9 Best Ethical Hacking Tools to Keep Your Network Secure

Coursesity Team

Dec 26, 2022 • 5 min read

What is Ethical Hacking?

The practice of ethical hacking involves simulating a cyber attack on a computer or network system to identify potentially exploitable vulnerabilities. As malicious hackers, ethical hackers also use the same methods and techniques to identify potential security risks and fix them before they become exploitable.

Why should you learn Ethical Hacking Tools?

Learning ethical hacking tools can be beneficial for many reasons. Professionals can use it to identify weaknesses in a system and prevent malicious attacks. It is also possible to use ethical hacking tools to test the effectiveness of security measures, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems. Additionally, these tools can help organizations protect themselves from malicious hackers by providing them with a proactive approach.

Top Ethical Hacking Tools List

1. Nmap

The nMap program is one of the most widely used tools that ethical hackers use to map networks, discover open ports, and discover security weaknesses in a system or network. It is used for detecting or identifying live hosts, running services, and operating systems in a network or system and testing its security. Additionally, the tool can perform network inventory, host discovery, and service or operating system discovery. It runs on all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

2. Wireshark

Free and open-source, Wireshark is used to troubleshoot networks, monitor their performance, analyze data, and develop software and communication protocols. It is a powerful tool that ethical hackers use to monitor and analyze network traffic. You can use it to detect malicious activity, discover open ports and services, find hidden data, resolve network issues, and analyze network protocols. Furthermore, you can use Wireshark to identify malicious code, detect weak encryption techniques, and evaluate network performance.

3. Metasploit

Metasploit is a powerful tool used by ethical hackers to identify, exploit, and validate vulnerabilities in computer systems, networks, and applications. You can use it to launch remote exploitation, password cracking, and penetration testing activities. The project provides users with an accessible platform for developing, testing, and deploying exploits against remote targets. In addition to identifying and patching vulnerabilities, it is also used to assess the security of an organization's systems and networks.

4. Aircrack-ng

Aircrack-ng is a popular tool for ethical hacking as it allows users to detect wireless networks, monitor their traffic, and recover passwords. Using it, you can test the security of a wireless network and identify any vulnerabilities. Additionally, it can unlock wireless networks protected by WEP and WPA-PSK keys. Furthermore, hackers can use it to hack wireless networks, intercepting and monitoring network traffic as part of their malicious activities.

5. John the Ripper

Ethical hackers use John the Ripper to test the security of user accounts and passwords. It is a powerful tool for recovering lost or forgotten passwords through brute-force attacks, dictionary attacks, hybrid attacks, and rule-based attacks. Security audits can also benefit from John the Ripper since it can detect weak passwords that malicious actors might exploit.

6. OWASP Zed Attack Proxy

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is a popular open-source tool for web application security testing. Both beginners and experts can use it to test security manual or automated. ZAP detects, analyzes, and exploits vulnerabilities in web applications and services, such as SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and authorization and authentication problems. In addition, ZAP can detect and prevent malicious bots, redirects, cookies, and other malicious web traffic. Using ZAP, ethical hackers can assess, mitigate, and protect their client's data and systems from security risks in web applications.

7. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is another good ethical hacking tool since it identifies vulnerabilities in web applications and websites. Hackers can use it to intercept and modify requests and responses, gaining access to sensitive information. Additionally, it can check for common web application security flaws like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and weak authentication. It is also highly customizable and can be used to automate common tasks. The features of Burp Suite make it an effective ethical hacking tool.

8. Maltego

Maltego is a powerful ethical hacking tool used for open-source intelligence and forensics. The tool enables users to identify connections between entities like people, companies, websites, domains, and IP addresses on a network. With the tool, hackers can gather data from different sources, such as social media and search engines, to build an in-depth profile of their target.

A key benefit of Maltego is that it allows the user to visualize the relationships between entities, enabling potential attack vectors to be uncovered and the target to be better understood. Additionally, the tool offers features like data mining, link analysis, and timing correlations. Hackers can use these features to quickly identify potential security flaws in their targets, which allows them to prevent attacks.

The Social Engineer Toolkit (SET) is an open-source penetration testing framework that performs advanced attacks against humans. It helps ethical hackers to simulate complex social engineering attacks in a safe and controlled environment. The tool combines several social engineering techniques with active information-gathering techniques.

With SET, attackers can perform phishing attacks, create malicious payloads, and generate reports. In addition, attackers can create a custom social engineering attack scenario quickly and easily. Using the toolkit, organizations can test the security of their people, processes, and technology.