12 open-source penetration testing tools you might not know about

Red Siege has developed and made available many open-source tools to help with your penetration testing work.

The company plans to continue to support the tools listed below, whether in the form of bug fixes or new features. Give them a try, they’re all available on GitHub for free.

“I find joy in writing code, turning it into a logic puzzle to create powerful software tools. The satisfaction of seeing my creations in action, like EyeWitness, brings a sense of pride and saves valuable time. Motivated by the possibility of filling a software gap, I open source my creations, hoping they’ll benefit others as they did for me,” Chris Truncer, Senior Security Consultant & Director of Training, Red Siege, told Help Net Security.

open-source penetration testing tools

AutoFunkt

AutoFunkt is a Python script for automating the creation of serverless cloud redirectors from Cobalt Strike malleable C2 profiles.

C2concealer

C2concealer is a command line tool that generates randomized C2 malleable profiles for use in Cobalt Strike.

DigDug

Dig Dug works by appending words from a dictionary to an executable. This dictionary is appended repeatedly until the final desired size of the executable is reached. Some AV & EDR engines may measure entropy to determine if an executable is trustworthy for execution. Other vendors inspect executables for signs of null byte padding.

dumpCake

dumpCake will dump password authentication attempts to the SSH daemon. Every SSHD child process will get attached to and at the completetion of the process, the attempted passwords and connection logs will be dumped to the script.

EyeWitness

EyeWitness takes screenshots of websites, collects server header info, and identifies default credentials if possible. Saves a lot of time triaging web sites on large tests. This tool is very commonly used by penetration testers looking to sift through a long list of websites.

EDD – Enumerate Domain Data

Enumerate Domain Data is designed to be similar to PowerView but in .NET. PowerView is essentially the ultimate domain enumeration tool. This tool was largely put together by viewing implementations of different functionality across a wide range of existing projects and combining them into EDD.

GPPDeception

This script generates a groups.xml file that mimics a real GPP to create a new user on domain-joined computers. Blue teams can use this file as a honeyfile. By monitoring for access to the file, Blue Teams can detect pen testers or malicious actors scanning for GPP files containing usernames and cpasswords for lateral movment.

Just-Metadata

Just-Metadata is a tool that gathers and analyzes metadata about IP addresses. It attempts to find relationships between systems within a large dataset. It is used to gather intelligence information passively about a large number of IP addresses, and attempt to extrapolate relationships that might not otherwise be seen.

ProxmarkWrapper

ProxmarkWrapper is a wrapper around the Proxmark3 client that will send a text alert (and/or email if warranted) if a RFID card is captured.

Wappybird

Wappybird is a ultithreaded Wappalyzer CLI tool to find web technologies, with optional CSV output. You can also provide a directory and all scraped data will be saved with a subfolder per host.

WMImplant

WMImplant is a PowerShell based tool that leverages WMI to both perform actions against targeted machines, but also as the C2 channel for issuing commands and receiving results. WMImplant requires local administrator permissions on the targeted machine.

WMIOps

WMIOps is a powershell script that uses WMI to perform a variety of actions on hosts, local or remote, within a Windows environment. It’s designed primarily for use on penetration tests or red team engagements.

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