Tools for practice pen testing
Sparring Partners

© Lead image © artverau, 123RF.com
If you want to check your systems for security vulnerabilities, you need the right tools and a massive helping of experience. Prospective pen testers can get some practice by breaking into prefabricated training VMs.
When you buy a new food processor, it will take you three glances at the manual, two creamy pea soups, and maybe a piece of your finger before you can correctly assess the danger of the blender blades at speed 6. Pen testing is not much different: Hacking tools are only efficient if you know what they were designed for, how to use them, and what limits they have. Before you launch a full-scale attack on your own web server via its open ports, you will want to first get to know the most important tools and attempt a couple of simpler break-ins. It's actually great fun.
Requirements
The starting point and basis for pen testing is your current technical skill set. Experience as an administrator is extremely useful. To crack an Nginx web server, for example, you need to understand the internal workings of the software and at least be able to set up the instance you are running.
Ideally, you will also have already hardened various systems against attacks. In other words, you know which vectors could be promising for intrusion attempts. Attacks usually start on the network and end up on the command line at some point. When you get there, you need to know what you are doing. Many hacker tools are designed as command line-only programs. DIY shell and Python scripts can also automate your attack attempts. Phishing can play a role in pen testing as well (see the box entitled "Phishing for Newcomers"). It is a massive advantage to have basic network knowledge, familiarity with the command line, and scripting skills.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.