In this article, we’ll see what is brute-force attack and the top 5 brute-force attack tools for penetration testing.
What is a Brute-Force Attack Tool?
Brute-force attack tool is a trial and error method application for guessing your website or account password by trying to breach it with multiple different password combinations until the account or website is successfully breached. The passwords are usually pulled from the stolen credentials that hackers own with them, this could be from a data breach or via dark web purchase.
This attack can be executed in two ways,
- By using random words and numbers from a dictionary, combining varying combinations using computations and permutations to arrive at potential password for the account.
- The second way is by exhaustive research to narrow down the best possible options for an account, for example, the hacker could search in Dark Web for the email and its compromised passwords and could try the same password or an altered ones to breach the account.
These brute-force attack tools are used by security researchers or the red team of an organization to identify the potential weak credentials and strengthen them further to avoid any breaches via weak passwords.
Top 5 brute-force attack tools for 2022
While most of the tools below are good for a start, we’ve ordered them based on the popularity and favoritism in the cybersecurity community. Here is the list,
1.BruteX
BruteX is a open source all in one brute force shell-based tool that is the most preferred in the community by the pen testers. It helps you to target open ports, usernames, passwords, and more. It works with Nmap, Hydra & DNS enum services and allows the testers to initiate brute-force FTP, SSH and identify the service that is running in the target server automatically.
2. Gobuster
Gobuster is another robust and swift brute-force tools that employs directory scanner programmed by Go language, making it quick and flexible than just scripts. The pros are speed, multi-tasking, extension support and lightweight tool that work only on command line in platforms without Java GUI. Also comes with in-house help for assistance.
3.Dirsearch
Dirsearch is powerful and highly advanced brute-force attack tool that works on command line as well. Its also known as a web path scanner and used for testing against web server files and directories.
It runs on Windows, Linux and macOS making it the most OS compatible tool in the list and it is built on Python for further compatibility with projects and scripts. It comes with proxy support, scanner arena, request delay, multi threading, user-agent randomization, multiple extensions and more.
4. Callow
Callow is a customizable and intuitive brute-force attack tool that is built on Python 3 and is easy for the beginners as it comes with user experiments for error handling, understanding and learning purposes.
5. Secure Shell Bruteforcer (SSB)
SSB is one of the simplest and swift brute-force tools for brute-force SSH servers. As this tool uses secure shell of SSB, it gives an appropriate interface for the act unlike other tools as they crack the password of an SSH server.
Try these tools and drop your thoughts in the comments section. Subscribe to our newsletter for daily alerts on cyber events, you can also follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit.
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