8 Popular Security Tools you should try right now

Hacker’s today are on the rage and more organizations are falling victim to them. We are hearing reports of data leaks and website hacks more frequently than ever before.

Even though security steps have been taken to prevent attacks, hackers are better equipped today.

They continue to invent new hacking mechanisms and tools. To protect your data, app and website, you need to stay ahead of the curve.

You need to be proactive and not reactive with your security. You need the best security testing tools to stay ahead.

Security testing tools are used to observe an application and test their functionality to detect as many security issues as possible to prevent hackers from penetrating. These security tools are used without accessing any source code.

First, we’ll explain what security testing is and why it is needed.

What is security testing?

Security testing is conducted to make sure that the data in an information system can’t be accessed by someone that hasn’t been authorized to do so.

It is done to ensure that the data remains protected. Security testing protects applications from threats like malware and others that can crash them.

What are the reasons for performing security testing?

Here are the major reasons for conducting security testing

• Security testing can help to identify security leakages and fix those security leakages at the initial stage. This is the most important reason for performing security testing.
• Security testing can help to stabilize the system and keep it in the market for a longer time.

Why is security testing needed?

Security testing helps to avoid:

• Loss of important information
• Loss of trust of a customer
• Sudden breakdown
• Information theft by nefarious people
• Costly repair costs for websites after attacks
• Inconsistencies in website performance

The Best Security Testing Tools

Here are some of the best security testing tools in the market.

Sonar Qube

Sonar Qube is an interesting open-source security testing tool that can identify vulnerabilities and measure the quality of the source code of a web app.

Even though Sonar Qube was written in Java, it can measure the quality of the source codes for more than twenty programming languages.

Sonar Qube is good for adding other integration tools.

Once Sonar Qube detects issues, the issues are highlighted in red or green. Issues highlighted in red are high-risk issues and vulnerabilities while issues highlighted in green are low-risk issues and vulnerabilities.

Sonar Qube offers various user usage options depending on your level of expertise.

New security testers can use the interactive graphical user interface while experts can use the Sonar Qube through the command prompt access.

Sonar Qube can detect vulnerabilities like:

• SQL injection
• Cross-site scripting
• Memory corruption
• Dos or Denial of Service attacks
• HTTP response splitting

Acunetix 

Acunetix Online is a top security testing tool. A trial version is also available for those who want to try out the features before purchasing the premium version.

Acunetix Online has an automated network vulnerability scanner that detects over 50,000 network misconfigurations and vulnerabilities.

After detecting these issues, it reports them to the user. 

Acunetix Online can test for weak passwords, poorly configured proxy servers, weak SSL/TSL ciphers and SNMP community strings, and DNS zone transfer.

Acunetix Online can check the security level of load balancers, switches, firewalls and routers. It can discover running services and open ports.

Wireshark

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that works for operating systems like Windows, OS X, Linux, Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD and others.

It is good for providing as many details as possible on packet information, decryption and network protocols.

The information that Wireshark retrieves can be viewed through a graphical user interface or the TShark utility.

Wapiti

Wapiti is a security testing tool that allows users to check the security level of their web apps.

It conducts black-box testing to check the web app for vulnerabilities. It scans web pages and injects testing data to check for security lapses. It supports POST and GET HTTP attacks.

Wapiti can identify vulnerabilities like database injection, XSS injection, XXE injection, CRLF injection, Database Injection, Command Execution detection, file disclosure, backup files giving disclosure, files that could be dangerous, weak .hteaccess configurations that can be easily bypassed and others.

Wapiti uses the command-line which makes it difficult for beginners. It requires a total understanding and knowledge of commands.

But experts will have no problem using the tool.

Kali Linux

Kali Linux is an open-source security testing tool from Offensive Security. It comes with features like Full Disk Encryption, Raspberry Pi 2 Disk Encryption, Android Compatibility, Full Kali ISO customization, Accessibility, and Live USB with Multiple Persistence Stores.

Kali Linux comes with penetration testing tools like Metapackages, Tools Listing and Version Tracking.

Nessus

Nessus is a vulnerability scanner from Tenable. This security testing tool that is competent and capable.

Nessus is compliant with HIPPA, PCI, CIS, GLBA, NIST, and more. It works for IP scans, sensitive data searches, website scanning, compliance checks and more. It works well in almost any environment.

Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a tool for conducting the security testing of web applications. It comes in various versions for community or professional usage.

Burp Suite has over 100 predefined vulnerability conditions that it used to test the safety of your web application.

Burp Suite covers over 100 generic vulnerabilities like Xpath injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection etc.

It can perform scans at various speeds. It can be used to scan a single URL, a single branch of a website, or the entire web application.  

After a scan, the results of the scan are presented in a tree view. The results of the scan can be narrowed down to the exact details for any individual item by selecting the particular node or branch.

Scanned results come up with red indications to show if there is any vulnerability or not.

All vulnerabilities are marked according to severity and confidence level, so you can make easy decisions.

All reported security vulnerabilities come with a complete description of the vulnerability, the confidence type, the severity of the issue, and the path of the file.

Burp Suite also allows you to download HTML reports of all discovered vulnerabilities.

Nmap

Nmap or Network Mapper is an important tool for ethical hackers. It is not specifically a penetration testing tool, but every ethical hacker should have it.

It is a popular hacking tool that helps in understanding the characteristics of target networks.

Nmap works for firewalls or packet filters, services, hosts and operating systems. It is an open-source tool that works for most environments.