por Do you know what Kali Linux is and why it is especially used for cybersecurity? ¿Have you ever wondered what operating system hackers use?? And why does it have to be a special system for this and not another?
As you may have heard before, currently There are three types of hackers: those with white hats, those with gray hats and those with black hats. The first are those that carry out hacking tasks, with the consent of the company or organization attacked and in order to report all faults found; The second are those who hack some networks or systems without permission, but they do not execute malicious tasks or report the bugs they find; the last ones are those who practice hacking to harm others and for criminal purposes.
In this post, we will talk about one of the most used operating systems for hacking in the world, we will describe its characteristics and how facilitates all the tasks necessary to make a pentesting. Next, we will explain what is Kali Linuxhow it differs from other operating systems and what alternatives exist.
What is Kali Linux?
What is Kali Linux based on?
Kali Linux is based on Debian GNU/Linux and was developed by the cybersecurity company Offensive Security. Kali is an open source operating system and differs from other operating system distributions in that it brings together more than 600 programs for ethical hacking, which are pre-installed in the system.
These tools, which we will talk about later, are divided into the following thirteen modules.
What are the features of Kali Linux?
Information gathering: tools to obtain all possible data about the target system.
Vulnerability scan: scanning and identifying security flaws, which can be exploited to initiate a cyber attack.
Web application analysis– Special tools for scanning websites for vulnerabilities.
Database evaluation– Automatically finds vulnerabilities in databases.
Password attacks– Dictionary, table and brute force attacks to find easy-to-discover passwords.
Wireless Attacks: tools to execute cyberattacks through wireless networks.
Reverse engineering– Tools to discover the source code of an application. For example, from a malware.
Exploitation tools: They serve to take advantage of security flaws in a system in order to infiltrate it.
Sniffing and Spoofing: data theft and identity theft.
Post-exploitation: privilege escalation, establishment of persistence and delivery of the payload in the system. That is, execution of harmful tasks as such.
forensic analysis: study of the traces left by a cyber attacker.
Reporting tools: special to design cybersecurity reports, after training exercises pentesting.
Social engineering tools: to simulate campaigns phishing, spear phishing and more.
Some Kali Linux tools
You already know what Kali Linux is, a Debian-based operating system that has hundreds of tools. pentesting pre-installed. Now, we will talk about some of the most famous programs that Kali includes and what are their functions:
nmap– This is one of the most famous hacking software and is used to scan networks, devices, and open ports. Nmap reveals information about devices connected to a network and their security flaws.
John the Ripper– is an open source program that specializes in performing password cracking techniques. Through this tool you can carry out brute force and dictionary attacks to «break» passwords (especially the easiest ones).
Metasploit: It’s about a framework open source that contains thousands of tools to exploit known vulnerabilities in a system.
Now that you have learned what Kali Linux is, it is important to remember that We are talking about a tool developed to carry out hacking for ethical purposes. Although some may use it for black hat hacking, we insist that it should always be used for the purpose of helping others.
What is Kali Linux?
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