An Offensive Cybersecurity engineer is a security professional who has a deep understanding of the penetration testing process. He is efficient working within the offensive security group. His day-today responsibilities include identifying and fixing problems in complex and extensive IT infrastructure. He hacks the system with offensive security skills and contributes to the technical operations, engineering, architecture, and design of secure platforms. An offensive security engineer is also skilled in reviewing source code, web applications, security architectures, and finding solutions to potential cybersecurity threats. He must be familiar with the various automated security tools in order to efficiently perform his duties. These highly-performing automated tools save time and work efficiently. Here’s a list of powerful offensive security instruments that work together for Offensive Cyber Security Engineers.
Shodan – Shodan is a powerful search tool. It is used by offensive cybersecurity teams for detecting vulnerable endpoints in the network. While other search engines like Google index the web content, Shodan can detect IoT devices. Shodan is a search engine that can detect all things connected to the internet. It can detect webcams, servers, traffic lights and home security systems. Shodan also provides a command-line interface (CLI), which is packaged with the Python library. This interface is much more efficient than the original Shodan website. The Shodan CLI is used by penetration testing teams to identify vulnerable devices within the network.
Advantages:
This is used to detect vulnerabilities in networks and systems
Shodan API (Application Programming Interface), allows security teams to automate their security operations
Easy integration with other tools like Maltego or web browser plugins
Wireshark: Wireshark can be used as a network protocol analyser and is a free and essential tool. It gives security professionals detailed information about network traffic. This tool can capture data packets in real time and determine their origin and destination. It can be used to troubleshoot issues such as dropped packets, latency issues and malicious activity.
Advantages:
Live packet capture and offline analysis of data packets
Facilitates investigation of the smallest details of the network
All major internet protocols supported
Available in CLI (Command line interface) and GUI(Graphical User Interface) versions
Supported platforms include Linux, Windows, macOS and Solaris.
Maltego – Maltego is an open source intelligence gathering tool (OSINT), that allows you to analyze online information. It is difficult to gather information using manual techniques. Maltego automates the process and saves time for the offensive security team. It presents the collected data in an easily-understand entity-relationship diagram.
Advantages:
Automates the information gathering process
Graphic representations allow for easy analysis of data
This allows offensive security teams to function more efficiently and intelligently
Supported platforms are Linux, Windows, and macOS
Hydra: Hydra can crack passwords. It uses brute force attack methods to get different usernames and password combinations. Hydra can be used in conjunction with programs like ‘crunch” and ‘cupp, which can create a wordlist. Hydra uses these wordlists to guess login credentials. It can attack various protocols including HTTP, IMAP and HTTPS.
Advantages:
Flexible and highly efficient password cracker
Supports a wide variety of services and protocols for attack
Facilitates easy addition of new attacking module
Supported platforms include Linux, Windows, macOS and Solaris.
Metasploit: Metasploit can be used in many areas of cybersecurity. It allows security professionals to finance.