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http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/penetration-testing-tools/
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/penetration-testing-guide/
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/security-testing-of-web-applications/


Penetration testing, commonly known as pen-testing is on a roll in the testing circle nowadays. The reason is not too hard to guess – with the change in the way computer systems are used and built, security takes the center stage.  Even though companies realize that they can’t make every system 100% secure, they are extremely interested to know exactly what kind of security issues they are dealing with. That’s where Pen-testing comes handy with its use of ethical hacking techniques.


A list of all the best and most popular Pen Testing/Security Testing tools required for every penetration tester is addressed in this article.Wouldn’t it be fun if a company hired you to hack its website/ network/ Server? Well, Yeah!Penetration testing, commonly known as pen-testing is on a roll in the testing circle nowadays. The reason is not too hard to guess – with the change in the way computer systems are used and built, security takes the center stage.  Even though companies realize that they can’t make every system 100% secure, they are extremely interested to know exactly what kind of security issues they are dealing with. That’s where Pen-testing comes handy with its use of ethical hacking techniques.

For more details about Penetration Testing, you can check these guides:
=> Penetration testing – the complete guide
=> Security testing of web & desktop applications

What is Penetration Testing?

It is a method of testing in which the areas of weakness in the software systems in terms of security are put to test to determine, if ‘weak-point’ is indeed one, that can be broken into or not.
Performed for: Websites/Servers/Networks

How is it Performed?

Step #1. It starts with a list of Vulnerabilities/potential problem areas that would cause a security breach for the system.
Step #2. If possible, this list of items is ranked in the order of priority/criticality
Step #3. Devise penetration tests that would work (attack your system) from both within the network and outside (externally) are done to determine if you can access data/network/server/website unauthorized.
Step #4. If unauthorized access is possible, then the system has to be corrected and the series of steps need to be re-run until the problem area is fixed.

Who Performs Pen-testing?

Testers/ Network specialists/ Security Consultants perform Pen-testing.
Note: It is important to note that pen-testing is not the same as vulnerability testing. The intention of vulnerability testing is just to identify the potential problems, whereas pen-testing is to attack those problems.
Good news is, you do not have to start the process by yourself – you have a number of tools already available in the market.  Wondering, why tools?

• Even though you design the test on what to attack and how you can leverage, a lot of tools that are available in the market to hit the problem areas and collect data quickly that in turn would enable effective security analysis of the system.

Before we look into the details of the tools, what they do, where you can get them, etc. , I would like to point out that the tools you use for pen-testing can be classified into two kinds – In simple words, they are scanners and attackers. This is because; by definition, pen-testing is exploiting the weak spots. So there are some software/tools that will show you the weak spots, & some that show, and attack. Literally speaking, the ‘show-ers’ are not pen-testing tools but they are inevitable for its success.