Penetration testing Research

With the ever-changing technicalities in our computer systems, security has to take the centre stage. Despite this, no individual or organization can attain 100% security in their systems, hence, the necessity for penetration testing. This process mainly involves network penetration as well as application security testing. This test is done in various ways, but the most common mode of testing entails both external and internal testing. External in the sense that the testing is conducted from outside the network interface. The software is normally used as a prevention mechanism. The software tests are on various occasions, done as a way of protecting the system form a possible invasion by hackers. In this case, it is the static testing which is put into use.

On the other side, dynamic testing is mostly used when countering an already existing problem in the system. For instance, when the penetration testers establish the act of hacking in the system, dynamic testing is usually used to seal the window used to hack the system. It thus forms an open source type of method of conducting penetration tests as it has certain auxiliary modules with which one can scan a given system with the goal of establishing vulnerabilities. This tool has some well-defined post exploitation abilities enables it to go through a system which may have certain weaknesses. This pen test tool is normally when one is generally trying to find out some more information concerning the system being tested.

For one to use this tool, one is needed to have some extensive knowledge of binding as well as the exploitation of vulnerabilities. Therefore, programming skills are vital for anyone interested in using this tool. From this ability, the tool then inspects the several individual packets hence establishing any weaknesses or security issues in the network's interface. Using this tool only needs one to have a good understanding of the various operating systems on their computers. Wireshark has been developed in different packages to work perfectly with whatever operating system that one uses. After understanding the compatibility of the software, one only needs to install it then follow the preceding steps. Nessus This is a kind of pen test tool that mainly works as a vulnerability scanner.

This tool is compatible with almost all computer systems hence it efficiently operates in most environments. Burpsuite This forms another most preferred penetration testing tool among most pen-testing experts. This tool generally works as a scanner. It is not an open source tool since its users have to make subscriptions periodically for them to make use of it. Burpsuite is generally user-friendly since it has been designed as an integrated software for carrying out security testing on various web applications. ZED Attack Proxy (ZAP) This is also an open source type of penetration testing tool and is offered by the OWASP. Like many other pen testing tools, the ZAP checks for any vulnerability in a given software. This software establishes weaknesses such as sensitive data exposure, lack of sufficient attack protection, under protected APIs among many others.