What is a penetration test?
Penetration testing, often called “pentesting”,“pen testing”, or “security testing”, is the practice of attacking your own or your clients’ IT systems in the same way a hacker would to identify security holes. Of course, you do this without actually harming the network. The person carrying out a penetration test is called a penetration tester or pentester.
Performed for: Websites/Servers/Networks
1. It starts with a list of Vulnerabilities/potential problem areas that would cause a security breach for the systems.
2. If possible, this list of items has to be ranked in the order of priority/criticality
3. Devise penetration tests that would work (attack your system) from both within the network and outside (externally) to determine if you can access data/network/server/website unauthorized.
4. If the unauthorized access is possible, the system has to be corrected and the series of steps need to be re-run until the problem area is fixed.
2. If possible, this list of items has to be ranked in the order of priority/criticality
3. Devise penetration tests that would work (attack your system) from both within the network and outside (externally) to determine if you can access data/network/server/website unauthorized.
4. If the unauthorized access is possible, the system has to be corrected and the series of steps need to be re-run until the problem area is fixed.
Metasploit
This is the most advanced and popular Framework that can be used to for pen-testing. It is based on the concept of ‘exploit’ which is a code that can surpass the security measures and enter a certain system. If entered, it runs a ‘payload’, a code that performs operations on a target machine, thus creating the perfect framework for penetration testing.
Wireshark
This is basically a network protocol analyzer –popular for providing the minutest details about your network protocols, packet information, decryption etc. It can be used on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many other systems. The information that is retrieved via this tool can be viewed through a GUI, or the TTY-mode TShark utility.
w3af
W3afis a Web Application Attack and Audit Framework.
Some of the features are: fast HTTP requests, integration of web and proxy servers into the code, injecting payloads into various kinds of HTTP requests etc.
CORE Impact
CORE Impact Pro can be used to test mobile device penetration, network/network devise penetration, password identification and cracking, etc. It has a command-line and a GUI clickable interface, works Microsoft Windows.
Back Track
Back Track works only on Linux Machines. The new version is called Kali Linux. This is one of the best tools available for Packet sniffing and injecting. An expertise in TCP/IP protocol and networking are key to succeed using this tool.
Netsparker
Netsparker comes with a robust web application scanner that will identify vulnerabilities, suggest remedial action etc. This tool can also help exploit SQL injection and LFI (local file induction). It has a command-line and GUI interface, works only on Microsoft Windows.
Nessus
Nessus also is a scanner and one that needs to be watched out for. It is one of the most robust vulnerability identifier tools available. It specializes in compliance checks, Sensitive data searches, IPs scan, website scanning etc.
Burpsuite
Burp suite is also essentially a scanner (with a limited “intruder” tool for attacks), although many security testing specialists swear that pen-testing without this tool is unimaginable.
Cain & Abel
If cracking encrypted passwords or network keys is what you need, then Cain& Abel is the tool for you. It uses network sniffing, Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, cache uncovering and routing protocol analysis methods to achieve this.
Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)
ZAP is a completely free to use, scanner and security vulnerability finder for web applications. ZAP includes Proxy intercepting aspects, variety of scanners, spiders etc.
Acunetix
Acunetix is essentially a web vulnerability scanner targeted at web applications. It provides SQL injection, cross site scripting testing, PCI compliance reports etc. along with identifying a multitude of vulnerabilities.
John The Ripper
Another password cracker in line is, John the Ripper. This tool works on most of the environments, although it’s primarily for UNIX systems. It is considered one of the fastest tools in this genre. Password hash code and strength-checking code are also made available to be integrated to your own software/code which I think is very unique.
Retina
As opposed to a certain application or a server, Retina targets the entire environment at a particular company/firm. It comes as a package called Retina Community. It is a commercial product and is more of a vulnerability management tool more than a pen-testing tool.
Sqlmap
Sqlmap is again a good open source pen testing tool. This tool is mainly used for detecting and exploiting SQL injection issues in an application and hacking over of database servers. It comes with command-line interface. Platform: Linux, Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows are supported platforms.
Canvas
Immunity’s CANVAS is a widely used tool that contains more than 400 exploits and multiple payload options. It renders itself useful for web applications, wireless systems, networks etc. It has a command-line and GUI interface, works on Linux, Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
Social Engineer Toolkit
The Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET) is a unique tool in terms that the attacks are targeted at the human element than on the system element. It has features that let you send emails, java applets, etc containing the attack code. It goes without saying that this tool is to be used very carefully and only for ‘white-hat’ reasons. It has a command-line interface, works on Linux, Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
Sqlninja
Sqlninja, as the name indicates is all about taking over the DB server using SQL injection in any environment. This product by itself claims to be not so stable its popularity indicates how robust it is already with the DB related vulnerability exploitation. It has a command-line interface, works on Linux, Apple Mac OS X and not on Microsoft Windows.
Nmap
“Network Mapper” though not necessarily a pen-testing tool, it is a must-have for the ethical hackers. This is a very popular tool that predominantly aids in understanding the characteristics of any target network. The characteristics can include: host, services, OS, packet filters/firewalls etc.
BeEF
BeEF is short for The Browser Exploitation Framework. It is a penetration testing tool that focuses on the web browser- what this means is that, it takes advantage of the fact that an open web-browser is the window(or crack) into a target system and designs its attacks to go on from this point on . It has a GUI interface, works on Linux, Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
Dradis
Dradis is an open source framework (a web application) that helps with maintaining the information that can be shared among the participants of a pen-test. The information collected helps understand what is done and what needs to be done. It achieves this purpose by the means of plugins to read and collect data from network scanning tools, like Nmap, w3af, Nessus, Burp Suite, Nikto and many more. It has a GUI interface, works on Linux, Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
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