Protecting confidential data has become the top priority for organizations. The constant cybersecurity attacks have become a major concern for consumers.

According to a recent survey on Data Privacy, 68% of consumers don’t trust brands with their personal data.

Vulnerability Assessment identifies security loopholes within a network. Choosing the right vulnerability assessment tool could be a daunting task.

There are tons of tools available in the market for Security Assessment. The following list is constructed based on its popularity, feature set and ease of use.

NMAP

Nmap is a popular open source tool which acts as a free security scanner, port scanner and network exploration tool.

It is used to find out hosts and services on a network computer, building a map of the network, thus called Nmap (Network Map).

This tool has been in the market for more than two decades.

• Nmap identifies remote devices and effectively identifies firewalls and routers
• Nmap helps to identify which ports are open and check if those ports can be exploited further for attacks.
• It helps in network inventory, network mapping and asset management

OpenVAS

OpenVas is one of the top open source tools available in the market. OpenVas serves as both Vulnerability Scanner and Vulnerability Management tool.

• It is very stable and reliable for detecting vulnerabilities.
• It supports several operating systems.
• The OpenVas scanner helps spot security issues in servers and networks.

Nikto

Nikto is an open source widely used to scan websites for probable issues and vulnerabilities. It supports both HTTP and HTTPS.

• Nikto helps in finding out critical loopholes like improper cookie handling, file upload misconfiguration, cross-scripting errors etc.
• It is used to carry out a wide range of tests on web servers to scan various files.
• It is used to scan various protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, HTTPD

cWatch Vulnerability Scanner

It is a modern vulnerability scanning-cum-trust building tool that helps overcome cybersecurity concerns of visitors.

The tool offers a wide variety of benefits including:

• Reducing cart abandonment rate
• Everyday vulnerability scanning
• Build trust with visitors
• Increase conversion rate

It also comes visual indicator for customers to feel safe and secure making transactions, which reduces the cart abandonment rate, boosts conversions and thus increases overall revenue.

Wireshark

Wireshark is the most popular and widely used network protocol analyser. It is an open source sniffer tool with salient features.

• Wireshark can capture issues online and performs the analysis offline.
• Wireshark can be used for network troubleshooting and analysis.
• It runs across multiple platforms like MacOS, Windows, Linux etc.
• It can analyse VoIP data as well.

Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a graphical tool used for scanning web applications for security. The tool has a paid professional edition and a free community edition.

The cost for professional edition is $349 / year for individual users.

• Burp Suite can be used for exploitation and automate
• It has advanced scanning feature that lets you perform automated vulnerability scans.
• It acts as an intruder to perform automated attacks on web applications.

OWASP ZAP

OWASP ZAP is an open source security scanner for web applications. It is a global tool that supports 11 languages.

• It helps to find the security holes within the web application by simulating an actual attack.
• It uses port scanning feature to identify open ports on a particular
• It has passive scanning feature to analyse responses from the server.

Curl

Curl is a popular, commonly used command-line tool to transfer data between servers. It supports 20+ protocols including Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), making it one of the best tools in the market for testing any REST service. In addition, it also supports more than 200 command-line options.

Some of the capabilities provided by Curl are:

• Test websites, APIs, web services online
• Post direct requests from browser
• Load test websites and APIs
• Share and discuss requests online

PowerSploit

It is an open-source, offensive security framework comprising of PowerShell scripts and modules that help complete a variety of penetration testing-related tasks such as bypassing antivirus, exfiltration, code execution, setting up script persistence, recon and more.

It is one the key tools of a red team professional.

Aircrack

Aircrack is an open source network scanner used to access the WiFi network security. Aircrack focuses on different areas of WiFI security such as monitoring, attacking, testing and cracking.

• It can be used to recover the lost keys by capturing data packets.
• Aircrack supports multiple OS like Windows, Linux, Solaris etc.
• It is a package of software utilities that acts as a packet crafter, packet decoder and sniffer.

Conclusion

Choosing the right tool should be the first step in assessing the security of your application.

These assessment tools help in identifying the security issues and prioritize the issue based on severity. These tools provide proper directions for QA testers on where to focus and helps in identifying potential security gaps.