Ethical hacking is when someone breaks into a computer or network to look for possible threats.
Red teaming, penetration testing, and penetration testing are some other names for ethical hacking.
Hacking is getting into a computer system by finding its weak spots in order to commit scams, steal data, invade privacy, or do other bad things.
Ethical Hackers:
A person who performs the hacking actions is called a hacker.
There are Six types of hackers:
- The Ethical Hacker (White Hat)
- Cracker
- Grey cap
- Script kids
- Hacktivist
- Phreaker
A security professional who uses his/her hacking skills for defensive reasons is called an ethical hacker. Ethical hackers utilise their expertise to identify vulnerabilities, document them, and propose solutions in order to enhance security.
Organisations that offer online services or are interconnected with the internet are obligated to undergo penetration testing conducted by ethical hackers.
Penetration testing is another name for responsible hacking. It can be performed directly or through an automation tool.
Ethical hackers are professionals in computer security. An attempt is made to compromise the security of a programme, network, or computer system. They identify vulnerabilities and provide recommendations or admonitions to fortify the security.
Hacking frequently employs the following programming languages: HTML, SQL, Python, Ruby, Bash, Perl, JavaScript etc.
Few Hacking Certifications include:
- CEH
- GIAC
- OSCP
- CREST
Following Are The Top 10 Hacking Tools Used By Ethical Hackers
#1) Nmap
Price: Free
Nmap functions as a port scanner, security scanner, and network research instrument. It is open-source software and is offered for free.
It has cross-platform support. It is capable of monitoring host and service uptime, administering service upgrade schedules, and conducting network inventory. It can work for a single host as well as big networks. It offers binary packages for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.
Features:
Nmap suite has:
- Data movement, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat),
- Scan results comparing utility(Ndiff),
- Packet generation and response study tool (Nping),
- GUI and Results window (Nping)
Using raw IP messages, it can determine:
- Available hosts on the network.
- Their services offered by these open hosts.
- Their OS.
- Packet filters they are using.
- And many other traits.
- Best For scanning networks. It is easy to use and fast as well.
Website: Nmap
#2) Intruder
Fully automated Intruder detects cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your digital estate, explains the associated risks, and assists with their remediation.
With over 9,000 security checks available, Intruder makes enterprise-grade vulnerability scanning open to companies of all sizes. Its security tests detect common web application issues, including SQL injection and cross-site scripting, in addition to misconfigurations and missing updates.
Constructed by seasoned security experts, Intruder handles a substantial portion of the burden associated with vulnerability management, allowing you to concentrate on what is truly critical. It prioritises results according to their context and continuously scans your systems for the most recent vulnerabilities, thereby conserving your time and relieving you of concern.
Intruder also integrates with big cloud providers as well as Slack & Jira.
Website: Intruder
#3) Metasploit
Price: it is an open-source tool and it can be downloaded for free. Metasploit Pro is a commercial tool. A 14-day trial is provided at no cost. Contact the organisation for additional pricing details.
It is the programme for penetration testing. Using the Metasploit Framework, you can create and execute exploit code against a remote machine. It supports cross-platform.
Features:
- It is useful for knowing about security flaws.
- Helps in security testing.
- Helps in IDS signature creation.
- You can build security testing tools.
- Best For Building anti-forensic and avoidance tools.
Website: Metasploit
#4) Aircrack-Ng
Price: Free
Aircrack-ng offers different tools for evaluating Wi-Fi network security.
All are command-line tools. For Wi-Fi security, it works on monitoring, attacking, testing, and cracking. It supports Linux, Windows, OS X, Free BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, and eComStation 2.
Features:
- Aircrack-ng can focus on Replay attacks, de-authentication, fake access points, and others.
- It allows exporting data to text files.
- It can check Wi-Fi cards and driver features.
- It can crack WEP keys and for that, it makes use of FMS attacks, PTW attacks, and dictionary attacks.
- It can crack WPA2-PSK and for that, it makes use of dictionary techniques.
- Best For Supporting any wireless network interface driver.
Website: Aircrack-Ng
#5) Wireshark
Price: Free
Wireshark is a packet analyzer and can perform deep reviews of many protocols.
It supports cross-platform. It lets you to export the output to different file formats like XML, PostScript, CSV, and Plaintext. It offers the facility to apply coloring rules to packet lists so that analysis will be easier and quicker. The above picture will show the capturing of packets.
Features:
- It can decompress the gzip files on the fly.
- It can decode many protocols like IPsec, ISAKMP, SSL/TLS, etc.
- It can perform live recording and offline analysis.
- It allows you to view the captured network data using GUI or TTY-mode TShark utility.
- Best For Analyzing data packets.
Website: Wireshark
#6) OpenVAS
Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner is a fully-featured tool that can perform unauthenticated & authenticated testing and speed tuning for large-scale scans.
It includes the capabilities of various high-level & low-level internet & industrial protocols and a powerful internal programming language. Based on a long history and daily updates, the scanner gets the tests to identify vulnerabilities.
Website: OpenVAS
#7) SQLMap
By utilising SQLMap, one can automate the detection and exploitation of SQL injection vulnerabilities as well as the administration of database servers.
It is an open-source application with a robust detection mechanism. It fully supports MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and many more. Absence of band, error-based, UNION query-based, stacked queries, and Boolean-based blind are the six SQL injection methods that are entirely supported.
It will let you connect straight to the database.
Website: SQLMap
#8) NetStumbler
NetStumbler is a wireless networking tool. It supports Windows OS. It makes use of 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g WLAN for the discovery of wireless LANs. It also has a trimmed-down version called MiniStumbler that is for mobile Windows CE OS. It offers integrated support for a GPS unit.
NetStumbler can be used to verify network configurations, find places with poor coverage in a WLAN, identify causes of wireless interference, detect unauthorized access points, etc.
Website: NetStumbler
#9) Ettercap
Price: Free.
Ettercap allows cross-platform. Using Ettercap’s API, you can build custom plugins. Even with a proxy link, it can do sniffing of HTTP SSL secured data.
Features:
- Sniffing of live links.
- Content filtering.
- Active and passive dissection of many methods.
- Network and host research.
- Best For Creating custom apps.
Website: Ettercap
#10) Maltego
Price: The Community version, Maltego CE is offered for free. The price for Maltego Classic is $999. The price for Maltego XL is $1999. These two items are for the desktop. The price for the server goods like CTAS, ITDS, and Comms starts at $40000, which includes training as well.
Maltego is a tool for link analysis and data mining. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
It gives you a library of changes that you can use to find data from open sources and see it in the form of graphs. It gathers information and mines data in real time.
Features:
- Shows info on graph patterns based on nodes.
- It is possible for Maltego XL to handle big graphs.
- It will show you a graph that shows you where the network is weak and where things aren’t working right.
- The best way to work with very big graphs.
Website: Maltego
Conclusion
Nmap is used to keep computers safe and handle networks, as this page explains. It works well to search the network. Metasploit is also used for security, and it’s good for making tools that hide from forensics and hackers.
You can get Aircrack-Ng for free, and it works on multiple platforms and can sniff and insert packets. As a packet analyzer, Wireshark can look at data packets and do a good job of it. Online reviews say that Nmap is better than Angry IP Scanner because Angry IP Scanner comes with extra programmes that you don’t want.
John the Ripper can break passwords quickly. Nikto is a good open source tool for testing for security holes. The data is shown in a graph by Maltego, which also tells you about weak spots and other problems.