Ethical hacking is an in-depth and comprehensive process. Often, ethical hackers have difficulty finding the appropriate tools for their projects. Not to mention, purchasing all the required tools can become expensive. To help with various stages of the hacking process, ethical hackers rely on a toolkit that consists of several different tools.

According to a survey by the UK Gov,  39% of businesses encountered cyberattacks in 2021. So, companies must have a strong security strategy to protect themselves from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats. 

That’s where ethical hacking comes in where the hackers use tools and techniques to hack into systems in a controlled environment to find and fix vulnerabilities before hackers can exploit them. Ethical hacking tools are also useful to protect private data such as bank account information, password security, etc.

But it often gets challenging to find the best ethical hacking tool that can resolve the security vulnerabilities issue. So, in this article, we’ve compiled the ten best ethical hacking tools for ethical hacking. You’ll find out which ones are the most popular and which ones are worth investing in.

What is ethical hacking?

Ethical hacking is the process of identifying security vulnerabilities in a computer system or network and taking steps to mitigate those vulnerabilities. 

It is an important tool for keeping computer systems and networks safe from attack, and certified ethical hackers are in high demand in today’s cybersecurity landscape. (If you’re looking for a job as an ethical hacker, look at Jooble for available positions.) can help organizations to identify and fix potential security issues before they are exploited by malicious actors. 

Ethical hackers may use various methods to test system security, including penetration testing, social engineering, and password guessing. 

Many ethical hackers choose to obtain certification training in order to demonstrate their competency in this field. Certification programs typically involve passing an exam that tests one’s knowledge of various ethical hacking techniques and methodologies. 

Importance of ethical hacking tools for professional ethical hackers

As a professional ethical hacker, it is essential to have the right tools at your disposal to be successful in your work. Some of the key points to having the best ethical hacking tools are: 

• Ethical hacking tools allow for a more comprehensive assessment of system security.
• They help professional ethical hackers to identify vulnerabilities and potential exploits in systems.
• Ethical hacking tools help to streamline the process of vulnerability detection and remediation.
• It can help organizations to improve their security posture and protect their networks and systems from attacks.
• Ultimately, this makes the process of ethical hacking more efficient and effective.

7 Best ethical hacking tools for professional ethical hackers

There are a variety of ethical hacking tools available on the market today. However, not all of them offer the same benefits. Some are more effective than others, and some are more suited for specific tasks.

Here are 10 of the best ethical hacking tools for ethical hacking:

Nmap (Network Mapper)

Nmap is one of the excellent hacking tools that can easily be used in ports to check if someone is attempting to hack. Initially developed on a command-line platform, it now runs on Windows systems, and Nmap is now available. 

Nmap can be used to find services and hosts in networks and thus create a network map. It has several functions to help identify host and network networks and to detect operating systems. 

The script extension makes it easy for security researchers to detect vulnerabilities and adapt to network conditions, including congestion and latency during scans.

Features of Nmap

• Open-Source.
• Scans networks and hosts for open ports.
• Scan UDP and TCP ports.
• Scan vulnerabilities. 
• Return a wealth of information about scanned hosts, including operating systems, services, and version details. 
• Includes a graphical user interface and a command line interface.

Metasploit

Metasploit is an ethical hacker-based hacking program built in Ruby. The security exploitation tool consists mainly of ethical hacking tool frameworks which perform diverse ethical hacking operations. 

Through a security system of Metasploit, you can find critical information about vulnerabilities on target machines. This information will help you develop the best penetration testing and IDS testing plans and exploit methods. I’d say that this is the most important thing to learn in the 21st century.

Features of Metasploit

• Metasploit has a modular design, which allows for an easy extension of its capabilities.
• An easy-to-use command-line interface.
• Includes various exploits, allowing for quick and easy penetration testing.
• Open-source.

John The Ripper

The list of ethical hacking tools is incomplete without mentioning John Ripper. John The Ripper is the most popular open-source forensic ethical hacking tool to crack the password, especially those that are difficult to crack. 

The tool will detect password security on XP, DOS, and OpenVMS systems. This password-cracking software can find encryption for a given type of password. Once a key has detected the encrypted type, it automatically switches the password-testing algorithm making it incredibly intelligent.

Features of John The Ripper

• Free and open source software password cracker.
• Performs both brute-force and dictionary attacks.
• Available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
• Crack passwords up to 8 characters long.

Burp Suite

Burp is an ethical hacking tool for security tests on web applications. It provides several software products to assist in testing processes. This process includes establishing mapping for identifying and exploiting security weaknesses. 

The Burp Suite tool provides several valuable features to test a web application, including advanced software tools. Burp software is well known not only because of its ease of operation but also because it combines advanced manual techniques with automated testing tools.

Features of Burp Suite

• Intercepts and modifies browser and web application requests and responses.
• Automatically scans web applications for security vulnerabilities.
• Observe how a web application responds to random data to find vulnerabilities.
• Also includes a password cracker, an automated crawler, and a report generator.

Wireshark

Wireshark became a top ethical hacking tool in 2021 and is used primarily for analysing real-time network traffic. The software is designed to analyse Internet protocol packets and explore them in depth using several techniques. 

Wireshark is an application for decompressed zip files. Using this application, you can capture and display data packets in an Internet network by displaying outputs in XML, CSV, or TXT and XML formats. It provides an additional way to colour packet list output.

Features of Wireshark

• Free and open-source packet analyzer.
• Analyzes networks and develops software and communications protocols.
• Ability to view live traffic, decode various protocols, replay traffic, and more.
• Offers a range of plugins that extend its functionality.

Invicti

Invicti, previously known as Netsparker, is an excellent ethical hacking tool for web application safety auditing. This web-based software scanner detects SQL injection, XSS, and other scalability issues in websites and web services. Invicti can accurately determine vulnerability with proof of concept. 

With Invicti, you can scan over 1000 Web applications daily with minimal effort. However, it is only offered on the web in Windows software and SAAS solutions.

Features of Invicti

• Automatic detection of over 3,000 web application vulnerabilities.
• False positive free scanning.
• Vulnerability scanning in real-time.
• Scanning of local and remote websites.
• Easy to use interface.

Nikto

Nikto is an ethical hacking tool that can be used to scan web servers for potential vulnerabilities. It can identify outdated software, misconfigured systems, and other potential security risks. Nikto is a powerful tool that helps secure a network, but it should be used cautiously and only by experienced, ethical hackers.

Features of Nikto

• Free and open source web server scanner
• Scans for over 6700 potentially dangerous files and scripts
• Analyzes outdated configurations and software

Final Words

All the ethical hacking tools listed above are essential for any ethical hacker. They provide a range of capabilities that allow hackers to assess and exploit vulnerabilities in systems.

Despite their importance, these tools should be used with caution. It is important to remember that hacking is illegal in most cases, and using these tools without proper authorization can lead to criminal charges.