Chapter 2. The Tools Required

This chapter describes the operating systems and some key tools required to undertake an IP-based network security assessment. Many advanced TCP/IP assessment utilities are available only for Unix-based systems such as Linux, so you will often find that a competent security consultant uses a variety of tools under different operating systems to assess and successfully penetrate a network. These tools and their respective uses are discussed in detail throughout the book, and they are listed here so that you can select and start to prepare your assessment platform before moving forward.

All tools listed in this book can also be found in the O'Reilly archive at http://examples.oreilly.com/networksa/tools. I have listed the original sites in most cases so that you can freely browse other tools and papers on each respective site.