Top 5 Internet of Things (IoT) Hacking Tools Explained

Internet of Things (IoT) devices raise critical security concerns for ethical hackers as these devices are easy to hack with IoT hacking tools.

More than 70% of IoT devices are soft targets for hackers because of a lack of security measures. The data from these devices are helpful for information gathering and analytical purposes.

This article explains the various IoT hacking tools and how ethical hackers use them.

What Is IoT?

IoT is a network of internet-connected things or objects that use embedded sensors or software applications to collect and exchange data in real-time. IoT includes various devices or objects like home security systems, cameras, refrigerators, etc., that can be connected via the Internet. There is a substantial risk of data being stolen or exploited because of the massive volume of data transmitted over the Internet.

This article highlights some of the popular IoT hacking tools used to detect system vulnerabilities and their use in ethical hacking. But let’s understand what ethical hacking is first.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Ethical hacking is also referred to as penetration testing. It’s an authorized intrusion into systems or networks to identify potential threats and data breaches. White hat hackers, also called ethical hackers, must have various skillsets to hack these devices and look for system threats. While there are many facets of ethical hacking, IoT hack tools can help ease the work of ethical hackers. They can apply these tools to mitigate system threats.

If you want to pursue a career in cybersecurity, you should understand all devices connected to the network, including IoT devices.

Let’s understand the different IoT hacking tools available.

What Are IoT Hacking Tools?

IoT hacking tools entail a wide range of activities, including gathering data on payloads, suspicious behavior, etc.

IoT hacking tools are software or programs that help in exploiting computer security or networks. These tools can identify security patches in the networks, servers, systems, and applications.

We will discuss some examples of IoT tools for hacking later in this article.

What is the Use of IoT Hacking?

Ethical hacking safeguards an organization’s digital assets from malicious malware cyberattacks. Given that a substantial portion of the workforce is embracing a remote work model, one cannot ignore the relevance of cybersecurity. Cyberattacks are rising with the increasing reliance on cloud-based infrastructure and the development of IoT technology. The crux of a company’s security strategy is ethical hacking. IoT tools for hacking aid in the detection of security issues as well as the prevention of data theft.

The Top 5 Tools Used for Testing IoT Systems

IoT hacking tools simplify the tasks of all ethical hackers and save their time. Here, we discuss the top 5 hacking tools.

1.Wireshark

Wireshark is one of the most reliable network packets sniffing tools. In short, it’s an application that captures and analyzes network traffic in real-time. A packet is a unit of data that travels over the digital network. The user can look for individual data packets and study how they travel across their network by searching and filtering for them.

This network analysis tool is an open-source program that is critical to the foundation of security software. Wireshark is a real-time network diagnostic tool used by administrators and IT (Information Technology) security experts. Also, professional penetration testers use Wireshark to gain insights into the target network.

Benefits of Wireshark Tool:

• Can run on different operating systems.
• Detects traffic issues you have sent and received.
• It can decode data shared by someone else.

2. Nmap

Network Mapper (Nmap) is a popular open-source scanning tool for network discovery. Nmap is a free tool that network administrators use to discover available hosts, discover open ports, and detect security flaws. It’s an easy-to-use tool and can operate on several operating systems.

Nmap is a widely used tool by pen testers, and it can scan a single host for 1,000 ports.

Ethical hackers can utilize Nmap to target computers using Nmap scripts during scanning for vulnerabilities in the system.

Benefits of Nmap:

• Can help identify which hosts are connected to the network.
• Nmap scripting engine facilitates interaction with the target host.
• Easy to discover potential threats in the network.
• Can audit the network for locating new servers.

3. Fiddler

A Fiddler is a powerful tracing tool for web traffic that works on any browser or platform. Ethical hackers or security specialists use Fiddler to perform web penetration tests. It has many features to enable the phases of penetration testing. This tool also enables security assessments of web applications.

It serves as a proxy setting as well as a debugging tool that logs in data transmitted between the device and the Internet.

With the help of this tool, ethical hackers can monitor web traffic and make modifications before the browser receives the request.

Benefits of Fiddler: 

• Compatible with every HTTP client.
• Convenient for testing and analyzing websites.

4. Metasploit

Metasploit is a popular security tool that enables penetration testing. It helps in detecting security patches, to discover potential vulnerabilities, and mitigate them. It is an open-source framework that is compatible with most operating systems. Ethical hackers use this framework to test vulnerabilities in the network and access the system remotely to locate threats.

Penetration testers can create custom codes and use them to identify system flaws. Once they identify and report the threats, the bugs are fixed ranked on the priority. Metasploit eases the job of pen testers by automating their tasks compared to manual exploitation tools and techniques.

Benefits of Metasploit:

• Compatible with most operating systems.
• Free and easy-to-use.
• Easy to perform extensive network pen tests.

5. Maltego

Maltego is a powerful data mining application. It gathers data and connects it to investigative tasks in real-time for open-source intelligence and forensics. It is crucial for all security-related activities.

This comprehensive application enables easy information gathering about domains, DNS, websites, people, search engines, IP addresses, etc. This process makes the task of penetration testers or ethical hackers convenient in analyzing relationships between the data. Pen testers can utilize this valuable tool during online investigations and determining the test’s footprints.

 Benefits of Maltego:

• Presents information in an easy-to-read format.
• Allows you to extract information from various sources on the web.

Become a Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) with EC-Council

Ethical hacking tools help mitigate the potential risks and system vulnerabilities for an organization. IoT hacking tools help developers and security specialists to enable and automate tasks. These ethical hacking tools come in handy to identify network or system flaws and prevent company data from being stolen or damaged.

To hack these devices, security experts need to have a sound knowledge of hardware, operating systems, programming languages, attack vectors, etc., along with an understanding of using hacking tools for IoT devices. The use of these tools in ethical hacking helps automate the tasks of pen testers to identify system flaws and resolve them.

You can know more about the functions of safety tools that enable ethical hacking by enrolling in a suitable course. You can learn how to identify, remedy, and monitor potential attack vectors in ethical hacking. Further, participants also learn how ethical hackers use IoT tools for hacking wireless networks and devices. If you are interested to know more about ethical hacking’s career prospects and roles, join EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker Course.

The training modules offer in-depth knowledge on hacking wireless networks, mobile hacking platforms, IoT hacking, and hacking web applications from the most experienced ethical hacking professionals globally. The Certified Ethical Hacker program gives a detailed insight into various ethical hacking phases, attack vectors, modern malware analysis, etc.

CEH prepares participants to face real-world challenges faced by ethical hackers through a comprehensive training module.