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
US / Canada
UK / Australia
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
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.