10 Best Pentesting Tools for Windows

Last Updated on 5 months by Touhid

Cybercrime leads to a staggering few billion dollars in losses every year, and to make sure your company remains safe from these attacks, experts need to use penetration testing tools.

There are over 100 penetration testing tools, but not all are effective and as a cyber security expert you must have an idea about the best tools out there.

So, today we will help you find the best pentesting tools for Windows out there. Keep on reading to learn more!

What are Pentesting Tools?

Cybersecurity experts utilize penetration testing, sometimes referred to as pen testing tools, to evaluate the security of computer systems, networks, apps, and websites.

The primary goal is to identify weaknesses that a malicious actor could exploit and alert the client to them, along with suggested countermeasures.

Through the imitation of malevolent hackers’ strategies and methods, these technologies assist in identifying vulnerabilities that may be used for illegal entry or data breaches.

Pentesting tools have several functions, such as assessing online application security, assessing network architecture, testing wireless networks, and more for showing possible impacts.

Types of Penetration Testing Tools

Pentesting tools are a combination of a few different tools that test all the potential penetration loopholes in the system.

Network Scanning Tools

The primary objective of these penetration testing tools is to locate and map network infrastructure. It involves breaking into a network in a hacker-like manner to find security flaws.

Additionally, it keeps track of information in network traffic, such as the protocols and ports utilized, both the source and destination of the data and the devices interacting on the network.

Port Scanner

To discover open ports on a system and reveal the different operating systems and apps that are using the network of a business, port scanners are essential instruments for investigation.

Port scanners can identify possible attack vectors by displaying these access points, which is helpful information for evaluating the network’s safety architecture and potential weaknesses of the network.

Passwords cracking tools

These tools mostly use hashing, but they may also use other techniques like dictionary attacks, brute force assaults, or rainbow tables to break passwords. Organizations can use these cracking tools to find weak passwords that could be misused.

Web Applications tester

These pentesting tools for Windows are made expressly to examine online applications for security flaws such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and other web-based attacks.

They mostly work online, using the website’s URL to access web apps and do thorough testing to find any vulnerabilities that can jeopardize security.

Best Pentesting Tools For Windows

Our cybersecurity experts have found the 10 best pentesting tools for Windows that can handle all different sides of penetration testing.

1. NMAP Pentesting Tools 

One of the most effective and free Windows pentesting tools is NMAP. Named after its intended purpose, network scanning, it stands for Network Mapper.

In addition to detecting hosts and services, open ports, and the kinds of firewalls or packaged tunnels that are being used, this also helps to identify the vulnerabilities associated with each of these.

Additionally, you may use Nmap to target systems using pre-existing scripts from the Nmap Scripting Engine for security audits and scans for weaknesses.

Key Features

• Detects a network’s active hosts.
• Helps to detect filtered, open, and closed ports.
• identifies the software and version that is using open ports.
• Tries to determine the target gadgets’ operating system.

2. Metasploit Framework

Metasploit is the best penetration testing tools for Windows that is used for testing protection against hacking using the Ruby programming language. Pen testers and ethical hackers use this extensive framework, which was created by Rapid7.

It functions as an assortment of instruments for creating, examining, and implementing exploits on distant target computers. Metasploit provides a wide range of both dynamic and static payloads, with over 1,677 exploits covering 25 platforms and close to 500 payloads.

Static payloads help establish network connectivity and port forwarding, whereas dynamic payloads help avoid detection by antivirus software.

For security experts involved in ethical hacking and penetration testing, it is an essential resource.

Key Features

• Facilitates the development and testing of hacks for recognized weaknesses.
• Tools for actions like transferring inside a network or increasing rights following a successful attack.
• Has a big library of hacks arranged according to the target system.
• Works in almost all platforms.

3. Wireshark

Wireshark is used for protocol analysis and network sharing, and the best part is that it also comes for free. With the help of Wireshark, users can look at individual packets and what’s inside as they are sent over a network in real-time.

This offers information on network traffic, including the kinds of data being sent. It also allows you to store all collected packet data and import packets from text files containing hex dumps of packet data.

Furthermore, this enables us to set the network interface in promiscuous mode, which enables us to monitor all network activity. Additionally, this program has decryption capabilities for a variety of protocols, including WEP, SSL/TLS, and Kerberos.

Key features

• You can use search features and filters to focus on certain packets depending on parameters.
• It can interface and work with other tools combined.
• Can capture and show the contents of a packet traveling in real-time.
• Helps to understand complicated network traffic dynamics by displaying graphs and color-coded packet data.

4. Astra Security Tools

Astra is a loaded features pentesting tools for Windows intended to improve security for blockchains, networks, apps, and APIs. This plug-and-play SaaS solution combines automated and manual testing capabilities. Astra constantly detects serious vulnerabilities in apps by imitating the actions of hackers.

With over 8000 checks performed automatically by its scanner, it is an effective and preventive solution for enhancing application security. Users may start using it quickly and efficiently by just giving target URLs and credentials.

Key Features

• Simple start-up with target URLs and login information for instant usage.
• Includes blockchains, networks, apps, and APIs for a thorough security evaluation.
• Quickly finds and fixes security vulnerabilities, improving the overall safety record of the application.
• Mixes manual testing with software scanning (more than 8000 tests) to provide reliable identification of vulnerabilities.

5. Netsparker Tools

You can find SQL injections, XSS, and other vulnerabilities in your online applications using this Netsparker program for Windows. A completely customizable Enterprise Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tool is called Netsparker.

Therefore, this tool uses a proprietary Proof-Based Scanning methodology to interact with an online application through the web front-end in order to find potential flaws in the web application.

Thanks to its innovative scanning algorithms, this not only finds vulnerabilities but also offers proof that they are real. As a result, you don’t need to verify that the results Netsparker gives you are accurate.

Key features

• Numerous top-tier issue trackers and CI/CD software systems can be combined with Netsparker.
• JavaScript/Ajax-based complicated applications are well-suited for Netsparker’s optimization.
• Performs automatic web application scans.
• It can locate and identify the technologies utilized in web applications, identify those that are outdated, and then monitor the state of updates.

6. Cobalt Penetration Testing Tools

Cobalt pentest is another popular pentesting tool for Windows and contains high user ratings. The Pentest as a Service (Ptaas) platform from Cobalt updates the conventional pentesting process.

It accomplishes this by fusing an exclusive testing community with a SaaS platform. This enables them to provide the real-time information you want to swiftly mitigate risk and safely innovate.

Companies can request penetration tests based on their needs and obtain relevant findings thanks to their platform-as-a-service model. So, you can have various penetration testing done within a single platform.

Additionally, their team of ethical hackers conducts thorough security evaluations to find and report holes in networks, infrastructure, and online applications.

Key Features

• Offers scalability so companies can have testing according to their needs.
• Comes with an expert team of ethical hackers.
• With Cobalt’s SaaS platform you can get analytics in real time.
• Provides automated scanning for web applications.

7. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is an integrated platform that has primary usage for web applications. It offers both paid and free versions and integrates several tools.

Prior to initiating the process of exploiting the application’s security flaws, Burp Suite maps the attack surface. A web server and a browser can be attacked via a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack using Burp Proxy.

Thus, the interception and manipulation of HTTP/S requests, help identify security holes in online applications. For a more effective pentesting experience, it allows you to blend both manual and automated procedures.

Key Features

• It can test and confirm clickjacking attacks using specialized tools.
• Testers can improve automated attack outcomes by recording them and using them in further attempts.
• Has an accuracy of nearly 100% in identifying more than 3,000 vulnerabilities.
• Permits quicker fuzzing and brute-forcing using unique HTTP request patterns with different payload sets.

8. Hashcat Pentesting Tools

Hashcat is a robust and popular hacking tool that is mostly used by ethical hackers and, regrettably, malicious hackers, to crack passwords.

This quick, effective, and adaptable hacking tool helps with brute-force assaults by using hash values of passwords that it is attempting to guess or apply.

Its capacity to work with hash keys produced by cryptographic methods such as MD5, SHA, WHIRLPOOL, RipeMD, NTLMv1, and NTLMv2 accounts for its effectiveness and quickness.

These algorithms provide difficult-to-reverse one-way functions, which serve as the foundation for password cracking and vulnerability discovery.

Key Features

• Provides a range of attack methods, including rule-based, dictionary, brute-force, and mask assaults.
• Gives clients the ability to apply and build custom rules, dictionaries, or mask sequences for customized cracking efforts.
• Can take help from the GPU to speed up the cracking process.
• Implements a number of hashing algorithms, such as RipeMD, WHIRLPOOL, MD5, SHA, and more.

9. SQLMap 

SQLmap is a free and open-source pentesting tool for Windows that is used to detect and exploit SQL injection flaws in a database for web applications.

SQL injection is one of the most common web attacks that can take control of an application’s database to change or delete data. Attackers place the malicious code in SQL statements, via web page input.

It occurs when a web application fails to properly sanitize the SQL statements of a database then the attacker includes the malicious SQL script to get access to the database.

In that case, SQLMap is the right solution tool for you which detects the SQL injection in your applications database to protect from cyber-attacks.

SQLmap supports all kinds of databases such as MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, IBM DB2, SQLite, Firebird, Sybase, SAP MaxDB, and MariaDB.

10. Nessus Pentesting Tools

Nessus is another remote security web scanning tool that scans a system to find out vulnerabilities that malicious attackers can access your system. Nessus pentest tool works just like Nmap and it runs on the Windows operating system.

It has two types of versions: one is free and another one is a paid version, but a free version is only for personal use. To scan a system such as a computer, you just need to enter your computer IP address and run for scan and get the detailed reports.

This tool can scan the different types of vulnerabilities such as unauthorized control or access of your system, denial of service attacks, software vulnerability, malware, and misconfiguration.

FAQs

Cyber security experts employ pentesting tools to find weaknesses in the system. So, if you are still having confusion about pentesting tools for Windows, then keep on reading the FAQs below.

Can I use pentesting tools for my usage?

Penetration testing tools are often more important for usage within organizations, especially for companies that depend significantly on cloud security and internet servers.

However, if they use these tools sensibly and ethically in their safe setting, anyone who is interested in cybersecurity or who wants to improve the security of their system can experiment with them for personal learning and development.

Is it safe to use pentesting tools?

Pentesting tools include a lot of different tools and many of these tools can be misused. For instance, tools like hashcats can also be used by hackers to hack into passwords.

So, if you do not have the proper knowledge or idea about these tools then this can result in serious levels of accidental system damage, network interruptions, or legal repercussions.

Can hackers use pentesting tools in illegal ways?

Yes, hackers and cyber attackers can also use pentesting tools in illegal ways. Hackers are well-trained, and they have very good knowledge of these tools.

So, as these tools are used to find system weaknesses through ethical hacking; they can also use these tools in a reverse way to get their work done. This includes password hacking, virus attacks, and more.

Final Words

Windows penetration testing tools are essential for your organization; they help you to find the vulnerabilities in the system and fix them accordingly. However, using them requires proper training and knowledge about how these tools work.

Moreover, there are over 100 of these tools available on the market but not all of them are effective so make sure to do your research and find the ones based on your requirements.

Finally, we have discussed the best pentesting tools for Windows. These tools will help to find vulnerabilities or weaknesses in your websites, applications, or network.