10 Best Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) Tools in 2025

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) tools are an integral part of any cybersecurity toolkit, playing a critical role in identifying, analyzing, and remediating security vulnerabilities in computer systems, networks, applications, and IT infrastructure.

These tools enable organizations to proactively assess and strengthen their security posture by uncovering weaknesses and potential attack vectors before malicious actors can exploit them.

By leveraging VAPT tools, businesses can stay one step ahead of cyber threats, ensuring the safety of their sensitive data and systems.

At first glance, the term Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) may seem unfamiliar or complex. However, it is simply a combination of two essential activities in application security: vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.

Vulnerability assessment focuses on identifying and evaluating known vulnerabilities within a system or network, while penetration testing involves simulating real-world attacks to exploit these vulnerabilities and assess the overall security resilience.

Together, VAPT provides a comprehensive approach to uncovering security gaps and implementing measures to address them effectively.

The significance of VAPT tools lies in their ability to automate and streamline the process of vulnerability detection and exploitation testing. These tools are indispensable for cybersecurity professionals as they help:

• Identify misconfigurations, outdated software, or unpatched vulnerabilities.
• Simulate potential attack scenarios to understand the impact of exploitation.
• Provide actionable insights for remediation to enhance system defenses.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations by conducting regular security assessments.

To support organizations in their cybersecurity efforts, there is a wide range of VAPT tools available—both free and commercial—that cater to different needs.

These tools vary in functionality, with some specializing in network security, others focusing on web applications or mobile platforms, and some offering comprehensive multi-layered assessments.

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) tools support compliance with industry regulations by identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities, ensuring organizations meet required standards. Here’s how they help:

• Identify Vulnerabilities: VAPT tools uncover weaknesses to meet requirements like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR.
• Test Security Controls: Simulate attacks to validate controls for frameworks such as ISO 27001 and NIST.
• Generate Compliance Reports: Provide detailed reports for audits, demonstrating due diligence in securing systems.
• Enable Regular Assessments: Facilitate periodic scans to maintain compliance with evolving threats.
• Industry-Specific Customization: Tailor assessments for regulations like PCI DSS (finance) or HIPAA (healthcare).
• Demonstrate Risk Mitigation: Show proactive efforts in identifying and addressing risks.
• Secure Development Practices: Integrate into SDLC to ensure compliance with secure development standards.

By leveraging VAPT tools, organizations enhance security, meet regulatory requirements, and avoid penalties while building trust with stakeholders.

What is VAPT ?

A vulnerability assessment is the analysis of your application utilizing various types of tools and methods to reveal potential vulnerabilities; if you want, this could be achieved through application security testing tools. Well, in this, the threats are identified, analyzed, and prioritized as part of the method. a code

As we can say, various tools are better at identifying multiple types of vulnerabilities, so it is crucial not to depend solely on one tool for vulnerability assessment. Can an attacker gain entry to your application via these vulnerabilities in the real world? This is where penetration testing becomes vital.

Therefore, vulnerability assessment tools are excellent at pointing out threats that may cause your application to strike and identifying technical vulnerabilities. But how can you identify these threats as exploitable?

Well, penetration testing is the standard method of actively attacking your application to determine if potential vulnerabilities can be exploited. Therefore, we have shortlisted the top 11 VAPT tools. So, it will be helpful for every user to decide which one to choose among all.

Best VAPT Tools in 2025

• Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that captures and interactively browses the traffic running on a computer network.
• NMAP is a network scanning tool used to discover hosts and services on a computer network by sending packets and analyzing the responses.
• Metasploit is a powerful tool for developing and executing exploit code against a remote target machine to identify vulnerabilities.
• Burp Suite: An integrated platform for performing security testing of web applications, including probing for vulnerabilities and intercepting traffic.
• OpenVAS is an open-source framework that consists of several services and tools offering comprehensive and powerful vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management solutions.
• Nessus is a widely used vulnerability scanner that analyzes networks to identify potential security risks in networked systems for remediation.
• Nikto: A web server scanner that tests web servers for dangerous files, outdated software, and other potential problems.
• Indusface: A total application security solution that provides automated web and mobile application scanning combined with manual penetration testing.
• Acunetix is a web vulnerability scanner that automatically tests websites for security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
• SQLMap is an open-source penetration testing tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws and taking over database servers.

Best VAPT Tools Features

Best VAPT Tools	Features
1. Wireshark	1. Threat Intelligence 2. Cybersecurity Analytics 3. Network Traffic Analysis 4. User Behavior Analytics 5. Threat Hunting
2. NMAP	1. IP Fragmentation 2. Scripting Engine 3. Stealth Scanning 4. MAC Address Spoofing 5. Scripting Customization
3. Metasploit	1. Protocol Dissection 2. Protocol Parsing 3. Flow Analysis 4. Packet Filtering 5. Network Performance Monitoring
4. Burp Suite	1. Meterpreter Shell 2. Web Application Testing 3. Password Cracking 4. Exploit Database 5. Exploit Payloads
5. OpenVAS	1. Infectious PDFs 2. Website Credential Capture 3. Tabnabbing Attacks 4. Customizable Attack Vectors 5. Reporting and Analytics
6. Nessus	1. Asset Inventory 2. Credential Auditing 3. Reporting and Analytics 4. Remote Scanning 5. Plugin Customization
7. Nikto	1. Incident Response 2. Security Analytics 3. Web Application Hardening 4. API Security 5. SSL Certificate Management
8. Indusface	1. XML External Entity (XXE) Detection 2. Directory Traversal Detection 3. File Inclusion Detection 4. Vulnerability Exploitation Verification 5. Comprehensive Reporting
9. Acunetix	1. Metasploit Integration 2. Multi-platform Support 3. Comprehensive Exploit Database 4. Reverse Engineering Tools 5. Exploit Packaging and Delivery
10. SQLMap	1. Multi-threaded Data Retrieval 2. Time-Based Blind SQL Injection 3. Error-Based SQL Injection 4. Union-Based SQL Injection 5. Database Management System Support (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc.)

1. Wireshark

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer tool that captures and displays data packets in real-time from network interfaces.

It helps in vulnerability assessment and penetration testing by allowing security professionals to monitor network traffic, detect anomalies, inspect packet contents, and identify potential security weaknesses in network protocols and communications.

Wireshark supports a wide range of protocols and offers powerful filtering capabilities, making it essential for in-depth network analysis and security auditing.

Features of Wireshark:

• Extensive VoIP study
• Streaming video and analysis to follow
• The gzip compression makes the captured files straightforward to extract.
• Using the coloring concept, you may swiftly access the parcel list.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Network Protocol Analysis	Complexity for Beginners
Packet Capture	Overwhelming Amount of Data
Live Packet Monitoring
Extensive Protocol Support

2. NMAP

Abbreviation for “Network Mapper,” NMAP is an open-source, free program that checks your computer networks for security flaws.

So, NMAP is useful for mastering a variety of duties, such as maintaining compliant host or administrator uptime and creating mappings of network attack surfaces.

The NMAP is compatible with all the major operating systems and may be used to test a wide range of network sizes.All major platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, work well with NMAP without any compatibility issues.

Features of NMAP:

• Nmap can scan multiple IP addresses to find all the hosts on a network.
• It is able to scan host networks by using a range of IP addresses.
• Nmap can find services listening on an open port by examining the answers.
• Finding out what operating system is installed on a distant machine is no problem for Nmap.

What is good?	What could be better?
Port Scanning	Intrusive Scanning Techniques
Host Discovery	Legal and Ethical Considerations
OS Detection
Service Version Detection

3. Metasploit

Metasploit is a robust open-source vulnerability assessment and penetration testing framework. Simulating attacks lets security professionals evaluate computer systems, networks, and applications.

A large catalog of exploits, payloads, and auxiliary functions in Metasploit helps find vulnerabilities and demonstrate potential implications.

Due to its modular structure, users can construct custom tools and tests to find and exploit security vulnerabilities in a controlled and legal environment.

Features of Metasploit

• Metasploit is a collection of tools, exploits, and payloads.
• This has the potential to scan the targeted systems for vulnerabilities.
• Individuals can program their own payloads to carry out certain actions after they have been exploited.
• Security testers can access compromised systems and gather data using Metasploit’s post-exploitation capabilities.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Exploit Development	Ethical Concerns
Penetration Testing	Legal Implications
Comprehensive Framework
Active Community

4. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a comprehensive platform for the security testing of web applications. It integrates various tools to perform automated and manual vulnerability assessments.

Key features include an interception proxy for monitoring and manipulating HTTP/HTTPS traffic, a scanner for automatic vulnerability detection, and various tools for advanced penetration testing like repeaters, intruders, and sequencers.

It supports extensibility via custom plugins and provides detailed reporting capabilities to aid in identifying and exploiting security vulnerabilities.

Features of the Burp Suite:

• As a proxy, Burp Suite changes the requests and replies that go back and forth between the user’s browser and the target web service.
• Burp Suite has an automatic vulnerability checker that can crawl a web app and find SQL injection, XSS, and other security holes.
• Spider is a tool in Burp Suite that crawls a web app to find its content and features and make a picture of them.
• By sending prepared queries, it lets users do both automatic and human penetration testing on a target.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Web Application Scanning	There are some situations that require manual setup.
Proxy Server	Not having an official Android app
Vulnerability Testing
Session Analysis

5. OpenVAS

The comprehensive security scanning tool OpenVAS detects vulnerabilities in network services and systems. It’s free, open-source, and powers Greenbone Vulnerability Management (GVM).

OpenVAS searches for security problems using a constantly updated vulnerability test database. Penetration testers and IT security experts need it for its extensive reporting on networked asset security and automated vulnerability management workflows.

Features of OpenVAS

• OpenVAS uses a powerful scanning engine to detect vulnerabilities in networks and hosts.
• It regularly updates its vulnerability database from the Greenbone Community Feed to ensure current threats are recognizable.
• Generates detailed reports that outline detected vulnerabilities, their severity, and remediation tips.
• Provides a user-friendly, web-based interface for managing scans and reviewing results.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Comprehensive vulnerability scans	User-friendly interface
Regular updates (CVEs)	Scan speed optimization
Open-source and free	Configuration complexity
Detailed reporting	False-positive reduction

6. Nessus

Nessus is a widely-used vulnerability assessment tool that scans networks to identify security weaknesses. It checks systems for known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance deviations using a constantly updated database of security checks.

Nessus provides comprehensive reports that prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity, helping organizations address critical issues and enhance their security posture efficiently.

Features of Nessus:

• Nessus scans computer systems and networks for security flaws.
• A wide variety of security flaws and improper settings can be found in its many apps.
• Systems can be tested for compliance with various security rules and standards using Nessus.
• You can utilize this tool to locate and plot out all your network’s devices and assets.
• Nessus provides users with comprehensive reports to better comprehend security issues and prioritize them.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Comprehensive Vulnerability Scanning	Not much help for systems that aren’t Windows
Extensive Vulnerability Coverage	Could cause noise in network traffic
Policy Compliance Checks
Configuration Auditing

7. Nikto

Nikto is an open-source web server scanner designed for vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. It conducts comprehensive tests against web servers, checking for outdated software versions, harmful CGIs, and other security risks.

Nikto identifies common vulnerabilities and configuration issues, outputs scan results in various formats, and can be updated with user-defined tests for a more customized assessment.

Features of Nikto

• Nikto efficiently scans web servers for thousands of potential security threats.
• It utilizes plugins to extend its testing capabilities for specific security scenarios.
• Offers detailed reporting of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations it finds.
• Regular updates to its vulnerability database ensure current threats are identifiable.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Nikto is fast and efficient	Produces a high number of false positives
It integrates well with other tools	Limited to web server scanning
easy to use with a simple command-line interface	Lacks a graphical user interface
Extensive plugin support

8. Indusface

Indusface also allows manual and automated scanning for the OWASP Top 10 and SANS Top 25 vulnerabilities. Thus, the Indusface Web Application Firewall is the only fully managed web application firewall on the market today.

Indusface’s Total Application Security includes a scanner and WAF, as well as even more protections. By utilizing the WAF and commands built by Indusface’s security professionals, a corporation may swiftly identify security flaws and implement fixes.

Features of Industry:

• The option is to stop and start again.
• Reports from both manual and automatic PT scanners are displayed on the dashboard.
• Constantly seek out peril.
• The crawler scans a program that is just one page long.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Web Application Security	Not enough information is available
Vulnerability Assessment	few reviews and comments from users
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Malware Detection

9. Acunetix

Acunetix is a web application security scanner that automatically audits web applications by simulating attacks to identify vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

It offers both black-box and gray-box testing, integrating advanced scanning technology with manual testing capabilities to prioritize, manage, and mitigate identified risks, and providing detailed reports to enhance web application security.

Features of Acunetix:

• Built to work with WAFs and compatible with SDLC integration,.
• Continuously scan 100 pages.
• Has the capability to access over 4,500 risk types.
• Thoroughly testing web apps for vulnerabilities using state-of-the-art scanning techniques.
• We’re going to be looking at the top ten security weaknesses as compiled by OWASP’s Top Ten Project.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Comprehensive Web Application Security Testing	Needs Regular Updating
Wide Coverage of Vulnerabilities	Not enough help for some web technologies
Deep Scanning Capabilities
Accurate Vulnerability Detection

10. SQLMap

The Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET) is one of the most widely used VAPT tools for social engineering attacks since it was created to launch radical attacks against the human factor.

Due to significant community contributions, David Kennedy (ReL1K) wrote most of the SET, including a combination of techniques not found in any other exploitation toolkit. Several publications have been written about the toolkit as a result, including the #1 selling book on the subject of security for a full year.

Features

• Give users the option to bypass SQL injection and go straight to the database.
• The SQL injection method is fully supported.
• You can choose to dump certain fields or entire database tables.
• Deduce the password on its own.

What is Good?	What could be better?
Automated SQL Injection Testing	Possible Damage to the Application
Comprehensive Detection	Modern web apps don’t have much support.
Exploitation and Data Extraction
Customizable Testing Options