Top 15 Ethical Hacking Tools

Ethical Hacking Tools are basically computer programs and scripts that can detect vulnerabilities in computer systems, servers web applications, and networks. There are a number of tools available in the market that are widely used to prevent unauthorized access and hacking to a computer or network system. is a variety of such tools available on the market. Some of the tools are available as open-source while others are used for commercial purposes by big organizations.

Ethical Hacking Tools List:

1. NMAP
2. Acunetix
3. Metasploit
4. SaferVPN
5. Burp Suite
6. Ettercap
7. Angry IP Scanner
8. Aircrack
9. GFI LanGuard
10. Cain & Abel
11. QualysGuard
12. SuperScan
13. WebInspect
14. LC4
15. IKECrack

Best 15 Popular Ethical Hacking Tools

1. NMAP

Nmap is an open-source tool that stands for Network Mapper. It is majorly used for security auditing and network discovery. Nmap was created with the intention to scan large networks but it performs well for single hosts too. It is highly useful for managing service upgrade schedules, network inventory, and a monitoring host. Nmap uses raw IP packets to find out available hosts on the network, services offered by those hosts, their operating system, firewalls they use, etc. Nmap is compatible to execute on all operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.

2. Acunetix

Acunetix is an automated tool for ethical hacking by ethical hackers to prevent unauthorized access by malicious intruders. It acts as a security scanner that can scan JavaScript, HTML5, and Single-page applications. It can protect web apps from various network vulnerabilities. One of the features of acunetix is that 

• It can scan XSS, SQL injection, and more than 4000 such vulnerabilities. 
• It is also capable of detecting WordPress core, theme, and plugin vulnerabilities.
• It is fast and scalable.
• It can be availed as On-premises as well as cloud solution
• It can integrate with issue trackers to resolve issues in SDLC 

3. Metasploit

Metasploit is the product of Rapid7 and it is one of the most powerful exploit tools. It is available in commercial as well as a free version and its resources can be availed from www.metasploit.com. Metasploit can be used with either web UI or command prompt. Metasploit provide features to

• carry out basic penetration tests on small networks
• Import scanned data and identify the network
• Execute on the spot checks on the exploitability of vulnerabilities
• Execute individual exploit on hosts and browse exploit modules

4. SaferVPN

SaferVPN is a very useful ethical hacking tool that checks targets in different geographies, simulates unauthorized browser access, anonymous transfer of files, etc. There are many features of SaferVPN such as

• Fast speed having more than 2000 servers worldwide
• Highly secure and anonymous with no Log to VPN
• Provide up to 5 logins at a time and split tunneling
• It does not store any data.
• Customer support available 24/7
• Compatible with almost all operating systems such as Windows, Android, Linux,  Mac, iPhone, etc.
• More than 300,000 IPs worldwide
• Dedicated IO, Port Forwarding, and P2P Protection

5. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a popular ethical hacking tool widely used to perform security testing on web applications. Various tools work in collaboration with Burp Suite to facilitate the entire testing process starting from mapping and analyzing an application's attack surface, to detecting and exploiting security vulnerabilities. Burp Suite is easy to use and offers support for manual testing along with automation testing for efficiency. It can easily be configured and provide a feature to assist testers with their work.

6. Ettercap

Ettercap is a kind of ethical hacking tool that supports active and passive dissection of protocols. There are many features of ettercap such as 

• Insertion of characters into the server while having a live connection
• Sniffing an SSH connection in full-duplex mode
• HTTP SSL data sniffing 
• Creation of Custom plugins with the use of ettercap API’s

7. Angry IP Scanner

Angry IP scanner is capable of scanning IP addresses of any range. It is a lightweight program used as a port and IP address scanner. The code for using this can be freely copied and can be used anywhere. It uses a multi-threaded approach for fast scanning of IP addresses as a separate thread is created for feach IP address. Angry IP Scanner pings each IP address to find out its state whether it is alive or dormant and then resolves its hostname scans the ports and determines the MAC address. The data collected about the hosts are stored in TXT, CSV, XML, or IP-Port files. Plugins can be used to collect information about scanned IPs.

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8. Aircrack

Aircrack is one of the most trustworthy ethical hacking tools that is used to crack vulnerabilities in network connections. It is powered by WPA, WPA 2, and WEP encryption Keys. Some of the features in aircraft includes

• More cards/drivers are supported
• Compatible with all platforms and operating systems
• Provide support for WEP dictionary attack
• Can safeguard against new WEP attack - PTW
• Offers improved tracking speed
• Provide support for Fragmentation attack

9. GFI LanGuard

GFI LanGuard is the ethical hacking tool mostly used for network vulnerabilities. It is also used as a virtual security consultant when needed. Some of the features in GFI LanGuard includes

• maintaining a secure network and analyzing the changes that affect the network.
• Patch management can fix the vulnerabilities before an attack
• Early detection of security threats
• Cost reduction with centralized vulnerability scanning
• Maintaining a secure and compliant network

10. Cain & Abel

Cain & Abel is used by Microsoft Operating Systems for password recovery. It is a very useful tool for professional penetration testers and security consultants. It uses various techniques to recover passwords such as 

• Network sniffing.
• encoding encrypted passwords by using Brute-force, Dictionary, and other such techniques
• regenerating wireless network keys.
• decoding scrambled passwords.
• identifying passwords that are in the cache memory
• revealing password boxes.

11. QualysGuard

Qualys guard is an ethical hacking tool that is mostly used by businesses to streamline their security and compliance solutions in their digital transformation initiatives. It is also used to check online cloud systems for performance vulnerability. Some of the features of QualysGuard are

• It is used and trusted worldwide
• It is scalable and provides an end-to-end solution for enterprise security.
• Its sensor provides continuous visibility
• Vulnerable data stored and processed securely on an n-tiered architecture of load-balanced servers
• Data analysis and response to threats are done in real-time

12. SuperScan

SuperScan is an ethical hacking tool that is mostly used by network administrators for scanning TCP ports and for resolving the issues with hostnames. SuperScan provides an easy to use interface that can be used to 

• Perform ping and port scans using any IP range.
• View responses from connected hosts.
• Scan any port range or any given range from a built-in list
• Make alterations in the port list and port descriptions with the use of a built-in editor.
• Connect to any discovered open port.
• Merge port lists to build new ones.
• Assign a custom helper application to any port.

13. WebInspect

WebInspect is used to check vulnerabilities in the web application server. It is a dynamic web application security testing tool. It offers a comprehensive analysis of complex web applications and services. Some of the features of WebInspect are

• It can identify security vulnerabilities by assessing the behavior of active web applications
• Centralized Program Management
• It uses advanced techniques and algorithms for system and network security
• Provides information on vulnerability trending, risk oversight, and compliance management.

 14. LC4

LC4 is a password auditing and recovering tool that is also known as L0phtCrack. It is used to assess the password strength and also to recover lost passwords of Microsoft Windows by using a dictionary, brute-force, and hybrid attacks. Some of the features of LC4 are

• It provides multi-core & multi-GPU support to optimize hardware
• Easily customizable
• Simple Password Loading
• Weak password strength or other such errors can be fixed by the password reset option
• Schedule sophisticated tasks for automated enterprise-wide password
• Auditing of multiple operating systems

15. IKECrack

IKECrack is an open-source ethical hacking tool for cracking authentication by using a brute-force or dictionary attack. Cryptography tasks are performed using this tool. Some of the features of IKECrack are

• Initiating client-end encryption options proposal, random number, DH public key, and an ID in an unencrypted packet to the gateway.
• It is open-source and available freely for both personal and commercial use. 

Conclusion

Most IT companies are using ethical hacking tools and penetration testing for a secure system. With the rise of automated ethical hacking tools,  the information within the enterprise is more secure and reliable. Security threats in remote or local software are easier to identify by using reporting activities and penetration testing. It helps early detection and prevention of system vulnerabilities.