1.Kali Linux
Kali Linux is developed by the security firm Offensive Security. It’s a rewrite around Debian of their previous Knoppix-based digital forensic and penetration testing distribution BackTrack.
To quote the official web page title, Kali Linux is a “Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking Linux Distribution”. Simply said, it’s a Linux distribution packed with security-related tools and targeted toward network and computer security experts.
A Linux Distribution is nothing more than a bundle containing the Linux kernel, a set of core utilities and applications and some default settings. So, Kali Linux does not offer something unique in that sense most of the provided tools could be installed on any Linux distribution.
The difference is Kali is pre-packaged with those tools and the default settings were chosen according to the intended use cases of that distribution, rather than, say, to fit the needs of the typical desktop user.
2. Parrot Operating System
ParrotOS (Parrot Security, ParrotOS) is a free and open source GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian Testing designed for security experts, developers and privacy aware people.
It includes a full portable arsenal for IT security and digital forensics operations, but it also includes everything you need to develop your own programs or protect your privacy while surfing the net.
The operating system ships with the MATE desktop environment preinstalled and is available in several flavors to fit your needs.
3. BackBox
BackBox, also known as BackBox Linux, is a variant of the Linuxoperating system that is based on Ubuntu. It comes bundled with many tools for performing network penetration testing, security testing, and ethical hacking. It can be used to sniff packets on a network, reverse engineer compiled programs, and other tasks that might be required of a security expert.
Developed in Italy by Raffaele Forte, BackBox was first released in 2010. Since then, it has developed a devoted community of users.
4.DEFT Linux
DEFT (acronym for Digital Evidence & Forensics Toolkit) is a distribution made for Computer Forensics, with the purpose of running live on systems without tampering or corrupting devices (hard disks, pendrives, etc…) connected to the PC where the boot process takes place.
The DEFT system is based on GNU Linux, it can run live (via DVDROM or USB pendrive), installed or run as a Virtual Appliance on VMware or Virtualbox. DEFT employs LXDE as desktop environment and WINE for executing Windows tools under Linux. It features a comfortable mount manager for device management.
DEFT is paired with DART (acronym for Digital Advanced Response Toolkit), a Forensics System which can be run on Windows and contains the best tools for Forensics and Incident Response. DART features a GUI with logging and integrity check for the instruments here contained.
5.Samurai Web Testing Framework
The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a virtual machine, supported on VirtualBox and VMWare, that has been pre-configured to function as a web pen-testing environment. The VM contains the best of the open source and free tools that focus on testing and attacking websites. In developing this environment, we have based our tool selection on the tools we use in our security practice. We have included the tools used in all four steps of a web pen-test.
Starting with reconnaissance, we have included tools such as the Fierce domain scanner and Maltego. For mapping, we have included tools such WebScarab and ratproxy. We then chose tools for discovery. These would include w3af and burp. For exploitation, the final stage, we included BeEF, AJAXShell and much more. This VM also includes a pre-configured wiki, set up to be the central information store during your pen-test.
6. Network Security Toolkit
Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a Linux-based Live DVD/USB Flash Drive that provides a set of free and open-sourcecomputer security and networking tools to perform routine security and networking diagnostic and monitoring tasks. The distribution can be used as a network security analysis, validation and monitoring tool on servers hosting virtual machines.
The majority of tools published in the article “Top 125 security tools” by Insecure.org are available in the toolkit. NST has package management capabilities similar to Fedora and maintains its own repository of additional packages.
7. BlackArch Linux
BlackArch Linux is an Arch Linux-based penetration testing distribution for penetration testers and security researchers. The repository contains 2308 tools. You can install tools individually or in groups. BlackArch Linux is compatible with existing Arch installs. For more information, see the installation instructions. Also, news is published on our blog.
Please note that BlackArch is a relatively new project. To report bugs and request new tools, please visit the issue tracker on Github, stop by IRC, or email us.
The BlackArch Live ISO contains multiple window managers. Below you will find screenshots of a few of them.
8. CYBORG HAWK LINUX – LINUX HACKING DISTRO
Cyborg Hawk Linux is a Ubuntu based Linux Hacking Distro also know as a Pentesting Linux Distro it is developed and designed for ethical hackers and penetration testers. Cyborg Hawk Distro can be used for network security and assessment and also for digital forensics. It also has various tools suited to the testing of Mobile Security and Wireless infrastructure
It’s clearly not as performant, advanced or polished as something like Kali – but it’s a good start and I hope the developers keep working on it and rope in some higher level security engineers to work on the OS optimization and driver stack.
9. GnackTrack
GnackTrack – a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu which providing a penetration testing distro for Gnome fans.
GnackTrack contains mostly a collection of utilities for penetration testing, which have been organized in a few categories under the GnackTrack menu entry of the main menu.
Default applications include the Chromium, Firefox, Opera web browsers, Gedit text editor, FileZilla file transfer client, Wireshark and Zenmap network scanners, as well as the XChat IRC client.
10.NodeZero
NodeZero is Ubuntu based linux designed as a complete system which can also be used for penetration testing. NodeZero uses Ubuntu repositories so your system will be always up to date.
NodeZero is a free software application from the Other subcategory, part of the Network & Internet category. The app is currently available in English and it was last updated on 2010-10-06. The program can be installed on WinXP, WinVista, Win7 x64, Win7 x32.
Ethical Hacking 