Article:
BreakingPoint Systems to Upgrade Metasploit-Inspired Tool
BreakingPoint Systems is upgrading BPS-1000 (v 1.2), a network testing tool “inspired” by Metasploit, to allow direct network attacks for testing, and support for IPv6. The reported cost of this tool is $185,000, with an additional 20% annual maintenance fee.
From Dark Reading:
“BreakingPoint Systems later this month will unleash a software upgrade to its breakout all-in-one network and security testing appliance that lets the device now run exploits against a server or other device.”
Originally, attack testing was done through the BPS-1000 appliance, rather than directly on the server. The direct attack method was already available in Metasploit, an open source exploit tool for Unix (Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Windows Cygwin) and Windows (2000/XP/2003/Vista).
From Metasploit:
“What is it?
The Metasploit Framework is a development platform for creating security tools and exploits. The framework is used by network security professionals to perform penetration tests, system administrators to verify patch installations, product vendors to perform regression testing, and security researchers world-wide. The framework is written in the Ruby programming language and includes components written in C and assembler.
What does it do?
The Metasploit Framework consists of tools, libraries, modules, and user interfaces. The basic function of the framework is a module launcher, allowing the user to configure an exploit module and launch it at a target system. If the exploit succeeds, the payload is executed on the target and the user is provided with a shell to interact with the payload.”
Version 3.1 was made available 28 January, 2008.
A Metasploit Flash (booo) tutorial at irongeek.com.
Network Computing provides a review and compares the BPS-1000 with tools from Ixia and Spirent. The products from these vendors were not named, but each vendor provides several products which are apparently more narrowly focused than the solution from BreakingPoint.
“The upshot? If you’re focusing on security testing, the BPS-1000 is likely to be your best buy. You can use it for network and application testing as well, but at present its competitors offer a better range of tests and more customization at layers 2 and 3.”
The open source Metasploit has been evolving since around midyear 2003. BreakingPoint Systems is a privately held company founded in September of 2005.
Ixia and Spirent are the established industry leaders in network testing.
Who has used tools from these organizations, or perhaps something different? What are your opinions, if any, on these tools? What do you think about the upgrade coming to the BPS-1000?
“Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.”
– Bill Gates
(Found on the Metasploit site.)