Information Gathering in Cybersecurity: An Overview of Passive, Active, and Hybrid Tools
Information gathering tools in cybersecurity are vast and varied, catering to different aspects of Footprinting and Reconnaissance.
Here’s a list of several widely used tools in both passive and active information gathering:
Passive Information Gathering Tools:
WHOIS Lookup : Provides information about who owns a domain name and their contact information. Example: WHOIS.com, DomainTools
Nslookup : Queries DNS to obtain domain name or IP address mapping or other DNS records.
TheHarvester : Gathers emails, subdomains, hosts, employee names, open ports, and banners from different public sources.
Shodan
Utility: A search engine that lets the user find specific types of computers connected to the internet using various filters.
Censys
Utility: Collects data on hosts and websites through regular scans of the public internet.
Maltego : Proprietary software for open-source intelligence and forensics, developed by Paterva.
Recon-ng : A full-featured Web Reconnaissance framework written in Python.
Google Dorks : Uses advanced search queries in Google to find vulnerabilities and sensitive information.
Netcraft : Provides internet security services including cybersecurity, anti-fraud and anti-phishing services.
Robtex : A powerful DNS, IP, route, and AS internet toolbox.
BuiltWith : Tells you what a website is built with by looking at its technology stack.
Active Information Gathering Tools:
Nmap : Network mapper tool for network discovery and security auditing.
Masscan : TCP port scanner, spews SYN packets asynchronously, up to 10 million packets per second.
Nessus : Vulnerability, configuration, and compliance assessment tool.
Metasploit Framework : Penetration testing framework that makes hacking simple. It’s an essential tool for many attackers and defenders.
Wireshark : Network protocol analyzer that lets you capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network.
Aircrack-ng : A suite of tools to assess WiFi network security.
Netcat : Networking utility for reading from and writing to network connections using TCP or UDP.
Nikto : Web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including dangerous files/CGIs.
OWASP ZAP : Security tool used for finding security vulnerabilities in web applications.
Burp Suite : Graphical tool for testing Web application security.
Hybrid Tools:
SpiderFoot : Open-source intelligence (OSINT) automation tool. It integrates with just about every data source available.
Cewl : Custom Word List generator.
FOCA : Tool used to find metadata and hidden information in the documents.
Please note, the use of these tools should be ethical, legal, and authorized by relevant stakeholders or entities. Misuse may violate laws and ethical standards.
