As you have learned in this section, no single tool completes a professional penetration tester$$s apparatus. Instead, a penetration tester$$s toolbox is an ever$-$evolving accumulation of various commercial and open$-$source tools. This is because a professional penetration tester understands that just because a tool gets the job done does not necessarily mean it$$s the best tool for the job.

Furthermore, you must explore and experiment with tools regularly. While, at first glance, some tools may appear the same or perform similarly, it is essential to keep in mind that all tools are not made equal $$ different levels of care, expertise, and maintenance result in the quality of a tool.

You will explore some of the most prominent and frequently relied upon penetration testing tools in this activity.

Select two tools from the list provided below.

Perform research on their capabilities. How do they aid penetration testers and on which testing phase or phases are they typically used?

Share your findings with peers on the discussion board.

Additionally, while not required for this activity, it is encouraged that you download and install some of these tools in your lab environment to increase your familiarity. To get started, search YouTube for tutorials. In addition, you may wish to review this repository of open source tools Links to an external site..

Possible tools to consider:

Nmap

Metasploit

Cobalt Strike

Burp Suite

Hping

Fping

Wireshark

NetStumbler

Kismet

Nessus

Shodan

Nexpose

Kali Linux

Nikto

OWASP ZAP

PowerShell

Bash

MITRE CALDERA

MITRE ATT&CK

Exploit$-$DB

OWASP Penetration Testing Kit Links to an external site.