A hacking tool is a program designed to assist with hacking, or a piece of software which can be used for hacking purposes and save hackers time.
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Examples include Nmap, Nessus, John the Ripper, p0f, and Winzapper. Bribes have also been described as among the most potent hacking tools, due to their potential exploitation in social engineering attacks. Occasionally, common software such as ActiveX is exploited as a hacking tool as well.
Hacking tools such as Cain and Abel, however, are well known as Script Kiddie Tools. Script kiddies are people who follow instructions from a manual, without realising how it happens. These Script Kiddies have been an enormous threat to computer security as there are many hacking tools and keyloggers up for download which are free.
Worms
Another example of a hacking tool is a computer worm. These malicious programs detect vulnerabilities in operating systems. Not all worms, however, are malicious. The Nachi Worms have actually fixed operating system vulnerabilities by downloading and installing security patches from the Microsoft website.
Port Scanners
Port scanners detect vulnerabilities in firewalls, and are able to find a great deal about the computer system, such as the operating system, ISP, wireless routers and how long the system has been online. However, port scanners are the best security auditing tools.
Hacking Linux
Although not much is said about threats to the Linux system, they do exist and could increase in the future. One of the biggest threats to the Linux system is given by the so-called Rootkits. These are programs that have special privileges and are able to hide to the system administrator.