Top 25 Ethical Hacking tools to look out for in 2024

Ethical hacking tools are tools that are used to test the security of a computer system or network. Ethical hackers, also known as white hat hackers, use these tools to identify a system’s vulnerabilities and help the system’s owners fix those vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Some examples of ethical hacking tools include Nmap, Wireshark, Metasploit, Aircrack-ng, and Burp Suite. These tools can be used to perform tasks such as network mapping, packet capture and analysis, exploitation, and web security testing. With the onset of various ethical hacking tools, the industry has been transformed. If you are new to the field and wish to learn more, you can take a free ethical hacking course to help you grasp the required concepts to build a successful career.

What are Ethical Hacking Tools?

• Ethical Hacking Tools can detect vulnerabilities in computer systems, servers, web applications, and networks with the help of computer programs and scripts. 
• Several open-source and commercial tools available in the market are widely used to prevent unauthorized access to a computer system. 

Top 25 Ethical Hacking Tools of 2024

1. Nmap: a network mapping tool that can be used to discover hosts and services on a network.
2. Wireshark: a packet capture and analysis tool used to monitor network traffic.
3. Metasploit: a framework for developing and executing exploits against a target system.
4. Aircrack-ng: a suite of tools for wireless network cracking.
5. Burp Suite: a set of tools for performing web security testing.
6. Maltego: a tool for visualizing and analyzing the relationships between people, organizations, websites, and other infrastructure on the internet.
7. John the Ripper: a password cracking tool used to recover lost or forgotten passwords.
8. Ophcrack: a password-cracking tool that uses rainbow tables to recover passwords.
9. SQLmap: a tool for automating the exploitation of SQL injection vulnerabilities.
10. Immunity Debugger: a debugger used to identify and fix vulnerabilities in software.
11. hashcat: a password cracking tool that uses GPU acceleration to speed up the process.
12. Nikto: a web server scanner used to identify vulnerabilities in web servers.
13. Angry IP Scanner: a tool for scanning IP addresses and ports to identify live hosts and open ports.
14. dnsmap: a tool for subdomain bruteforce attacks.
15. Sqlninja: a tool for exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities in Microsoft SQL Server.
16. Telnet: a network protocol used for establishing connections to servers.
17. Netcat: a networking utility used for reading and writing to network connections.
18. Linux Command Line: a powerful tool for performing tasks in Linux environments.
19. Fiddler: a web debugging proxy used to monitor and modify web traffic.
20. Setoolkit: a collection of utilities for penetration testing.
21. Cain & Abel: a password recovery tool for Microsoft Windows.
22. Wifite: a tool for automating the process of attacking wireless networks.
23. Zenmap: a graphical interface for Nmap.
24. W3af: a web application security scanner.
25. Acunetix: a web vulnerability scanner.

1. Nmap Hacking Tool

• Gordon Lyon created an open-source tool called Nmap stands for Network Mapper in the year 1997, mainly used for Network Discovery and Security Auditing.
  
• Nmap is one of the best scanning tools for Ethical Hacking and supports all major OS such as Windows, Linux and, Mac OS. 

Nmap Hacking Tool Feature

• Nmap is used for auditing to identify the target host.
• Hacking tool Identify new servers.
• Query a host for DNS and Subdomain search.
• Find Vulnerabilities on a network and Exploit them.

Using Nmap you can:

• Audit device security.
• Detect open ports on remote hosts.
• Network mapping and enumeration.
• Find vulnerabilities inside any network.
• Launch massive DNS queries against domains and subdomains.

Price: Free

Website: Nmap

2. Burp Suite Hacking Tool

• Burp Suite was developed by Dafydd Stuttard ( Founder of Portswigger ) widely used to perform security testing on web applications.
• Burp Suite hacking tools contain numerous powerful features which support both manual and automation testing for efficiency and make it highly configurable to even the most experienced testers.

Burp Suite Hacking Tool Features

• HTTP message editor.
• Login Sequence Recorder permits the programmed filtering.
• Survey weakness information with built-in vulnerability management.
• Automate scan and filter.
• Effectively give a wide assortment of specialized and consistent reports.
• Identifies critical vulnerabilities with 100% accuracy.
• Target Analyzer.
• Content Discovery.
• Task Scheduler.
• CSRF PoC Generator.

Price:
1. Community edition – Free.
2. Enterprise edition – starts at $3999/ yr.
3. Professional edition-  starts at $399/use/yr.

Website: Burp Tool

3. Netsparker

Netsparker was created by Ferruh Mavituna, Peter Edgeler, and Mark Lane in 2009, is one of the website hacking tools, capable of automatically finding SQL Injection, XSS, and other vulnerabilities.

Features of Netsparker

• Proof-Based Scanning Technology helps in vulnerability detection.
• Netsparker automatically detects custom 404 error pages, URL rules, etc.
• REST API for consistent combination with the SDLC, bug tracking systems, etc.
• Completely flexible solution. Scan 1,000 web applications in just 24 hours.

Price: Not provided by the vendor

Website: Netsparker

4. Acunetix

Acunetix was developed by Ferruh Mavituna, founder of Netsparx which is a fully automated Ethical Hacking solution that scans single-page applications, javascript, etc… It can prioritize the risk and audit complex, authenticated web apps through a single, consolidated view.

Features:

• Scans for all variants of SQL Injection, XSS, and 4500+ vulnerabilities.
• Identifies over 1200 WordPress core, theme, and plugin vulnerabilities.
• Fast & Scalable – thousands of pages without interruptions.
• Available On-Premises and as a Cloud solution.
• Integrates with mainstream WAFs and Issue Trackers to help in the SDLC.

Price: Pricing Model – Free trial for 14 days

Website: Acunetix     

5. Metasploit

Metasploit was founded by H. D. Moore which is mainly used for penetration testing

Features:

• It is useful for knowing about security vulnerabilities.
• Helps in penetration testing.
• Helps in IDS signature development.
• You can create security testing tools.

Price:
1. Open-source tool – Free download.
2. Metasploit Pro is a commercial product- a Free trial available for 14 days.

Website: Metasploit

6. Aircrack-Ng

Aircrack is one of the trustable Ethical Hacking tools which is mainly used for vulnerable wireless connections.

Features:

• It can focus on de-authentication, fake access points, etc.
• It supports exporting data to text files.
• It can check Wi-Fi cards and driver capabilities.
• FMS, PTW attacks are used to crack WEP keys.
• Dictionary attacks are used to crack WPA2-PSK.

Price: Free

Website: Aircrack-Ng

7. Ettercap

Ettercap is an Ethical Hacking tool that supports cross-platform which is used for network and host analysis. Ettercap can help you in creating plugins. 

• Features:
• Sniffing of live connections.
• Content filtering.
• Active and passive dissection of many protocols.
• Network and host analysis.
• Allows creation of custom plugins using Ettercap’s API

Price: Free.

Website: Ettercap

8. John The Ripper

John the Ripper is developed by the Unix Operating system and this is one of the popular password cracking tools. Most of the Pen testers and Ethical Hackers prefer John to ensure security due to its e ability to auto-detect password hash types.
Features:

• John the Ripper is mainly used for testing encrypted passwords.
• It performs dictionary attacks.
• It provides various password crackers in one package.
• It provides a customizable cracker.

Price: Free

Website:  John the Ripper

9. Wireshark

• Gerald Combs, The founder wanted a tool for tracking network problems, so he started writing “Wireshark” (previously known as Ethereal).
  This tool helps in analyzing the packets and perform deep inspection of many protocols.

Features:

• Wireshark can decompress the gzip files.
• Protocols like IPsec, ISAKMP, etc can be decrypted by Wireshark.
• It can perform live capture and offline analysis.
• Wireshark captures network data using GUI or TTY-mode TShark utility.

Price: Free

Website: Wireshark

10. Angry IP Scanner

This is an open-source and cross-platform Ethical Hacking tool that mainly helps in scanning the IP addresses and ports.

Features:

• This is a free and open-source hack tool.
• Random or file in any format.
• Exports results in many formats.
• Extensible with many data fetchers.
• Provides command-line interface.
• No need for Installation.

Price: Free

Website:  Angry IP Scanner

Conclusion

With the increase in technology, most of the industry prefers ethical hacking to secure their businesses with the help of Ethical Hacking tools. The above-listed tools are the top 10 ethical hacking tools to look for in 2024.
If you wish to become an ethical hacker and build a promising career in cybersecurity, check our Cyber Security Course offered by Sandford Universities.