The internet has evolved over the past few decades. Modern technology has increased in speed, efficiency, and productivity. However, coming with the progressive evolution of the internet is also the inimical rise of cybercrime. As often as everyday, we hear news of websites a data breach or websites getting hacked somewhere. Cybercriminals have developed more sophisticated hacking techniques and tools that threaten to destroy corporations all over the world.
The importance of cybersecurity against malicious cyber-activities is now so essential for every company. Open Source Scanning (OSS) tools help to keep websites and applications under strict observance in order to discover security threats that make them prone to hacking. Think of a licensing agreement that allows users to freely modify a particular work, use the said work in new ways, incorporate the work into a larger project, or derive a new work based on the initial work.
In recent times, however, a lot of programs have had their source codes made available for use or modification by users or other developers. This has made it a lot easier to breach defenses and exploit weaknesses in a computer system or network. By using OSS tools, top security is ensured without access to source codes. OSS tools mitigate open source vulnerabilities and risks.
There are hundreds of open source scanning tools available to detect and mitigate the open source vulnerabilities and flaws. In fact, you can customize some OSS tools to suit your exact requirements. Yet, there are also several OSS tools out there that could worsen issues rather than solve them. This is why you need the help of experts to get the right OSS tools for your company. Learn about the top open source scanning tools from experts at RSI Security today. Read on to learn more.
Why Use OSS Tools?
As the internet grows, so do internet hackers. This is a clarion call to corporations with sensitive data to safeguard their data assets. Every company must be keenly interested in finding ways to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities on their networks.
This important task cannot be effectively achieved without using open source scanning tools. Consistent use of OSS tools lets you know about imminent cyber-attacks and helps you prepare a prevention plan against them.
Assess your cybersecurity
Causes of Security Vulnerabilities
Bad actors or malware compromise networks and steal data in so many ways. The consistent evolution of cybercrime makes it even difficult to detect cyber-attacks sometimes. But there are certain activities that potentially cause security vulnerabilities that can make you prone to malicious attacks.
Structure of Network
The network structures of several companies open them up to cyberattacks. Because of this structure, unauthorized users can access their networks easily and take control of every segment of the said networks. This can be curbed with a more improved segmentation of the network as well as better management of privileges accrued to user groups.
Abuse of Accounts
Sadly, employees in companies sometimes abuse their privileges, causing the intentional or unintended release of sensitive data. Some also misconfigured important programs, thereby creating additional security loopholes that can aid attacks. Human error often plays a huge role in the creation of network vulnerabilities. The solution to this is to train and retrain employees on the importance of cyber-safety, as well as monitor the activities of employees to ensure they comply with cybersecurity regulations at the company.
Third-party apps
Who still uses Java in today’s world? I can bet that no one does. The reason isn’t far-fetched. So many third-party applications have security loopholes as a result of either the way those apps created or the way users download and implement them. These third-party apps must be avoided. Also, in addition to avoiding them, you must be on the lookout for insecure remote desktop sharing software, suspicious downloads, and software close to the end of its life.
There are many more causes of security vulnerabilities for networks. You can learn more about them here.
As mentioned earlier, there are several top open source scanning tools out there, but it’s always difficult to get the best if you have no expertise. Keep reading to see the top open source scanning tools.
Top OSS Tools
1. Vega
Vega is one of the best open source security scanners. It also doubles as a platform to test the security of web applications. Vega doesn’t only find but also validates SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), unknowingly exposed classified information, and other vulnerabilities. Some of the vulnerabilities Vega helps you find are;
- Blind SQL injection
- Reflected cross-site scripting
- Stored cross-site scripting, to mention but few.
It also probes for TLS/SSL security settings and discovers opportunities for improving the security of your TLS servers. It is written in Java, GUI based, and runs on Linux, OS X, and Windows. With the use of vega, you can set a few preferences like the total number of path descendants, number of child paths of a node, depth and maximum number of requests per second. You can use Proxy Scanner, Vega Scanner, and Vega Proxy.
2. Wapiti
Wapiti is another handy open source scanner that allows the security of your web applications to be audited. In order to check web applications for security vulnerabilities, Wapiti performs black-box testing by scanning web pages and tries to inject payloads, just to see if a script is vulnerable. It has a unique ability to detect multiple vulnerabilities as it supports both GET and POST HTTP attacks.
It can detect vulnerabilities like file disclosure, file inclusion, cross-site scripting (XSS), command execution detection, XSS injection, XXE injection, weak .htaccess configuration, backup files disclosure, and many others.
Wapiti is a command-line application. So, it may not be easy for beginners. But for experts, it will perform well. For using this tool, you need to learn lots of commands which can be found in the official documentation. Because Wapiti is a command-line application, it requires knowledge of various commands by its users. This makes it easy to use, but can be tasking for amateurs. You need the help of professional cybersecurity experts to help you.
3. W3af
This is one of the prominent open source scanning tools, aimed to provide you a better web application penetration testing platform. This allows you to discover over one hundred types of security threats in web applications. These threats include; SQL injection, insecure DAV configurations, buffer overflow, cross-site scripting, CSRF, and many others. It has an easy-to-understand interface which makes it user-friendly.
4. Nmap
Nmap is a classic open source scanning tool used by many network developers to manage fundamental vulnerabilities. It maps your network and its ports numerically. Nmap features sophisticated NSE scripts that can easily sight potential threats. Nmap is not limited to merely gathering information and enumeration, it can also detect wrong configuration and security related information around network services. Nmap is a complete package and it is available in the GUI and CLI (Command Line Interface) version.
5. SQLMap
This is another effective open source scanning tool, which modifies the process of discovering and utilizing SQL injection vulnerability in a website’s database. It has many useful features and a powerful detection engine which is capable of supporting some SQL injection techniques, like the following;
- Time-based blind
- Boolean-based blind
- Error-based
- UNION query
- Stacked queries
- Out-of-band
It supports different database servers including MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, IBM DB2, SQLite, Firebird, etc.
Closing Thoughts
Lots of developers in the cybersecurity industry depend on open-source codes to incapacitate deadlines, but open source codes come with some significant risks. Although open source is more accessible to people, it should be noted that there are those who don’t have good intentions with its use. While a lot of people make good use of this opportunity to spot defects and find ways to improve their networks, others misuse this privilege to exploit the vulnerabilities in the products, and some go as far as creating bugs to attack hardware, steal identities, or just to annoy other users.
RSI Security’s open source scanning tools will help your organization comply with the requisite open-source licenses necessary to secure your networks and critical data. Our OSS tools ensure that you’re using best-of-breed applications designed to protect your customers’ data, and most importantly, retain their trust.
