Network analyzers

computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host

Wireshark is free and open-source packet analyzer software. It is used for computer network analysis and troubleshooting, software and communications protocol development, and education. Originally named Ethereal, the project was renamed Wireshark in May 2006 due to trademark issues.

Nmap (Network Mapper) is a network scanner created by Gordon Lyon (also known by his pseudonym Fyodor Vaskovich). Nmap is used to discover hosts and services on a computer network by sending packets and analyzing the responses.

In computing, traceroute and tracert are diagnostic command-line interface commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

computer network equipment or software that analyzes network traffic

application designed to probe for open ports

Aircrack-ng is a network software suite consisting of a detector, packet sniffer, WEP and WPA/WPA2-PSK cracker and analysis tool for 802.11 wireless LANs. It works with any wireless network interface controller whose driver supports raw monitoring mode and can sniff 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g traffic. Packages are released for Linux and Windows.

netcat (often abbreviated to nc) is a computer networking utility for reading from and writing to network connections using TCP or UDP. The command is designed to be a dependable back-end that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts. At the same time, it is a feature-rich network debugging and investigation tool, since it can produce almost any kind of connection its user could need and has a number of built-in capabilities.

Nagios () is an open-source network and infrastructure monitoring system. It monitors hosts, services, and network devices, sending alerts when components fail and again when they recover. Originally written by Ethan Galstad in 1999 as NetSaint, it was renamed Nagios in 2002 after a trademark dispute. The name is a recursive acronym: "Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood."

tcpdump is a data-network packet analyzer computer program that runs under a command line interface. It allows the user to display TCP/IP and other packets being transmitted or received over a network to which the computer is attached. Distributed under the BSD license, tcpdump is free software.

free network vulnerability scanning tool

mode for a network interface controller that causes the controller to pass all traffic it receives to the central processing unit rather than passing only the frames that the controller is specifically programmed to receive

In the field of computer network administration, pcap is an application programming interface (API) for capturing network traffic. While the name is an abbreviation of packet capture, that is not the API's proper name. Unix-like systems implement pcap in the libpcap library; for Windows, there is a port of libpcap named WinPcap that is no longer supported or developed, and a port named Npcap for Windows 7 and later that is still supported.

network detector, packet sniffer, and intrusion detection system

electronic communication monitor used by the FBI

OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner, originally known as GNessUs) is the scanner component of Greenbone Vulnerability Management (GVM), a software framework of several services and tools offering vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management.

trend description & measurement

network traffic analysis and interception software

SolarWinds Corporation is an American company that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with sales and product development offices in a number of locations in the United States and several other countries.

hping is an open-source packet generator and analyzer for the TCP/IP protocol created by Salvatore Sanfilippo (also known as Antirez). It is one of the common tools used for security auditing and testing of firewalls and networks, and was used to exploit the idle scan scanning technique (also invented by the hping author), and now implemented in the Nmap Security Scanner. The new version of hping, hping3, is scriptable using the Tcl language and implements an engine for string based, human-readable description of TCP/IP packets so that the programmer can write scripts related to low level TCP/

password recovery software

ntop is computer software that probes a computer network to show network use in a way similar to what the program top does for processes. Not to be confused with the CAD/CAE software nTop (formerly nTopology).

w3af (Web Application Attack and Audit Framework) is an open-source web application security scanner. The project provides a vulnerability scanner and exploitation tool for Web applications. It provides information about security vulnerabilities for use in penetration testing engagements. The scanner offers a graphical user interface and a command-line interface.

network monitoring software

mode for a network interface controller

vulnerability scanner for networks

The PathPing command is a command-line network utility included in Windows NT operating systems since Windows 2000 that combines the functionality of ping with that of tracert. It is used to locate spots that have network latency and network loss.

network diagnostic software

dSniff is a set of password sniffing and network traffic analysis tools written by security researcher and startup founder Dug Song to parse different application protocols and extract relevant information. dsniff, filesnarf, mailsnarf, msgsnarf, urlsnarf, and webspy passively monitor a network for interesting data (passwords, e-mail, files, etc.). arpspoof, dnsspoof, and macof facilitate the interception of network traffic normally unavailable to an attacker (e.g., due to layer-2 switching). sshmitm and webmitm implement active man-in-the-middle attacks against redirected SSH and HTTPS sessio

KisMAC is a wireless network discovery tool for Mac OS X. It has a wide range of features, similar to those of Kismet (its Linux/BSD namesake). The program is geared toward network security professionals, and is not as novice-friendly as similar applications. Distributed under the GNU General Public License, KisMAC is free software.

packet analyzer software

Nimsoft was an independent company software vendor that offered information technology (IT) monitoring, service desk products, and services. It was acquired by CA Inc. in 2010, and since October 2012 its products were integrated into that business. The Nimsoft brand is still used by CA.