. Pentesters use different-different tools to perform pentesting; a list of pentesting tools is given below:
1) Nmap: Nmap stands for network mapper. Nmap is an information-gathering tool used for reconnaissance. It is an open-source network scanner. It sends packets and analyzes the responses; from these responses, you can find such a vulnerable host on a certain network, open ports, operating system version, and other vulnerabilities. Some basic Nmap commands are :
●
Host scan: nmap -sP
<target IP range>
●
Port scan /TCP
scan: nmap -p [port number] <target IP range>
●
All ports scan:
nmap
-p- <target>
●
Port Service
name: nmap –p[service]<target>
● UDP scan: nmap –sU <target>
2) Metasploit: Metasploit is an exploitation framework means it is a group of tools and utilities put together to make an exploit development. Basically, Metasploit is a penetrating testing platform that allows us to use different modules and find, exploit, and validate vulnerabilities. Some basic Metasploit commands are :
●
To start the
Metasploit framework: msfconsole
●
check for the
basic commands: msf > help
●
check payloads
that are available on the Metasploit framework: msf > show payloads
3) Social Engineering Toolkit: The Social-Engineer Toolkit is an open-source penetration testing framework for social engineering. It is a unique tool that identifies the attacks that are targeted at the human element. It is also an open-source framework.
4) SQLMap: SQLMap is a tool that is used to test SQL injection vulnerabilities. If SQL injection is present, it can also help speed up exploiting the vulnerabilities, assisting the tester in getting results faster, and assisting customers in understanding the code's weakness to address the code.
5) Nessus: Nessus is an open-source and remote security scanner tool that scans network tools and then create a report listing any vulnerabilities discovered. This tool allows you to watch your WiFi network's security by capturing data packets and transporting them to text files for further analysis.
Final words:
This article is a brief introduction to penetration testing and
tools that are widely used in the process. All these tools are open-source and
free. There are several other advanced Penetration Testing Tools also
available, which you can understand in-depth in Advance
Pentesting training. Infosec Train
provides certification training on Advance Pentesting. If you want to be a
certified Pentester, you can check and enroll in our APT certification program.
