Pure Hacking wins global Open Web Security award

Catriona Pollard
Monday, 13 November 2006 03:33

Pure Hacking, Australia’s only dedicated, vendor neutral ethical hacking company has been awarded second place in the global Open Web Application Security Project for the development of a live Linux CD for application penetration testing.

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is dedicated to finding and fighting the causes of insecure software. The OWASP Foundation is a 501c3 not-for-profit charitable organisation. Participation is free and open to all, using open source. Pure Hacking’s Senior Security Consultant, Joshua Perrymon developed a live Linux CD for the OWASP project to be used in the development and testing of web applications. It is, in effect, a security environment that boots from a CD.  

“Almost eight months ago I contacted the leaders of the OWASP project with an idea to create a bootable Linux OS on a CD that can be used by application security testers.”

 

“I wanted the CD to look cool but also contain most all tools needed to perform application security testing work. After six months the Alpha version of the CD was completed and it was demonstrated in Seattle, Washington during the Yearly OWASP conference.”

 

The feedback was so impressive for such an early stage project, it was selected for the OWASP AOC (Autumn of Code) and the live CD was second out of all the submitted projects from around the world.

 

The Alpha version contains the following tools/documents:

Application: WebGoat, WebScarab, Cal9000, Wikto/Nikto

Infrastructure: Nmap, Hping2, TCPDump, Yersinia, MetaSploit Framework, Nessus

Misc: RFID Hacking Tools, VOIP Hacking Tools, OWASP Guide, Footprinting and Information Gathering Tools 

 

The finalised bootable CD will be finished by the end of the year and submitted to OWASP for release approval. The CD will be continually updated to contain speciality tools to testing RFID, VOIP, Wireless, Bluetooth, and others.

 

About Pure Hacking

Pure Hacking which specialises in conducting independent security penetration testing, positioning itself as an impartial authority in the security field.  Pure Hacking works with companies predominantly in data intensive industries including government, finance, business services, communications, education and health. www.purehacking.com

 

For more information on Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) http://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Autumn_of_Code_2006_-_Selection#Summary_table_.28Aggregated_Results.29