Python tools for penetration testers

If you are involved in vulnerability research, reverse engineering or pentesting, I suggest to try out the Python programming language. It has a rich set of useful libraries and programs. This page lists some of them.

Most of the listed tools are written in Python, others are just Python bindings for existing C libraries, i.e. they make those libraries easily usable from Python programs.

Some of the more aggressive tools (pentest frameworks, bluetooth smashers, web application vulnerability scanners, war-dialers, etc.) are left out, because the legal situation of these tools is still a bit unclear in Germany -- even after the decision of the highest court. This list is clearly meant to help whitehats, and for now I prefer to err on the safe side.

Network

• Scapy, Scapy3k: send, sniff and dissect and forge network packets. Usable interactively or as a library
• pypcap, Pcapy and pylibpcap: several different Python bindings for libpcap
• libdnet: low-level networking routines, including interface lookup and Ethernet frame transmission
• dpkt: fast, simple packet creation/parsing, with definitions for the basic TCP/IP protocols
• Impacket: craft and decode network packets. Includes support for higher-level protocols such as NMB and SMB
• pynids: libnids wrapper offering sniffing, IP defragmentation, TCP stream reassembly and port scan detection
• Dirtbags py-pcap: read pcap files without libpcap
• flowgrep: grep through packet payloads using regular expressions
• Knock Subdomain Scan, enumerate subdomains on a target domain through a wordlist
• SubBrute, fast subdomain enumeration tool
• Mallory, extensible TCP/UDP man-in-the-middle proxy, supports modifying non-standard protocols on the fly
• Pytbull: flexible IDS/IPS testing framework (shipped with more than 300 tests)
• Spoodle: A mass subdomain + poodle vulnerability scanner
• SMBMap: enumerate Samba share drives across an entire domain

Debugging and reverse engineering

• Paimei: reverse engineering framework, includes PyDBG, PIDA, pGRAPH
• Immunity Debugger: scriptable GUI and command line debugger
• mona.py: PyCommand for Immunity Debugger that replaces and improves on pvefindaddr
• IDAPython: IDA Pro plugin that integrates the Python programming language, allowing scripts to run in IDA Pro
• PyEMU: fully scriptable IA-32 emulator, useful for malware analysis
• pefile: read and work with Portable Executable (aka PE) files
• pydasm: Python interface to the libdasm x86 disassembling library
• PyDbgEng: Python wrapper for the Microsoft Windows Debugging Engine
• uhooker: intercept calls to API calls inside DLLs, and also arbitrary addresses within the executable file in memory
• diStorm: disassembler library for AMD64, licensed under the BSD license
• Frida: A dynamic instrumentation framework which can inject scripts into running processes
• python-ptrace: debugger using ptrace (Linux, BSD and Darwin system call to trace processes) written in Python
• vdb / vtrace: vtrace is a cross-platform process debugging API implemented in python, and vdb is a debugger which uses it
• Androguard: reverse engineering and analysis of Android applications
• Capstone: lightweight multi-platform, multi-architecture disassembly framework with Python bindings
• Keystone: lightweight multi-platform, multi-architecture assembler framework with Python bindings
• PyBFD: Python interface to the GNU Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library
• CHIPSEC: framework for analyzing the security of PC platforms including hardware, system firmware (BIOS/UEFI), and platform components.

Fuzzing

• afl-python: enables American fuzzy lop fork server and instrumentation for pure-Python code
• Sulley: fuzzer development and fuzz testing framework consisting of multiple extensible components
• Peach Fuzzing Platform: extensible fuzzing framework for generation and mutation based fuzzing (v2 was written in Python)
• antiparser: fuzz testing and fault injection API
• TAOF, (The Art of Fuzzing) including ProxyFuzz, a man-in-the-middle non-deterministic network fuzzer
• untidy: general purpose XML fuzzer
• Powerfuzzer: highly automated and fully customizable web fuzzer (HTTP protocol based application fuzzer)
• SMUDGE
• Mistress: probe file formats on the fly and protocols with malformed data, based on pre-defined patterns
• Fuzzbox: multi-codec media fuzzer
• Forensic Fuzzing Tools: generate fuzzed files, fuzzed file systems, and file systems containing fuzzed files in order to test the robustness of forensics tools and examination systems
• Windows IPC Fuzzing Tools: tools used to fuzz applications that use Windows Interprocess Communication mechanisms
• WSBang: perform automated security testing of SOAP based web services
• Construct: library for parsing and building of data structures (binary or textual). Define your data structures in a declarative manner
• fuzzer.py (feliam): simple fuzzer by Felipe Andres Manzano
• Fusil: Python library used to write fuzzing programs

Web

• Requests: elegant and simple HTTP library, built for human beings
• HTTPie: human-friendly cURL-like command line HTTP client
• ProxMon: processes proxy logs and reports discovered issues
• WSMap: find web service endpoints and discovery files
• Twill: browse the Web from a command-line interface. Supports automated Web testing
• Ghost.py: webkit web client written in Python
• Windmill: web testing tool designed to let you painlessly automate and debug your web application
• FunkLoad: functional and load web tester
• spynner: Programmatic web browsing module for Python with Javascript/AJAX support
• python-spidermonkey: bridge to the Mozilla SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine; allows for the evaluation and calling of Javascript scripts and functions
• mitmproxy: SSL-capable, intercepting HTTP proxy. Console interface allows traffic flows to be inspected and edited on the fly
• pathod / pathoc: pathological daemon/client for tormenting HTTP clients and servers

Forensics

• Volatility: extract digital artifacts from volatile memory (RAM) samples
• Rekall: memory analysis framework developed by Google
• LibForensics: library for developing digital forensics applications
• TrIDLib, identify file types from their binary signatures. Now includes Python binding
• aft: Android forensic toolkit

Malware analysis

• pyew: command line hexadecimal editor and disassembler, mainly to analyze malware
• Exefilter: filter file formats in e-mails, web pages or files. Detects many common file formats and can remove active content
• pyClamAV: add virus detection capabilities to your Python software
• jsunpack-n, generic JavaScript unpacker: emulates browser functionality to detect exploits that target browser and browser plug-in vulnerabilities
• yara-python: identify and classify malware samples
• phoneyc: pure Python honeyclient implementation
• CapTipper: analyse, explore and revive HTTP malicious traffic from PCAP file

PDF

• peepdf: Python tool to analyse and explore PDF files to find out if they can be harmful
• Didier Stevens' PDF tools: analyse, identify and create PDF files (includes PDFiD, pdf-parser and make-pdf and mPDF)
• Opaf: Open PDF Analysis Framework. Converts PDF to an XML tree that can be analyzed and modified.
• Origapy: Python wrapper for the Origami Ruby module which sanitizes PDF files
• pyPDF2: pure Python PDF toolkit: extract info, spilt, merge, crop, encrypt, decrypt...
• PDFMiner: extract text from PDF files
• python-poppler-qt4: Python binding for the Poppler PDF library, including Qt4 support

Misc

• InlineEgg: toolbox of classes for writing small assembly programs in Python
• Exomind: framework for building decorated graphs and developing open-source intelligence modules and ideas, centered on social network services, search engines and instant messaging
• RevHosts: enumerate virtual hosts for a given IP address
• simplejson: JSON encoder/decoder, e.g. to use Google's AJAX API
• PyMangle: command line tool and a python library used to create word lists for use with other penetration testing tools
• Hachoir: view and edit a binary stream field by field
• py-mangle: command line tool and a python library used to create word lists for use with other penetration testing tools
• wmiexec.py: execute Powershell commands quickly and easily via WMI
• Pentestly: Python and Powershell internal penetration testing framework
• hacklib: Toolkit for hacking enthusiasts: word mangling, password guessing, reverse shell and other simple tools

Other useful libraries and tools

• IPython: enhanced interactive Python shell with many features for object introspection, system shell access, and its own special command system
• Beautiful Soup: HTML parser optimized for screen-scraping
• matplotlib: make 2D plots of arrays
• Mayavi: 3D scientific data visualization and plotting
• RTGraph3D: create dynamic graphs in 3D
• Twisted: event-driven networking engine
• Suds: lightweight SOAP client for consuming Web Services
• M2Crypto: most complete OpenSSL wrapper
• NetworkX: graph library (edges, nodes)
• Pandas: library providing high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and data analysis tools
• pyparsing: general parsing module
• lxml: most feature-rich and easy-to-use library for working with XML and HTML in the Python language
• Whoosh: fast, featureful full-text indexing and searching library implemented in pure Python
• Pexpect: control and automate other programs, similar to Don Libes `Expect` system
• Sikuli, visual technology to search and automate GUIs using screenshots. Scriptable in Jython
• PyQt and PySide: Python bindings for the Qt application framework and GUI library

Books

• Violent Python by TJ O'Connor. A Cookbook for Hackers, Forensic Analysts, Penetration Testers and Security Engineers
• Grey Hat Python by Justin Seitz: Python Programming for Hackers and Reverse Engineers.
• Black Hat Python by Justin Seitz: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters
• Python Penetration Testing Essentials by Mohit: Employ the power of Python to get the best out of pentesting
• Python for Secret Agents by Steven F. Lott. Analyze, encrypt, and uncover intelligence data using Python
• Python Web Penetration Testing Cookbook by Cameron Buchanan et al.: Over 60 Python recipes for web application testing
• Learning Penetration Testing with Python by Christopher Duffy: Utilize Python scripting to execute effective and efficient penetration tests
• Python Forensics by Chet Hosmer: A Workbench for Inventing and Sharing Digital Forensic Technology
• The Beginner's Guide to IDAPython by Alexander Hanel

Talks, slides and articles

• Python & Reverse Engineering Software by Alexander Hanel
• Python Arsenal for Reverse Engineering by Dmitriy Evdokimov at RUCTF 2016

More stuff

• SecurityTube Python Scripting Expert (SPSE) is an online course and certification offered by Vivek Ramachandran.
• SANS offers the course SEC573: Python for Penetration Testers.
• The Python Arsenal for Reverse Engineering is a large collection of tools related to reverse engineering.
• There is a SANS paper about Python libraries helpful for forensic analysis (PDF).
• For more Python libaries, please have a look at PyPI, the Python Package Index.