The best Hacking tools of 2016 for hackers and pentesters

Here are the top hacking tools for 2016 used by hackers and pentesters worldwide

Last year we published an article about the top ten hacker tools of 2015.  Likewise, Concise Courses conducted a fresh poll for 2016 and here are the top hacking tools for 2016 according to the results of that poll.

Nmap :

Nmap is an abbreviation of ‘Network Mapper’, which is a very well known free open source hackers tool. Nmap is used for network discovery and security auditing. Literally thousands of system admins all around the world will use nmap for network inventory, check for open ports, manage service upgrade schedules, and monitor host or service uptime. Nmap, as a tool uses raw IP packets in creative ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are providing information about, what operating systems (fingerprinting) and what type and version of packet filters/ firewalls are being used by the target. There are dozens of benefits of using nmap, one of which is that fact that the admin user is able to determine whether the network (and associated nodes) need patching.

Acutenix Web Vulnerability Scanner :

Find out if your website is secure before hackers download sensitive data, commit a crime by using your website as a launch pad, and endanger your business. Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner (WVS) crawls your website, automatically analyzes your web applications and finds perilous SQL injection, Cross-Site scripting and other vulnerabilities that expose your online business. Concise reports identify where web applications need to be fixed, thus enabling you to protect your business from impending hacker attacks!
The fine folks at Acunetix have published a 100% FREE video course so you can learn how to use this awesome Web Vulnerability Scanner effectively! Here’s a link for more information and to register.

Metasploit :

The Metasploit Project is a hugely popular pentesting or hacking framework. If you are new to Metasploit think of it as a ‘collection of hacking tools’ that can be used to execute various tasks. Widely used by cybersecurity professionals and ethical hackers this is a tool that you have to learn. Metasploit is essentially a computer security project (framework) that provides the user with vital information regarding known security vulnerabilities and helps to formulate penetration testing and IDS testing plans, strategies and methodologies for exploitation.

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy Project :

The Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is now one of the most popular OWASP projects. The fact that you’ve reached this page means that you are likely already a relatively seasoned cybersecurity professional so it’s highly likely that you are very familiar with OWASP, not least the OWASP Top Ten Threats listing which is considered as being the ‘guide-book’ of web application security. This hacking and pentesting tool is a very efficient as well as being an ‘easy to use’ program that finds vulnerabilities in web applications. ZAP is a popular tool because it does have a lot of support and the OWASP community is really an excellent resource for those that work within Cyber Security. ZAP provides automated scanners as well as various tools that allow you the cyber pro to discover security vulnerabilities manually.

Wireshark :

Wireshark is an network analyser which allows the tester to capture packets travelling through the network, and to inspect them.
The test computer should be connected at appropriate testing points. Some of my recommendations are:
1. On various points of a DMZ.
2. On a port of a switch.
3. Between router and firewall.(If their is a separate hardware for each) .
Wireshark is possibly the second best known ‘Hackers Tool’ out there. Wireshark has been around for a long time now and it is used by thousands of security professionals to troubleshoot and analyse networks for problems and intrusions. Originally named Ethereal this tool, or rather, ‘platform’ is a highly effective (and free!) open-source packet analyzer. Worth noting that Wireshark is cross-platform, using the GTK+ widget toolkit in current releases, and Qt in the development version.

Burp Suite :

Burp Suite is a network vulnerability scanner basically with some enhanced features. Two commonly used applications used within this tool include the ‘Burp Suite Spider’ which can enumerate and map out the various pages and parameters of a web site by examining cookies and initiates connections with these web applications, and the ‘Intruder’ which performs automated attacks on web applications.
This is a ‘must-learn’ tool if you work within cyber-security and are tasked with penetrating applications used within an organization.

THC Hydra :

Although often considered as yet another password cracker, THC Hydra is hugely popular password cracker and has a very active and experienced development team. Essentially THC Hydra is a fast and stable Network Login Hacking Tool that will use dictionary or brute-force attacks to try various password and login combinations against an log in page.
Hydra supports various network protocols including, but not limited to AFP, Cisco AAA, Cisco auth, Cisco enable, CVS, Firebird, FTP, HTTP-FORM-GET, HTTP-FORM-POST, HTTP-GET, HTTP-HEAD, HTTP-PROXY, HTTPS-FORM-GET, HTTPS-FORM-POST, HTTPS-GET, HTTPS-HEAD, HTTP-Proxy, ICQ, IMAP, IRC, LDAP, MS-SQL, MYSQL, NCP, NNTP, Oracle Listener, Oracle SID, Oracle, PC-Anywhere, PCNFS, POP3, POSTGRES, RDP, and Rexec.

Aircrack-ng :

The Aircrack suite of Wifi (Wireless) hacking tools are legendary because they are very effectively when used in the right hands. For those new to this wireless-specific hacking program, Aircrack-ng is an 802.11 WEP and WPA-PSK keys cracking hacking tool that can recover keys when sufficient data packets have been captured (in monitor mode).
For those tasked with penetrating and auditing wireless networks Aircrack-ng will become your best friend. It’s useful to know that Aircrack-ng implements standard FMS attacks along with some optimizations like KoreK attacks, as well as the PTW attacks to make their attacks more potent. If you are a mediocre hacker then you will be able to crack WEP in a few minutes and you ought to be pretty proficient at being able to crack WPA/ WPA2.

John The Ripper :

John the Ripper wins the award for having the coolest name. John the Ripper, mostly just referred to as simply, ‘John’ is a popular password cracking pentesting tool that is most commonly used to perform dictionary attacks. John the Ripper takes text string samples (from a text file, referred to as a ‘wordlist’, containing popular and complex words found in a dictionary or real passwords cracked before), encrypting it in the same way as the password being cracked (including both the encryption algorithm and key), and comparing the output to the encrypted string. This tool can also be used to perform a variety of alterations to dictionary attacks.
This was all about the trending tools for hackers in 2016. Must tell us if there is a name which is missing here but is worth including.

Top ten operating systems for ethical hackers and security researchers

 

A comprehensive list of most popular operating systems among hackers all around the world.

Back in August, we had posted a list of top ten hacker tools. Now we have advanced it one step further to bring you the best operating systems for hackers.

This time it is about operating systems, which have almost every necessary tool provided within. But before we dive deep, it would be great to know why a machine with a hacking oriented OS installed in it is way better than a machine running a casual OS with some platform based hacking tools. It is because a dedicated machine has benefits of hardware utilisation, anonymity (it is a major issue of interest ), and software efficiency.
Here is the list of top ten. Note that these are based on Linux kernel hence are free and open source:

1- Kali Linux:

Kali Linux is an advanced penetration testing tool that should be a part of every security professional’s toolbox. Penetration testing involves using a variety of tools and techniques to test the limits of security policies and procedures. What Kali has done is collect just about everything you’ll need in a single CD. It includes more than 300 different tools, all of which are open source and available on GitHub.You can get it
here.

2-BackBox:

Backbox is a linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It has been developed to perform penetration tests and security assessments. BackBox is a lightweight OS and requires less hardware capacity. The power of this distribution is given by its Launchpad repository core constantly updated to the last stable version of the most known and used ethical hacking tools. The integration and development of new tools inside the distribution follows the commencement of open source community and particularly the Debian Free Software Guidelines criteria.

3-Parrot Security OS:

Parrot Security is an operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux mixed with Frozenbox OS and Kali linux in order to provide the best penetration and security testing experience. it is an operating system for IT security and penetration testing developed by the Frozenbox Dev Team. It is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian and mixed with Kali.
Parrot uses Kali repositories in order to take latest updates for almost all the tools, but it also has its own dedicated repository where all the custom packets are kept. This is why this distro is not just a simple Kali “mod” but entire new concept which relies on Kali’s tool repositories. As such, it introduces a lot of new features and different developing choices.Parrot uses MATE as a Desktop Environment. Lightweight and powerful interface is derived from famous Gnome 2, and thanks to FrozenBox highly customizable with captivating icons, ad-hoc themes and wallpapers. System look is proposed and designed by the community members and also members of Frozenbox Network, who are closely following the development of this project.
Click here to download.

4-DEFT:

Deft is Ubuntu customization with a collection of computer forensic programs and documents created by thousands of individuals, teams and companies. Each of these works might come under a different licence. There Licence Policy describe the process that we follow in determining which software we will ship and by default on the deft install CD.
It can be downloaded here.

5-Samurai Web Security Framework:

The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a live linux environment that has been pre-configured to function as a web pen-testing environment. The CD contains the best of the open source and free tools that focus on testing and attacking websites. In developing this environment, we have based our tool selection on the tools we use in our security practice. We have included the tools used in all four steps of a web pen-test.
You can simply click here to download.

6-Network Security Toolkit:

Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable live CD based on Fedora Core. The toolkit was designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed open source network security applications and should run on most x86 platforms. The main intent of developing this toolkit was to provide the network security administrator with a comprehensive set of open source network security tools.
What we find rather fascinating with NST is that we can transform most x86 systems (Pentium II and above) into a system designed for network traffic analysis, intrusion detection, network packet generation, wireless network monitoring, a virtual system service server, or a sophisticated network/host scanner.
NST can be downloaded here.

7-NodeZero:

It is said the necessity is the mother of all invention, and NodeZero Linux is no different. There team is built of testers and developers, who have come to the census that live systems do not offer what they need in their security audits. Penetration Testing distributions tend to have historically utilized the “Live” system concept of linux, which really means that they try not to make any permanent effects to a system. Ergo all changes are gone after reboot, and run from media such as discs and USB’s drives. However all that this maybe very handy for occasional testing, its usefulness can be depleted when your testing regularly. Its there believe that “Live System’s” just don’t scale well in a robust testing environment.
All though NodeZero Linux can be used as a “Live System” for occasional testing, its real strength comes from the understanding that a tester requires a strong and efficient system. This is achieved in our belief by working at a distribution that is a permanent installation, that benefits from a strong selection of tools, integrated with a stable linux environment.
Download here.

8-GnackTrack:

GnackTrack is an open and free project to merge penetration testing tools and the linux Gnome desktop. GnackTrack is a Live (and installable) Linux distribution designed for Penetration Testing and is based on Ubuntu.
Backtrack is not only a single player in the field of ethical hacking, so you can try some other distribution as well, if you are Gnome lover than must try this, however backtrack 5 is also available on Gnome platform. Just like backtrack, Gnacktrack comes with multiple tools that are really helpful to do a effective penetration testing, it has Metasploit, armitage, wa3f and others wonderful tools.
Download here.

9-Blackubuntu:

Blackbuntu is distribution for penetration testing which was specially designed for security training students and practitioners of information security. Blackbuntu is penetration testing distribution with GNOME Desktop Environment. It’s currently being built using the Ubuntu 10.10 and work on reference BackTrack.
Download here.

10- Backtrack

The other well known linux based Operating system is backtrack that is being used from few pwevious years and best known as the OS for network cracking and pentesting. And its also the one of the best OS that can perform various network hacks with privacy. Download here.

Bugtraq:

Bugtraq isnt a operating system but  an electronic mailing list dedicated to issues about computer security. On-topic issues are new discussions about vulnerabilities, vendor security-related announcements, methods of exploitation, and how to fix them. It is a high-volume mailing list, and almost all new vulnerabilities are discussed there.
Bugtraq team is experienced freaks and developers, It is available in Debian, Ubuntu and OpenSuSe in 32 and 64 bit architectures.
If there is any OS which is not included or deserves a better place in the list, you may let us know in the comments.

Here’s how a cheap webcam can be converted into network backdoor

This is how a $30 D-Link webcam can be converted into a backdoor

Researchers at US security firm Vectra Networks have hacked a ‘tiny’ D-Link web camera and demonstrated how it can be abused by cybercriminals and turned into a medium to steal data or for sending additional commands. In other words, they have shown how the web camera can be turned into a persistent backdoor into corporate networks.
Recently, the Vectra Networks researchers carried out an experiment in which they transformed a D-Link DCS 930L webcam into a backdoor device.

“Consumer-grade IoT products can be easily manipulated by an attacker, used to steal an organization’s private information, and go undetected by traditional security solutions,” said Gunter Ollmann, CSO of Vectra Networks. “While many of these devices are low-value in terms of hard costs, they can affect the security and integrity of the network, and teams need to keep an eye on them to reveal any signs of malicious behavior.”
Turning an IoT device into a backdoor basically gives hackers 24×7 access to an organization’s network without needing to infect a laptop, workstation or server, all of which are usually under high scrutiny by firewalls, intrusion prevention systems and malware sandboxes, and typically run antivirus software that is updated regularly.
“Most organizations don’t necessarily think of these devices as miniature computers, but essentially they are in that they can still give attackers access to sensitive company information, particularly because they are connected to the corporate network,” said Ollmann. “Unlike the computers people regularly interact with, these devices do not have the processing power or memory to run antivirus or other security software. Since they don’t have usable persistent storage, attackers use NVRAM to store the configuration and flash ROM to store the malicious code.”
In an effort to demonstrate viability of that threat vector, the Vectra Threat Labs team purchased a D-Link webcam for $30, cracked open the case, and used flashrom to dump the content. This process revealed a u-boot and a Linux kernel and image.
The webcam was working as usual while hiding the hack. Vectra also installed code to stop network administrators making any firmware updates that would remove the backdoor.
“The irony in this particular scenario is that Wi-Fi cameras are typically deployed to enhance an organization’s physical security, yet they can easily become a network security vulnerability by allowing attackers to enter and steal information without detection,” said Ollmann.
While the research was conducted using a D-Link device, Ollmann said other Web-based cameras possess similar design vulnerabilities.
“The design of many mass-produced consumer-level electronics is very similar. Devices that can be easily attached to the network and remotely controlled or managed via the Internet tend to be soft targets,” he said. “The design of circuit boards, chipsets and the requirement for software updates combined into a simple and environmentally reliable package limits design options. It doesn’t help that many of the popular ‘small footprint’ operating systems popularly used for mass-produced network devices are poorly secured themselves.”
The biggest downside for attackers is the lack of persistent storage in devices like webcams, wrote the researchers. “Instead, they use NVRAM to store configuration and the flash ROM to store the running code. So the attacker’s hope for real persistence rests on being able to control what will be in the flash ROM,” they wrote.
Despite this challenge, hacks on devices like webcams will probably be more widespread than attacks on devices such as networked refrigerators or automobiles, said Ollmann. While scary, the latter kind of attack is largely “stunt hacking,” he said.
In contrast, he said, “From a criminal hacker’s perspective, the prospect of subverting cheap and ubiquitous IoT technologies such as webcams – which are widely deployed in both residential and commercial capacities – is a highly desirable target. More to the point, devices that can be hijacked and serve as backdoors, yet be popular second-hand items or items that can be easily concealed and physically deployed or swapped with an existing installation, are vital tools in organized crime and espionage. ”
While an extensive range of security products can be used to protect desktop computers, laptops and smartphones, such technologies are not yet available to protect the increasing number of other devices now being added to networks, Ollmann said. “The whole realm of IoT security is in its infancy and, as a consequence, currently exposed to a rapidly expanding number of threats that cannot yet be efficiently mitigated.”
In early December last year, Vectra’s researchers had disclosed the vulnerability to D-Link. However, the researchers noted in their blog post that as of last week, the company has not yet addressed the issue.

        Ok Well This is The Captain and I am back once more. I am going to try to get this Blog off the ground once more but bare with me as it is a lot of work and I really do not have that much free time to put into this Blog.

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Bleeping Computers Bleeping Computer

Microsoft tech Net:  https://technet.microsoft.com

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