Top Ethical Hacking Software For The Year 2022 by Harikrishna Kundariya

What was formerly considered exclusively illegal among professionals has now become a widely accepted phenomenon due to technological breakthroughs in the IT industry. Hacking can be done for malicious objectives or for legitimate purposes, such as discovering faults or vulnerabilities in a network and contacting the authorities to assist them in boosting their security system. 

A security specialist is required to ensure the security of every client's project by putting it through different vulnerability tests using ethical hacking tools. 

Companies look for ethical hackers to collaborate with them to protect their digital assets and avoid any unfortunate event from happening in the future. Ethical hackers identify weaknesses in a business's network systems and servers and work with the organization to enhance its existing information technology security and governance rules.

The field of ethical hacking, often known as penetration testing, has seen a significant transformation due to the introduction of automated technologies. Several technologies that could help accelerate the testing process are currently being developed. Besides that, ethical hacking also ranks among the most effective strategies for improving the abilities of security experts inside a business. 

Therefore, the inclusion of ethical hacking as a component of an organization's security operations may be extremely beneficial. Here we are sharing some of the most powerful ethical hacking software or tools worth learning in 2022. 

Nmap (Network Mapper)

The greatest hacking tool ever created is used in port scanning, which is used by most hackers due to its precision and speed. Nmap was originally designed as a command-line utility. It has now been ported to operating systems based on Linux or Unix and a Windows OS of the application that is now easily accessible to pro hackers. 

Nmap is a network security mapper capable of identifying services and hosts on the network and generating a network map as a result of this discovery. This software provides several capabilities that aid in the probing of networked computers, finding hosts, and the detection of different operating systems. 

Since it is script expandable, it delivers enhanced vulnerability detection while also adapting to network circumstances, including congestion and latency while scanning for vulnerabilities.

Acunetix 

Acunetix is a fully autonomous ethical hacking tool that discovers and reports on over 4,500 online application vulnerabilities and all kinds of SQL Injection and XSS. 

Acunetix's crawler is completely compatible with HTML5, JavaScript, and single-page apps, allowing it to audit sophisticated, authenticated applications without difficulty. It can be integrated within the scanner's core with sophisticated Vulnerability Management capabilities. It offers risk prioritization based on data and data integration and the ability to integrate the scanner's results into some other applications and systems.

Metasploit Framework

Metasploit Framework is a hacking tool that is quite popular among both penetration testers and security professionals; therefore, it is included on this list. A community of more than 200k individuals supports and develops it, allowing you to create your bespoke exploits and scripts on top of a foundation of existing infrastructure. It is among the essential tools to be familiar with if you are considering a career in Cybersecurity.

It is important to understand that the Metasploit framework is primarily a computer security project that provides the user with essential information regarding known security vulnerabilities. 

It also helps in assessing real-time attacks and assists in the formulation of penetration testing and intrusion detection system use cases, plans, techniques, as well as methodologies for testing. Almost all popular practical IT security courses, such as the CEH or the OSCP, have included a Metasploit component in their curriculum. 

Intruder 

Intruder is a completely automated scanner that identifies cybersecurity flaws in your digital landscape, discusses the associated hazards, and assists you in remediating them. In terms of ethical hacking tools, it's a fantastic addition to your collection.

Intruder provides enterprise-grade vulnerability scanning to businesses of all sizes, thanks to its extensive library of over 9,000 security tests. In addition to assessing misconfigurations and missing fixes, it also tests for typical web application vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

Intruder, developed by seasoned security specialists, takes care of several issues related to vulnerability management, allowing you to concentrate on what matters. Consequently, it saves you time by sorting results based on their context and proactively checking your systems for the newest vulnerabilities, so you don't have to be concerned about security issues.

Nikto

Nikto is an ethical hacking tool that scans all web servers and is widely used in the Kali Linux distribution known as "Nikoto." In addition, it comes with an intuitive command-line interface, which can be used to run a variety of tests against the specified host. It is possible to identify any problematic files that have been placed on any operating system in the business and any apps that are not working well, using the vulnerability testing that comes with Nikto. The findings of the vulnerability checks may be exported in a variety of formats, including CSV, HTML, and text. Nikto may also be used in conjunction with the Metasploit framework.

Burp Suite

When it comes to web application security testing and testing trends in the current times, Burp Suite is among the most popular tools used among ethical hackers. To assist the complete testing process, it features several tools that function flawlessly together. The testing process encompasses everything from the initial mapping of the application's attack surface to discovering and exploiting security flaws in the application.

The web application security testing in this tool includes a variety of capabilities, such as advanced and critical manual tools. In addition to being simple to use, Burp Suite is popular because it allows you to combine advanced manual approaches with automation for more efficient testing than any other tool in the market.

As a bonus, you'll find it quite simple to configure and packed with essential features for even the most inexperienced ethical hackers. Not only does it have the capability of detecting over 3000 web application vulnerabilities, but it is also able to detect significant vulnerabilities with 100% accuracy.

Angry IP Scanner

Angry IP Scanner is really a lightweight ethical hacking application that scans IP addresses and ports for malicious code and exploits. Furthermore, it is cross-platform, meaning it can operate on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems and scan any IP address range in the world.

To accomplish its fast scanning speed, it employs a multithreading strategy, in which it generates a distinct scanning thread for each IP address that is examined. When scanning an IP address, it first checks to determine if it is still active before resolving the hostname, MAC address, and ports associated with it.

The command-line interface of Angry IP Scanner allows you to export scan results in a variety of formats, such as TXT, XML, CSV, and IP-Port list files. You can also use a variety of data fetcher plugins to get more information about the IP addresses that are being scanned.

If you are serious about pursuing a career in ethical hacking, this will undoubtedly be a valuable addition to your toolkit of ethical hacking resources.

SQLMap

It is a free and open-source program with a sophisticated detecting engine. It supports MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and plenty of other databases. SQL injection methods such as Boolean-based blinding, time-based blinding, error-based, UNION query-based, stacked queries, as well as out-of-band are all supported in their entirety.

In addition, SQLMap allows for the execution of arbitrary commands and the retrieval of their standard output, the downloading and uploading of any file, and then searching for specific database names, among other things. It will allow you to establish a direct connection to the database.

Nessus 

Nessus is one of the most widely used vulnerabilities scanning tools on the market today. It is used by several professional penetration testers and auditors around the world for both internal and external vulnerability assessments. Nessus is available for free download from the official website. It offers a web-based interface that can be used to set up scanning and auditing, and view and download reports.

Along with having one of the most comprehensive vulnerability knowledge bases, some of its most notable features include identifying vulnerabilities that could allow a remote attacker to access sensitive data from the system.  You can also check for patches of the service offered by the server, password level weaknesses, authentication checks on the service, firewall and system configuration audits, mobile device audits, SCADA audits, web application audits, and PCI DSS compliance audits. It is possible to examine the outcomes of all of these in a visually appealing personalized report. Nessus may also interface with the Metasploit framework, allowing the scanning phase to be extended to correlate vulnerabilities with the exploits that are currently accessible.

John The Ripper

This program may be one of the most extensively used password crackers on the market today, but it has a variety of other applications as well. In addition to being an open-source platform that a variety of operating systems could utilize, it also enables you to test the following:

• LM hash code (Lan Manager)
• DES
• Blowfish
• MD4
• MD5
• LDAP
• Kerberos AFS

Conclusion

Because of the growing number of Internet security concerns, organizations are increasingly looking for professional and certified ethical hackers. The professionals who have completed several ethical hacking courses can help avoid fraudulent crimes and identity theft. End users have always been the weakest link in the chain, providing hackers with an easy method to breach even the most advanced defenses.  

Several huge corporations have announced significant security breaches in the recent past. Ethical hacking tools assist businesses in identifying and preventing data breaches by identifying potential security flaws on the internet. So, you can take up this great opportunity and start by learning any of these interesting hacking tools. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer, IoT, ChatBot & Blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz Technologies, a  Mobile Application Development Company. His 8+ years’ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and ChatBot.

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