Whether you are a security professional or a hacker, for them it is very crucial to have a security-focused operating system. In this article, we list down 10 best operating systems which can be used for ethical hacking and penetration testing in 2019.
(The list is in alphabetical order)
1| ArchStrike
ArchStrike is a penetration testing and security layer on top of Arch Linux. It is an Arch Linux repository for security professionals and it aims to create a simple and clean penetration testing distribution for security researchers and enthusiasts. It consists of two repositories which are archstrike and archstrike-testing.
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2| Backbox
BackBox is a Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for penetration testing and security assessment. It has been built on the Ubuntu core system and it is fully customized, designed to be one of the best penetration testing and security distribution. It includes some of the most commonly known/used security and analysis tools, aiming for a wide spread of goals, ranging from web application analysis to network analysis, stress tests, sniffing, vulnerability assessment, computer forensic analysis, automotive and exploitation.
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3| BlackArch
BlackArch is an Arch Linux-based penetration testing distribution for pen testers and security professionals. It is compatible with existing Arch installs and the repository contains more than 2000 tools.
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4| Bugtraq
Bugtraq is a comprehensive Linux distribution which contains an advanced GNU/Linux penetration testing technology. This distribution based on the 3.2 and 3.4 kernel Generic available in 64 Bits has a huge range of penetration, forensic and laboratory tools. Bugtraq system offers the most comprehensive, optimal, and stable with automated services manager in real time distribution.
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5| Caine
Computer Aided INvestigate Environment (CAINE) is a Linux-based live distribution created for digital forensics project. This distro offers a complete forensic environment which is organized to integrate existing software tools as software modules and to provide a friendly graphical interface. The main design objectives that CAINE aims include an interoperable environment which supports the digital investigator during the four phases of the digital investigation, a user-friendly graphical interface including user-friendly tools.
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6| DEFT
Digital Evidence & Forensics Toolkit (DEFT) is a system based on GNU Linux which can run live or run as a virtual appliance on VMware. This distro features Digital Advanced Response Toolkit (DART) suite which contains Windows applications. It also includes a few tools which can be utilised for the analysis of mobile devices.
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7| Kali Linux
Kali Linux is an open source project and is maintained and funded by Offensive Security which is a provider of world-class information security training and penetration testing services. It offers a smoother, easier penetration testing experience, making it more accessible to IT generalists as well as security specialists.
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8| Network Security Toolkit (NST)
Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable ISO live DVD/USB Flash Drive (NST Live) which is based on Fedora. The main intent of developing this toolkit was to provide the security professional and network administrator with a comprehensive set of Open Source Network Security Tools. NST can be used as a network security analysis validation and monitoring tool on enterprise virtual servers hosting virtual machines.
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9| Parrot Security OS
Parrot OS is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian which focuses on computer security. It is a free, secure and lightweight Debian testing which is designed with security, development, and privacy in mind. Developed by the Frozenbox team, this distro is designed for penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and mitigation, computer forensics as well as anonymous web browsing.
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10| Samurai web testing framework
The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a web penetration testing virtual machine which is built on open source software. This framework is a virtual machine, supported on VirtualBox and VMware which has been pre-configured to function as a web pen-testing environment. The VM contains the best of the open source and free tools which focuses on testing and attacking websites.
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