Quick reference per tool. For in-depth notes on a specific tool (e.g. Nmap) create a separate note of its own — this is deliberately short. Looking for portable hardware gadgets like Pwnagotchi, Flipper Zero or WiFi Pineapple? See the hardware hacking gadgets overview.
Nmap — scanning
nmap -sn 10.10.10.0/24 # host discovery
nmap -sV -sC target # services + safe scripts
nmap -p- -T4 target # all ports, fasterBurp Suite — web testing
- Proxy → Intercept — intercept and modify requests before they're sent
- Repeater — tweak and resend a single request repeatedly
- Intruder — automatically iterate payloads over a parameter
- Comparer — put two responses side by side to spot differences
Hashcat — password cracking
# Mode 0 = MD5, 1000 = NTLM, 1800 = sha512crypt — check -h for the full list
hashcat -m 1000 -a 0 hashes.txt rockyou.txt
# Brute-force with a mask (8 chars, lowercase + digits)
hashcat -m 1000 -a 3 hashes.txt ?l?l?l?l?l?l?d?dGobuster / ffuf — directory & subdomain fuzzing
gobuster dir -u https://target -w wordlist.txt
ffuf -u https://FUZZ.target -w subdomains.txt -mc 200Wireshark — packet analysis
http.request— show HTTP requests onlyip.addr == 10.10.10.20— traffic to/from a single hosttcp.flags.syn == 1 && tcp.flags.ack == 0— SYN packets only, handy for scan detection- Follow → TCP Stream — view a whole session in readable form