Pentoo Linux for Penetration Testing - Review and Commentary - Linux Critic

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2 points·sinbsd··4 comments

Most people in my industry just use Backtrack for this, which is why it's the top hit on Google for "Backtrack".

We don't do much network pentesting, but Backtrack is still really handy to have around, especially for anything involving wireless, since the driver stack is all set up on it.

Really? You trust backtrack on client networks? I'm not suggesting that bad stuff won't be built into mainstream distros, but given the target audience, community and contributors is it really safe? I appreciate it's not a strong argument compared to other distros, but other distros tend not to be set up specifically for hacking.

I tend to find Backtrack provides a decent starting point, but most of the testers (and all of the full time day-in-day-out testers) I know tend to use their own Linux systems on live network tests. We use VMWare images for both Windows and Linux, which lets us work in situations where clients don't want our laptops plugged in, or where the data can't leave site.

I'm not particularly worried about the most popular Linux pentesting distro secretely phoning home or trying to infect networks, but, if it makes you feel better, we don't have to take it on client networks, since we don't do much net pentesting. Like I said, great for playing with wireless.

Fair point.

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