6 Best Linux Penetration Testing Distributions for Ethical hacking

Linux penetration testing distributions are the security-focused operating systems (OS) those help the hackers to identify the weakness and strength of secure computers or networks. The term penetration testing is obvious to people that it uses for professional security auditing but the story doesn’t end here. If you are a developer, student, want to learn the hacking tricks, pursuing a career in Information Security or want to perform your own security testing these Linux penetration testing distributions which we are going to list in this article will prove handy and useful. The best part is that they all are open source tools and free to use without any restriction.

The standard desktop Linux Distros have increased over the period of time and the open-source world has now plenty of them. But the ethical hacking and penetration testing distros only a handful, those can perform to meet your expectations.

Best Linux Penetration Testing  & Hacking Distributions

Kali Linux

It is one of the most advanced Linux penetrating distribution available today. Kali was developed by the Offensive security based on Debian and has 300 penetration testing and security auditing programs. It is a fork of popular security os BackTrack by rewriting the code and gain the top position as security testing and best hacking os.

Tools come for penetration testing with Kali Linux are for Information Gathering, Vulnerability Analysis, Password Attacks, Maintaining Access, Reverse Engineering, Sniffing & Spoofing, Hardware Hacking, Wireless Attacks and Web Applications testing. The Kali Pentest tools enabled Debian based Os supports different platform including VMware and ARM.

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BackBox Linux

Backbox Linux is an Ubuntu-based penetration testing distro uses XFCE as a Desktop Environment.  It also offered a cloud-based platform to perform penetration on IT infrastructure for an individual or a company which is basically paid.  It is a complete desktop with its own repository

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Parrot Security OS

Parrot Security is another Debian based security testing Operating System. It is developed by FrozenBox and surely will get in the list of Ethical hackers and IT professionals. It uses the MATE desktop environment and very lightweight and needs only minimum 256MB RAM. It is the mixture of Kali Linux which can use in pen testing, ethical hacking, cryptography, computer forensics, pen testing, and more.  It is one of the user-friendly OS Linux Penetration Testing Distributions.

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BlackArch

BlackArch Linux is an Arch-based Linux penetration testing distribution which features a repository with 1910 tools. You can install them individually or in a group.  The Black Arch website is well documented which helps a lot in understanding this hacking os.

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Fedora Security Spin

Fedora Security Spin designed for security testing and auditing and helps students and teachers in learning or practising forensic analysis, web application security, information security, and more. It is more for teaching purpose but if you into hardcore hacking and testing then the KALI and Parrot are there.

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Pentoo Light Weight Pen Test OS

Pentoo is based on Gentoo Linux and a pen testing os can be run from a USB drive. The desktop environment is XFCE and has all latest ethical hacking tools used for penetration testing such as to exploit database, network package sniffing, spoofing and more…

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Dracos Linux

Dracos Linux is a Slackware based open-source operating system packed with Pentest tools you need in your penetration testing such as for information gathering, forensics, malware analysis, maintaining access and reverse engineering. It is very lightweight and almost has a command-based interface. Dracos is a bit difficult for beginners but experts can test it out.

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Linux Penetration Testing Distributions List Verdict

These are some popular and stable Linux distros for Pen testing although the Kali is most popular one still you have to give one chance to others too.

Other tools:

• 8 Free Best Opensource Firewall to Secure Network
• 9 List of Best Free Penetration Testing tools
•  6 Free and Best Open source VPN Server Software

If you have any suggestions for the best Linux penetration distribution and have a wonderful experience with that, please let know other peoples too…