// security research toolkit index

PentestDB

Curated open-source hacking, penetration testing, OSINT, and security research tools. Updated February 2026.

400+Tools Listed
11Categories
2026Last Updated
⚠ For educational and authorized security research purposes only. Always obtain explicit written permission before testing any system you do not own.
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Information Gathering & OSINT

In-depth attack surface mapping and asset discovery tool by OWASP.

Advanced dork search & mass exploit scanner.

Recursive internet scanner for hackers β€” faster and more reliable than Spiderfoot.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Multi-cloud OSINT tool to enumerate public resources in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

CMS detection and exploitation β€” scans WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and 170+ other CMSs.

DNS enumeration script for comprehensive DNS information gathering.

Takes screenshots of websites, provides server header info, and identifies default credentials.

The fastest and cross-platform subdomain enumerator.

Detect secrets (API keys, passwords, tokens) in git repos, files, and stdin.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Email OSINT and password breach hunting. Searches breach databases and reconnaissance services.

Check if an email is attached to accounts on 120+ sites including Twitter, Instagram, Imgur.

Fast and multi-purpose HTTP toolkit for running multiple probes. By ProjectDiscovery.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Next-generation crawling and spidering framework by ProjectDiscovery.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Collect a dossier on a person by username from thousands of sites. Advanced Sherlock fork.

Open source OSINT automation integrating with almost every data source available.

Fast passive subdomain enumeration tool by ProjectDiscovery.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Fast subdomain enumeration tool for penetration testers.

E-mails, subdomains and names harvester for OSINT reconnaissance.

Hunt down social media accounts by username across social networks.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Find and verify leaked credentials in git history, S3, filesystem, and more.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Automated recon on a target domain running best-in-class tools.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Security tester's companion β€” usernames, passwords, URLs, fuzzing payloads, web shells, and more.

Next generation web scanner β€” identifies technologies used by websites.

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Web Application Testing

Automated all-in-one OS command injection and exploitation tool.

Powerful open-source XSS scanner and utility focused on automation.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Damn Small SQLi Scanner β€” minimal but effective SQL injection detection.

Fast web fuzzer written in Go β€” industry-standard for directory/parameter fuzzing.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Tool for brute-forcing URIs, DNS subdomains, virtual host names, Amazon S3 buckets, and more.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Automatic SQL injection and database takeover tool. The gold standard for SQLi.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Identify and fingerprint Web Application Firewall (WAF) products protecting a website.

Black box WordPress vulnerability scanner written for security professionals.

Web application fuzzer designed for brute-forcing web applications.

Most advanced XSS scanner with fuzzing and payload generation capabilities.

The OWASP ZAP core project β€” leading open-source web security scanner.

Automatic SSRF fuzzer and exploitation tool.

Fast and powerful SSL/TLS scanning library.

Web application attack and audit framework β€” open-source web vulnerability scanner.

DotDotPwn β€” the directory traversal fuzzer.

Custom word list generator that spiders a target website.

🌐

Network Scanning & Enumeration

Swiss Army knife for 802.11, BLE, and Ethernet networks reconnaissance and MITM attacks.

Fast TCP/UDP tunnel over HTTP β€” popular for network pivoting in pentests.

Next-generation enum4linux with additional features for Windows/Samba enumeration.

βœ“ Actively maintained

The ultimate WinRM shell for hacking and pentesting Windows environments.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Python classes for working with network protocols β€” essential for Windows/AD pentesting.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Fast Kerberos bruteforce and enumeration tool for Active Directory environments.

Advanced, fast tunneling/pivoting tool using TUN interfaces.

βœ“ Actively maintained

TCP port scanner that spews SYN packets asynchronously β€” scans entire internet in under 5 minutes.

Network execution tool (successor to CrackMapExec) for credential spraying on services.

βœ“ Actively maintained

LLMNR, NBT-NS and MDNS poisoner with built-in rogue authentication servers (HTTP/SMB/MSSQL/FTP/LDAP).

Exploitation framework for embedded devices and routers.

The modern port scanner β€” find ports in seconds, then pass them to Nmap for deeper analysis.

Handy SMB enumeration tool for Windows file share assessment.

Offensive PowerShell for red team, penetration testing, and offensive security.

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Wireless / Wi-Fi

Multi-use bash script for Linux to audit wireless networks comprehensively.

Targeted evil twin attacks against WPA2-Enterprise networks.

Wireless security auditing and attack software with GUI.

Security auditing and social engineering research tool for evil twin attacks.

Small tool to capture packets from WLAN devices.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Convert capture files to hash files for Hashcat or John the Ripper. WiFi security research.

IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee security research toolkit.

Offline Wi-Fi Protected Setup brute-force utility.

WPA2-PSK offline password cracking tool.

Crack and decrypt BLE encryption vulnerabilities.

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Password Attacks & Credential Cracking

Bull's Eye Wordlist Generator β€” advanced wordlist creation tool.

Fast and flexible online password cracking tool supporting 50+ protocols.

βœ“ Actively maintained

John the Ripper β€” industry-standard offline password hash cracker.

βœ“ Actively maintained

World's fastest GPU-based password recovery utility.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Common User Passwords Profiler β€” generate targeted wordlists from target information.

Custom wordlist generator that spiders a target website.

Brute-forcing tool that leverages unique attack methods to bypass rate limits.

Multi-purpose brute-forcing tool with modular design for flexibility.

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Post-Exploitation & C2 Frameworks

The world's most-used penetration testing framework. Exploit development, delivery, and post-exploitation.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Open source cross-platform adversary emulation/red team framework.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Post-exploitation framework with PowerShell and Python agents.

PowerShell post-exploitation framework with extensive offensive module library.

Tool implementing the Golden SAML attack for cloud environment post-exploitation.

Automated pentest framework for offensive security experts β€” full attack chain automation.

🎭

Social Engineering & Phishing

The Social-Engineer Toolkit β€” the most widely used penetration testing tool for social engineering.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Accurately locate smartphones using social engineering and fake high-fidelity pages.

Educational phishing tool and information collector with various campaign templates.

People tracker on the internet β€” OSINT analysis and research tool using JS hooks.

Security research tool combining social engineering with evil twin attacks.

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Forensics & Malware Analysis

Advanced memory forensics framework β€” extract digital artifacts from RAM dumps.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Dynamic instrumentation toolkit for developers, reverse-engineers, and security researchers.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Capstone disassembly framework supporting Arm, Arm64, x86, MIPS, PowerPC, and more.

Detect capabilities in executable files β€” understand what malware can do.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Tool for reverse engineering Android APK files β€” decompile, modify, rebuild.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Security auditing tool for Linux, macOS, and UNIX. Assists with HIPAA/ISO27001/PCI DSS compliance.

βœ“ Actively maintained
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Android / Mobile

Efficient Android vulnerability scanner for developers and security researchers.

Reverse engineering tool for Android APK files.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Dynamic instrumentation toolkit β€” works on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Automated all-in-one mobile app (Android/iOS) pen-testing, malware analysis, and security assessment.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Tool to look for security-related Android application vulnerabilities.

Quickly analyze and reverse engineer Android packages.

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Evasion & AV Bypass

AntiVirus evasion tool for generating undetected payloads.

Toolkit to quickly create payloads, PowerShell attacks, and virus attacks for HID devices.

HTA encryption tool for red teams to bypass detection.

Malicious payload evasion tool using image steganography techniques.

Patch PE, ELF, Mach-O binaries with shellcode.

⚠ Archived

Undetectable Windows payload generation for red team engagements.

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Miscellaneous & Frameworks

Bash script for anonymizing public IP via TOR and various VPN providers.

The official Exploit Database repository β€” searchable archive of public exploits.

All in one hacking tool for Linux & Android combining multiple tools.

Security auditing and hardening tool for Unix-based systems.

βœ“ Actively maintained

Onion URL inspector for inspecting and verifying deep web links.

Tor anonymizer β€” route all traffic through the Tor network.

Kali Linux hacking tool installer for Termux β€” install 370+ hacking tools on Android.

Smart meter security testing framework for industrial control systems.