Introduction to Backtrack 5

Jun 042011

backtrack5 The 10 of may the backtrack team has released the version number 5 (codename “revolution”) of their penetration tool.
Yes backtrack it’s a live Linux Distribution made with this goal, be the best penetration and learning tool around.

It’s Based on Ubuntu Lucid LTS (10.04). Kernel 2.6.38, patched with all relevant wireless injection patches. Fully open source and GPL compliant. In this release you can choose to have Gnome or KDE and install it on 32 or 64 bit computer. The former release supported only 32 bit installation.

But let’s see what you can do with it.

Backtrack Goals

Backtrack gives to the user a fully equipped Linux distribution, with all the software at the latest level available, build it it’s not so easy and the goal is to give to the final user a complete environment where the user don’t has to worry about do installation and updates.

If you have to keep track of the updates of all of these software then that would defeat the whole purpose.
Instead the Backtrack operating system will update them for you every time there is a new version available.

Please note that it’s not only the software that is updated at his last level, but the also the kernel and all the wireless drivers.

Some tools inside backtrack 5

BackTrack includes many well known security tools including:

Metasploit integration
RFMON Injection capable wireless drivers
Kismet
Nmap
Ophcrack
Ettercap
Wireshark (formerly known as Ethereal)
BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework)
Hydra
Cisco OCS Mass Scanner A very reliable and fast scanner for Cisco routers with telnet/enable default password.
Quypt (Terminal Emulator) (which is private software by Crimson Hacking group, which has leaked to the Mainstream) Blackhat
A large collection of exploits as well as more commonplace software such as browsers.

And these are some new tool released with the version 5.

Information Gathering : Unicornscan – Unicornscan is a information gathering and correlation engine built for and by members of the security research and testing communities. It was designed to provide an engine that is Scalable, Accurate, Flexible, and Efficient.

Vulnerabilities Identification -> OpenVas – The Open Vulnerability Assessment System (OpenVAS) is a framework of several services and tools offering a comprehensive and powerful vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management solution.
The actual security scanner is accompanied with a daily updated feed of Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs), over 20,000 in total (as of January 2011).

Radio Network analysis : Wireless driver – BackTrack contains patched stock kernel 2.6.35.8 wireless drivers, as well as several “external” drivers. Some of these drivers overlap, to provide maximum flexibility with various wireless attacks. The /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist dictates which preferred drivers are loaded at boot-time. Generally speaking, all the older IEEE drivers are blacklisted and need to be loaded manually if you want to use them.