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What Is Back Track 5 ?

BackTrack

BackTrack 5 R3
Company / developer	Mati Aharoni, Devon Kearns, Offensive Security.[1]
OS family	Unix-Like
Working state	Active
Source model	Open source
Latest stable release	5 R3 / August 13, 2012; 6 months ago (2012-08-13)
Supported platforms	i386 (x86), AMD64 (x86-64), ARM
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	Bash, KDE Plasma Desktop, Fluxbox,[2][3] GNOME
License	Various
Official website	www.backtrack-linux.org

BackTrack is a distribution based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution aimed at digital forensics and penetration testing use.^[4] It is named after backtracking, a search algorithm. The current version is BackTrack 5 R3.,^[5] now based on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) LTS, which is itself based on Debian.

Contents  [hide]  1 History 2 Tools 3 Releases 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

The BackTrack distribution originated from the merger of two formerly competing distributions which focused on penetration testing:

• WHAX: a Slax based Linux distribution developed by Mati Aharoni, a security consultant. Earlier versions of WHAX were called Whoppix^[6] and were based on Knoppix.
• Auditor Security Collection: a Live CD based on Knoppix developed by Max Moser which included over 300 tools organized in a user-friendly hierarchy.

The overlap with Auditor and WHAX in purpose and in their collection of tools partly led to the merger.

[edit] Tools

BackTrack provides users with easy access to a comprehensive and large collection of security-related tools ranging from port scanners to password crackers. Support for Live CD and Live USB functionality allows users to boot BackTrack directly from portable media without requiring installation, though permanent installation to hard disk is also an option.
BackTrack includes many well known security tools including:

• Metasploit for integration
• RFMON, injection capable wireless drivers
• Aircrack-ng
• Gerix Wifi Cracker
• Kismet
• Nmap
• Ophcrack
• Ettercap
• Wireshark (formerly known as Ethereal)
• BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework)
• Hydra
• OWASP Mantra Security Framework, a collection of hacking tools, add-ons and scripts based on Firefox
• Cisco OCS Mass Scanner, a very reliable and fast scanner for Cisco routers with telnet and enabling of a default password.
• A large collection of exploits as well as more commonplace software such as browsers.

BackTrack arranges tools into 12 categories:

• Information gathering
• Vulnerability assessment
• Exploitation tools
• Privilege escalation
• Maintaining access
• Reverse engineering
• RFID tools
• Stress testing
• Forensics
• Reporting tools
• Services
• Miscellaneous

[edit] Releases

Date	Release
February 5, 2006	BackTrack v.1.0 Beta
May 26, 2006	The BackTrack project released its first non-beta version (1.0).
March 6, 2007	BackTrack 2 final released.
June 19, 2008	BackTrack 3 final released.
January 9, 2010	BackTrack 4 final release. (Linux kernel 2.6.30.9)
May 8, 2010	BackTrack 4 R1 release
November 22, 2010	BackTrack 4 R2 release
May 10, 2011	BackTrack 5 release (Linux kernel 2.6.38)
August 18, 2011	BackTrack 5 R1 release (Linux kernel 2.6.39.4)
March 1, 2012	BackTrack 5 R2 release (Linux kernel 3.2.6[7])
August 13, 2012	BackTrack 5 R3 release[4]