Kali Linux is a powerful open-source operating system designed specifically for ethical hackers and security professionals. It also comes with a wide range of tools that can be used to assess the security of networks, systems and applications. In this article we are talking about Best Kali Linux Tools for Ethical Hackers
These tools are designed to help ethical hackers perform reconnaissance, scanning, exploit, post-exploit activities, and other tasks related to ethical hacking. With these tools, ethical hackers can identify vulnerabilities in their target systems and take appropriate measures to protect them against malicious attackers.
Furthermore, they can also use these tools to perform penetration testing activities to evaluate the effectiveness of their security measures.
1. Nmap
Nmap is an open-source network scanner for reconfiguring and scanning networks. It’s used to discover hosts, ports, and services, as well as their versions, throughout a network. It transmits packets to the host and then analyses the responses to get the desired results. It might potentially be used for host finding, operating system detection, or port scanning. It’s one of the most widely used reconnaissance tools.
- To get the IP address, use the ping command on the host.
ping hostname
- Open the terminal and enter the following command there:
nmap -sV ipaddress
- Change the IP address to that of the host you want to scan.
- It will display all of the host’s captured information.
2. WhatWeb
WhatWeb is a website fingerprinting application. It recognises websites such as content management systems (CMS), blogging platforms, statistical/analytic software, JavaScript libraries, web servers, and embedded devices.
WhatWeb contains over 1700 plugins, each of which recognises a different thing. WhatWeb can also recognise version numbers, email addresses, account IDs, web framework modules, SQL problems, and other information.
Here’s an example command to run WhatWeb against a target website:
whatweb http://example.comHere are some commonly used options with the WhatWeb command:
-hor--help: Displays the help message, describing the available options and usage.-a <user-agent>or--user-agent=<user-agent>: Specifies a custom user agent string to be used in HTTP requests.-vor--verbose: Enables verbose output, providing more detailed information during the scanning process.-t <timeout>or--timeout=<timeout>: Sets the timeout value for HTTP requests. The default timeout is 10 seconds.-r <recursion-depth>or--recursion=<recursion-depth>: Specifies the recursion depth for scanning linked pages. By default, recursion is disabled.-x <exclude-string>or--exclude=<exclude-string>: Specifies a string to exclude from fingerprinting. WhatWeb will skip any response containing the specified string.-D <dictionary-file>or--dictionary=<dictionary-file>: Uses a custom dictionary file for fingerprinting. This file contains a list of plugins or technologies to be used during scanning.
3. Burp Suite
Burp Suite is a well-known web application security testing programme. It serves as a proxy, so all requests from the browser with the proxy are sent through it. And, as the request runs through the burp suite, we can make changes to it as needed.
Which is useful for testing vulnerabilities like XSS or SQLi, as well as any other web-related issue. Burp suite community edition is free with Kali Linux. But there is a premium edition of this application called burp suite professional. Which has a lot more functionality than burp suite community edition.
Download: https://www.kali.org/tools/burpsuite/
4. WPScan
WPScan is a well-known open-source vulnerability scanner designed specifically for WordPress websites. Security specialists and website managers use it to detect security flaws and potential vulnerabilities in WordPress installations.
WPScan works by executing a series of tests and scans on a specific WordPress website. It analyses typical security flaws such as outdated plugins, theme and core WordPress files, weak passwords, known vulnerabilities, and setup errors. By detecting these flaws, website owners can take the necessary steps to secure their WordPress installation.
WPScan employs a database of known WordPress vulnerabilities and keeps an up-to-date list of vulnerable plugins, themes, and versions. It also has brute-force attack capabilities for determining the strength of passwords used by WordPress users.
5. Lynis
Lynis is a battle-tested security tool for systems running Linux, macOS, or Unix-based operating system. It runs an exhaustive health scan on your systems to help with system hardening and compliance testing. Since 2007, the project has been accessible as open source software under the GPL licence.
System administrators, security experts, and auditors frequently use it to find potential vulnerabilities and incorrect configurations in a system.
Lynis is utilised for a variety of purposes due to its adaptability. Typical Lynis use cases include:
- Security auditing
- Compliance testing (e.g. PCI, HIPAA, SOx)
- Penetration testing
- Vulnerability detection
- System hardening
6. Hydra
Hydra is a powerful and widely used open-source tool for performing online password attacks. It is designed to automate the process of guessing and testing login credentials such as usernames and passwords against a variety of remote services and protocols.
Hydra is primarily used for penetration testing, security audits and ethical hacking purposes to assess password strength and identify potential weaknesses in authentication systems.
Hydra supports a vast range of protocols and services, including:
- Web protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP-POST, HTTP-HEAD, etc.
- Secure Shell (SSH)
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- Telnet
- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
- Post Office Protocol (POP3)
- Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
- Database protocols: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc.
- Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
- VNC (Virtual Network Computing)
- SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
- SMB (Server Message Block) and more.
7. Skipfish
Skipfish is a web application security scanning tool developed by Google. It is designed to identify the vulnerabilities and security issues in web applications. Skipfish works by sending HTTP requests to target applications, analyzing responses, and generating reports of potential vulnerabilities.
It generates an interactive sitemap for the specified site using a recursive crawl and dictionary-based checking. The outputs of a number of active (but potentially non-disruptive) safety tests are annotated on the resulting map. The tool’s final report is intended to serve as a foundation for a professional web application security assessment.
8. John the Ripper
John the Ripper is a famous open source password cracking program. Its purpose is to assist security professionals and system administrators in testing the strength of passwords and identifying weaknesses in password security. John the Ripper can use brute-force attack, such as dictionary attack and hybrid attack to crack the password.
The program supports a wide variety of hash types and encryption techniques, such as Unix Crypt(3) hashes, Windows LM and NTLM hashes, MD5, SHA-1, and many others. Moreover, it can generate suitable password combinations and try to crack them using approaches such as wordlists, rules and management rules.
Also Read:
Do You Know About What These Hacking Tools Can Do.
The 8 Best Free Web Application Penetration Testing Tools
