Hacker 10 – Security Hacker

Tag: Backtrack alternative

  • Intrusion Detection Linux distribution Security Onion

    Intrusion Detection Linux distribution Security Onion

    Security Onion is a Ubuntu based Intrusion Detection and Network Security Linux distribution for professionals. It can run as a live DVD or installed in your hard drive with just a few clicks. The distribution comes with well known offensive and defensive digital tools that are not very beginner friendly, you need to have a computer security background to understand what the tools do.

    Fortunately Security Onion developers have uploaded a series of YouTube tutorials explaining how to search DNS traffic, how to use Sguil, Squert, Snorby and tcpreplay, there is also a well documented Wiki, a mailing list and Freenode IRC channel where you can post questions. If you wish to learn about digital forensics and hacking this will be a good place to start.

    Intrusion Detection Linux distribution Security Oniion
    Intrusion Detection Linux distribution Security Onion

    Security Onion default window manager is XFCE, a minimalist lightweight desktop environment. You will find a basic Xubuntu software base, like the Synaptic package manager, text editor Abiword, graphic editor the Gimp and a couple of Solitaire games with a considerable bundle of network inspection software, the expected WireShark packet sniffer, Suricata, Xplico and Network Miner for network forensic analysis, Snorby, ELSA, Snort and a long etc of tools that security professionals will quickly recognise.

    There is no root password in Security Onion, a default Ubuntu based distribution setting. Your account already has sudo permissions and you can add a new user with sudo adduser

    This is an actively supported distribution, one of the developers is a SANS Institute GSE Community Instructor and other seasoned security professionals are also involved, a two training class about Security Onion has already taken place, with enough demand there is no reason why this should not happen more often.

    Security Onion is a proper alternative to BackTrack that has all the tools a pen tester and digital forensics professional needs to detect network intrusion and test network defences before and attack happens. Security Onion is well documented with community based online support.

    Definitely a distribution to look at if you work in the IDS field or if you would like to learn more about real computer security that actually needs some skill and it is not a point and click script kiddie cyberweapon.

    Visit Security Onion homepage

  • Linux Parrot OS for hacking, security and anonymity

    Linux Parrot OS for hacking, security and anonymity

    Parrot OS is a live and installable operating system based on Debian Linux and targeted at penetration testers and people interested in online anonymity. The nearly 2GB DVD download integrates professional and beginner computer security tools inside the MATE Desktop environment, a GNOME2 fork

    Booting can be done in forensic mode, listed as Stealth, to avoid modifying any file in the host computer, live, live fail safe or with a graphical GUI to install the operating system in your computer, visually impaired people can use a speech synthesis installer.

    Parrot OS default username is root with password toor easily changed after logging in. The distribution homepage has a Wiki but at the moment it only contains basic information for newbies about how to boot from BIOS or burn the distribution to a USB thumbdrive. However, if you are familiar with Linux you should not have to read too many tutorials, the tools included in Parrot OS are the same ones found in similar pen testing distributions like Kali or BackTrack Linux.

    Linux penetration testing Parrot OS
    Linux penetration testing Parrot OS

    Some useful tools for privacy activists found in Parrot OS are Truecrypt to encrypt data, Bleachbit to erase Internet tracks, although if you run the live DVD this will not be needed, and the Iceweasel browser running with Tor, with Vidalia providing a graphical interface to manage the Tor network, showing consumed bandwidth, nodes you are connected to and message logs.

    Tools for penetration testers include packet sniffer Wireshark, man in the middle attacks with the Ettercap suite and an md5crack to brute for passwords out of captured md5 hashes. A screenshot and desktop recording utility is able to document all you do.

    Practically all of the hacking tools are found under the Parrot menu, dozens of programs nicely classified under descriptive activities such as “Information Gathering” ; “Sniffing/Spoofing“; “Wireless Attacks“; “Reverse Engineering” and many others with a submenu are all easily accessible.

    Although this distribution is being advertised as anonymity and penetration testing in one, I believe that it is mostly suitable for pen testers, those who want anonymity are still better off with Tails. Parrot OS is similar to Attack Vector Linux, packing powerful penetration testing tools with Tor to hide who is using them. On the other hand, any sys admin worth his salt will be blocking all Tor proxies from accessing the network.

    Computer forensics can also benefit from Parrot OS, as it has a dedicated “Forensics” menu with carving, hashing and imaging tools together with reporting tools to manage evidence and a forensic boot that will not modify data. You can find this distribution to be a sound alternative to BackTrack.

    Visit Parrot OS homepage

  • Linux penetration testing distribution NetSecL OS

    Linux penetration testing distribution NetSecL OS

    NetSecL OS is a penetration testing OpenSuse based Linux distribution with the lightweight Xfce window manager. The distribution’s kernel has been hardened with grsecurity patches, a set of rules that allows for more extensive system auditing and protects you from stack overflows by making them non executable.

    The latest NetSecL OS 5.0 removes Firefox and incorporates the Chromium browser, not to be confused with Chrome. Even thought they both use the same source code, Chromium does not release binaries, it has to be built from source, and it does not send data to Google, the Chromium browser has improved privacy over Chrome.

    Other privacy enhancing features in NetSecL OS include Macchanger, a Unix utility to view, fabricate or forge a  MAC network card address and a Firewall GUI builder to set your own system access rules.

    Linux security distribution NetSecL OS
    Linux security distribution NetSecL OS

    You can run NetSecL OS as a live DVD or install it in a USB or hard drive. A .ova virtual  machine is available for download from Suse Studio website for testing. The default users are root and tux and the password for both of them is linux

    You can find specific penetration testing tools like the Metasploit framework , packet sniffer Wireshark, network monitor EtherApe, Open Vulnerability Assessment System OpenVas, port scanning Nmap, security reconnaissance Skipfish along password manager KeePassX, text editor Abiword, FTP client FileZilla and the open source Windows API implementation Wine, to run Windows programs in Unix.

    NetSecL OS has all the tools a security professional needs to break into a network, I can see this operating system complementing BackTrack. The main difference in between both being that NetSecL OS is fixated with offensive security and not digital forensics, for example,NetSecL OS does not have image acquisition tools, in lieu BackTrack covers both fields.

    If you don’t like Backtrack Ubuntu base or just want to try something new, NetSecL OS is a valuable OpenSuse pen testing distribution.

    Visit NetSecL OS homepage