Penetration testing, or pentesting, involves simulating attacks on systems to identify and fix vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors. Below are some popular tools that pentesters frequently use, categorized by their primary application areas:

Reconnaissance Tools

• Nmap: A powerful network scanner for discovering devices and services on a network.
• Recon-ng: A web reconnaissance framework with a number of modules for gathering information.
• Maltego: A data mining tool that allows users to gather and analyze information from various sources.

Vulnerability Scanning

• Nessus: One of the most popular vulnerability scanners for identifying potential vulnerabilities in systems.
• OpenVAS: An open-source vulnerability scanner that can monitor several systems simultaneously.
• Qualys: A cloud-based service for vulnerability management and compliance.

Exploitation Frameworks

• Metasploit Framework: A comprehensive tool for developing and executing exploit code against remote targets.
• Beef: A browser exploitation framework that focuses on leveraging browser vulnerabilities to assess the security of web applications.
• SQLMap: An open-source tool that automates the detection and exploitation of SQL injection vulnerabilities.

Web Application Testing Tools

• Burp Suite: A widely-used tool for web application security testing, including an interceptor proxy and various scanning features.
• OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy): An open-source web application security scanner useful for finding vulnerabilities in web applications.
• W3af: A web application attack and audit framework that focuses on identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities.

Wireless Network Testing

• Aircrack-ng: A suite of tools for testing the security of Wi-Fi networks, including cracking WEP and WPA/WPA2 keys.
• Kismet: A wireless network detector and intrusion detection system.