Metasploit

Though mostly spoken of as a penetration testing framework, anyone who’s worked in the field of cybersecurity for a year or less knows that Metasploit is also one of the most popular weapons of choice in use by cybercriminals. This framework comes pre-packed with cyberattacks and malicious payloads already built in. Some of the other tools you’ll encounter in your cyber career are included in the Metasploit framework, most notably the aforementioned Nmap. While a popular and valuable penetration testing tool, make no mistake: Metasploit is an extremely vicious weapon if placed into the wrong hands.

Being a core component of red teaming and pentesting, Metasploit is already included in the Kali Linux distribution. You can access it by selecting the Kali Purple dragon icon, as you’ve done with other utilities, scrolling down, hovering your mouse over the Exploitation Tools field, and then selecting it from the menu that expands to the right. You can...