RedHawk is an all-in-one tool primarily used for reconnaissance and vulnerability scanning, which is available in Kali Linux. It’s written in PHP and designed to provide an intuitive interface for gathering information about websites, servers, and networks. RedHawk combines various scanning capabilities such as Whois, DNS lookups, IP location lookups, and even scanning for common vulnerabilities like SQL injection.
This guide will walk you through the features of RedHawk, its installation process on Kali Linux, and how to use it effectively for reconnaissance and vulnerability scanning.
Key Features of RedHawk
RedHawk is a versatile tool offering various functionalities useful for ethical hackers and penetration testers during the information-gathering and vulnerability-assessment phases. Some of its notable features include:
- Information Gathering:
- Whois lookup
- DNS lookup
- IP location information
- HTTP headers
- Website server information
- Scanning:
- Open port scanning
- CMS detection (WordPress, Joomla, etc.)
- XSS vulnerability scanning
- SQL Injection vulnerability detection
- Subdomain scanning
- Modules:
- Reverse IP lookup
- Email harvesting
- HTTP status code check
- Reverse DNS lookup
RedHawk is not pre-installed in Kali Linux by default, but it can be easily installed using git. Follow these steps to install RedHawk on your Kali Linux system:
git clone https://github.com/Tuhinshubhra/RED_HAWK.git
Best Practices
- Stay Legal: Always ensure you have permission to scan a target domain. Unauthorized scanning of websites or servers can result in legal consequences.
- Use with Complementary Tools: RedHawk is a powerful reconnaissance tool, but it’s always good practice to combine it with more specialized vulnerability scanners such as Nmap, Nikto, or Burp Suite for a thorough assessment.
- Regular Updates: Since RedHawk depends on up-to-date vulnerability information and detection techniques, ensure you regularly update it by pulling the latest changes from the GitHub repository: