Top 10 Tools Self-taught Ethical Hackers should Master in 2022

An ethical hacker is a computer expert who knows how to find vulnerabilities in a target system and exploit them.

The realm of ethical hacking or penetration testing has witnessed a drastic change with the advent of automated tools. Currently, several tools that can accelerate the process of testing are being developed. Ethical hacking helps organizations better protect their information and systems. It is also one of the best methods to augment the skills of security professionals of an organization. Before we talk about the best hacking software available, it's essential to know who an ethical hacker is. An ethical hacker is a computer expert who knows how to find vulnerabilities in a target system and exploit them. They also have in-depth networking knowledge and can easily invade the target system and sift through their data. Making ethical hacking a part of the security efforts of an organization can prove to be exceptionally helpful. Therefore, it makes an acute sense that IT departments be on their feet all the time equipped with the right ethical hacking tools included in their tech stacks. Here, we give you a low-down on the top 10 tools for self-taught ethical hackers to try in 2022.

Nmap

Used in port scanning, one of the phases in ethical hacking, is the finest hacking tool ever. Primarily a command-line tool, it was then developed for operating systems based on Linux or Unix, and the windows version of Nmap is now available. Nmap is basically a network security mapper capable of discovering services and hosts on a network, thereby creating a network map.

Acunetix

Acunetix is an automated solution for ethical hacking designed to mimic a hacker's movements. This allows enterprises and systems to stay ahead of malicious third-party hackers. This web app security scanner can accurately scan JavaScript, single-page, and HTML5 apps. It also audits authenticated and complex web apps and reports on management and compliance with data on several network and web vulnerabilities.

Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a Java-based framework that deals with Web Penetration Testing. It is an industry-standard suite of tools that information security professionals use. As an ethical hacker, Burp Suite enables you to find vulnerabilities in your target system and confirm if any attack vectors are affecting web applications. Burp Suite has a great web application crawler that maps content and functionality accurately.

OWASP ZAP

It is one of the popular Web-application penetration testing tools, used to test the vulnerability of web applications. A Java-based tool, which comes with a GUI graphical user interface, allows for tasks such as fuzzing, scripting, spidering, and proxying to test for remote attacks. As it is a Java tool, it is supported by most operating systems.

Wireshark

An open-source tool that allows you to analyze network traffic in real-time, Wireshark is widely known for its sniffing technology, which can detect security problems in any network along with solving general networking problems. With Wireshark, it is possible to read and intercept results in human-readable formats, making it possible to identify threats in advance. It supports up to 5000 network protocols and is available for all major operating systems.

Hydra

It is a parallelized password cracker that supports several security protocols. It is very easy to add modules to this tool as it utilizes a wide range of conventions, for example, Databases, Mail, SMB, LDAP, SSH, VNC, etc. This ethical hacking tool is capable of utilizing savage power and word reference assaults. Testers, using this tool, can quickly understand how vulnerable the network is.

Aircrack-NG

Aircrack-NG is a Wi-Fi assessment security suite applied to in-home and corporate security examinations. Its basic functionality lies in catching system parcels; breaking them down and utilizing them to split Wi-Fi. This suite incorporates full help for 802.11 WEP and WPA-PSK systems with an extravagant terminal-based interface along with other amazing features like support for WPA migration mode, quick splitting pace, and reconciliation with outsider apparatuses.

Ettercap

A comprehensive, 'man in the middle attack' suite comes with features that include sniffing live connections, and content filtering on the fly through a packet capture tool that can write packets back into the network. It has a GUI interface and command-line execution feature. Though it is primarily known for its network analysis for its ability to dissect protocols.

Iron WASP

It is an open-source, GUI security tool, used for web application vulnerability and comes with features that are easy to understand. People with the right knowledge can create their own scanners using this framework. As it is developed using Python and Ruby, anyone who knows these languages can explore this platform thoroughly. For starters, it can prove to be a great tool to test their ethical hacking skills.

NetStumbler

This is also an ethical hacking tool that is used to prevent wardriving, which works on operating systems based on windows. It is capable of detecting IEEE 902.11g, 802, and 802.11b networks. A newer version of this called MiniStumbler is now available.