Pentesting software toolkits

Debian-derived Linux distribution

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.

The Metasploit Project is a computer security project that provides information about security vulnerabilities and aids in penetration testing and IDS signature development. It is owned by Rapid7, a Boston, Massachusetts-based security company.

BackTrack was a Linux distribution that focused on security, based on the Knoppix Linux distribution aimed at digital forensics and penetration testing use. In March 2013, the Offensive Security team rebuilt BackTrack around the Debian distribution and released it under the name Kali Linux.

Linux distribution

free network vulnerability scanning tool

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BlackArch is a penetration testing distribution based on Arch Linux that provides a large number of security tools. It is an open-source distro created specially for penetration testers and security researchers. The repository contains more than 2800 tools that can be installed individually or in groups. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing Arch Linux installations.

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.

Pentoo is a Live CD and Live USB designed for penetration testing and security assessment. Based on Gentoo Linux, Pentoo is provided both as 32 and 64-bit installable live CD. Pentoo is also available as an overlay for an existing Gentoo installation. It features packet injection patched Wi-Fi drivers, GPGPU cracking software, and many tools for penetration testing and security assessment. The Pentoo kernel includes grsecurity and PAX hardening and extra patches - with binaries compiled from a hardened toolchain with the latest nightly versions of some tools available.

BackBox is a penetration test and security assessment oriented Ubuntu-based Linux distribution providing a network and informatic systems analysis toolkit. It includes a complete set of tools required for ethical hacking and security testing.