Hacking Tools

 Both ethical and criminal hackers have access to abundance of hacking tools that can be used to either attack or protect a particular system. These tools can be crowd-sourced from the internet through forums and other online hubs dedicated to hackers.

As a beginning ethical hacker, it is very important that you learn the most commonly used tools to detect possible vulnerabilities, conduct tests, and administer actual hacks. Here are 8 of the most popular tools used by hackers today: 

1. Angry IP Scanner (ipscan) 

Most popularly called as ipscan by seasoned hackers, this tool is used to track computers through their IP addresses and also to snoop for ports to check for gateways that will lead them straight into a targeted computer system. This tool is also commonly used by system engineers and administrators to check for possible vulnerabilities in systems that they are servicing. 

This tool is open source and can be used across platforms, and is lauded for being one of the most efficient tools for hacking that is available on the market. 

2. Kali Linux

 Launched in 2015, this application is one of the favorites of hackers because of the abundance of features. This security-centered toolkit allows you to run it right from a CD or through a USB, without need for any installation. This toolkit contains most of the interfaces that you need for hacking, which includes creation of fake networks,spoof messages, and even crack WiFi passwords. 

3. Cain & Abel

 Cain & Abel is one of the most efficient hacking toolkits that work well against Microsoft operating systems. This tool allows you to recover wireless network passwords, user account passwords, and use a few brute force methods when it comes to cracking passwords. You can also use it to record VoIP conversation sessions.

 4. Burp Suite 

Burp Suite is one of the most essential tools that you can use when you want to map out vulnerabilities on a website. This tool allows you to examine every cookie that resides on a website, and also start connections within website applications. 

5. Ettercap 

This tool is efficient when it comes to launching man in the middle attacks, which is designed to make two different systems believe that they are communicating with each other, but a hacker is secretly relaying a different message to the other. This tool is efficient in manipulating or stealing transactions or transfer of data between systems, or to eavesdrop on a conversation.

 6. John the Ripper 

This is one of the best brute force password crackers which use the dictionary attack. While most hackers may think that brute force tactics involve too much time to crack a password, John the Ripper is known to be one of the more efficient tools when it comes to recovering encrypted passwords. 

7. Metasploit 

Metaspoit is widely acclaimed among hackers because it is an efficient tool when it comes to identifying possible security issues and also to verify mitigations of system vulnerabilities. It also is one of the best cryptography tools for hackers since it is also efficient when it comes to masking identities and locations of an attack. 

8. Wireshark and Aircraft-ng

These tools are used together to detect wireless connections and hack user IDs and passwords on a WiFi connection. Wireshark serves as a packet sniffer, and Aircraft-ng serves as the packet capturing suite that will also allow you to use a variety of other tools to monitor WiFi security