Hacking tools: Web application hacking tools

Certain tools are essential if you want to hack a web application. Knowledge is key in everything, and this involves hacking. To hack websites as well as web applications, an individual requires knowledge of ASP, PHP, and SQL, among others. Knowledge of such languages combined with access to some web application hacking tools will enable you to hack almost any website or web application with relative ease. Hacking tools make things easier for any hacker because they help to automate the tasks involved. Moreover, because hacking can be used both for malicious purposes and for finding defects in a system, knowledge of existing flaws helps the authorities to fortify their defenses better. With that in mind, the tools and scripts employed in hacking are known to many hackers for different purposes.

Powerful hacking tools

These tools assist hackers in performing particular functions to give them leverage over a user's system (in the case of non-ethical hackers) and against malicious users (for ethical hackers).

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Kali Linux

This hacking tool launched in August 2015. The application is equipped with distribution and interface tools geared toward providing an improved hardware as well as offer support for a good number of desktop environments. It is a security-based operating system that can be run off a USB drive, CD, or anywhere at all. Its security toolkit enables hackers to crack Wi-Fi passwords, generate fake networks, plus test vulnerabilities.

Angry IP scanner

The tool helps by assisting hackers in scanning IP addresses as well as ports looking to find a doorway into another user's system. The software is open source and cross-platform, which makes it one of the most reliable hacking tools you will find on the market. The app is mostly used by network administrators and system engineers.

Cain & Abel

Cain & Abel is a tool used for password recovery and in hacking mainly on Microsoft systems. It uses brute force methods such as the dictionary method to crack encrypted passwords to enable people to recover their passwords. The application also helps in recovering wireless network keys and in recording VoIP conversations.

Ettercap

This is a very popular web application hacking tool. It can be used to hack LAN by eavesdropping (man in the middle attacks or Janus Attacks). Using this application, hackers make a fake bridge connection with victims and relay messages such that they believe the connection is working as it should. The open source tool creates a false connection to the victim and the router, then captures and sends data to its destination. It sniffs active connections, filters content on the fly, and adopts many other methods to trick unsuspecting victims.

Burp Suite

Undoubtedly one of the most consistently high-quality web app hacking tool, burp suite is an integrated platform that has been developed to provide penetration testers with a means of testing and to assess the security of web applications. Moreover, because web application vulnerabilities pose a lot of risk to enterprise systems, this java based software can be used to combine both automated and manual testing techniques and comprises of various tools like a proxy server, scanner, a web spider, repeater, intruder, decoder, sequencer, extender, and collaborator. Burp Suite Spider is used in mapping out as well as listing the various parameters and pages of a website by merely examining the cookies and starting connections with applications that reside on the site. Burp suite helps to identify the vulnerabilities of websites quickly. Therefore, a lot of hackers utilize burp suite in finding a suitable point of attack.

John the Ripper

This is a password cracking software that runs on a large number diverse platforms. It ranks highly among some of the most used passwords cracking tools because it combines various other password breakers into a single package and features several handy features like automatic hash type detection, among others. What makes it even more prominent is the fact that it is easy cracking passwords using it. The tool uses the dictionary method of attack, where distinct combinations of words are matched against an encrypted string to uncover a hit. It adopts a brute force technique. However, its workability depends upon the strength of the password the user chooses.

Metasploit

Metasploit lets users hack like professionals. The application is a cryptographic tool that is popular among both black hat and white hat hackers. It provides them with knowledge of identified security vulnerabilities. Metasploit attacks stab through enterprises defenses because they are potent. As it is used to automate many of the steps of penetration testing, when new exploits are found, as it is often the case, they (the exploits) are added to the catalog by the application's overseer and users. After this is done, anyone who uses the software can use it to test the potency of the exploits against particular systems. When it identifies a vulnerability, Metasploit uses and delivers the exploit and report. Attackers can import these reports from a vulnerability scanner, and once they determine the weaknesses, they use an applicable exploit to jeopardize the system. The tool is also used to secure an enterprise by disabling a particular system feature that helps prevent a network from being exploited. After which the application can be used to verify that the disabling worked as expected. It also helps confirm whether security monitoring tools detect the exploit attempt.

Conclusion

As with any security tool, web application hacking tools can be used to do both good and harm. Malicious hackers use these applications to against enterprises to recognize exploits that will allow them unauthorized access to applications, networks, and data. Applications like Metasploit helps to demonstrate the gravity of vulnerability by revealing how easy it is to exploit it and totally compromise a system. It is, therefore, imperative that you take great care in the handling of this software.

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Sources

• Top 14 best hacking tools
• 5 best tools for hacking