**Note: The content in this article is only for educational purposes and understanding of cybersecurity concepts. It should enable people and organizations to have a better grip on threats and know how to protect themselves against them. Please use this information responsibly.**
In the dynamic world of cybersecurity, one tool outshines others in performing social engineering or security awareness training: SET. This forms a standard part of the toolkit for a penetration tester, security professional, and ethical hacker who concentrates their work on human weaknesses rather than on purely technical vulnerabilities. We’ll proceed further with a discussion of what SET is, how it works, and a walkthrough on credential harvesting.
What is SEToolkit?
Social Engineering Toolkit (SEToolkit) is a brand-new, open-source framework developed for simulating attacks under the category of social engineering. According to Dave Kennedy, a security expert, the tool is designed in such a way that SEToolkit allows cybersecurity professionals to create effective attacks that target human behavior for them to exploit it. In this way, methods used by real cybercriminals would be mimicked; thus, security teams can test and enhance an organization’s defenses.
The toolkit is flexible in its usage for a wide range of attack vectors, from phishing and spear phishing to credential harvesting, among others. It is very effective in simulating real-world social engineering attacks, enabling employees to undergo proper training to be aware of such threats and avoid being victimized.
Features:
SEToolkit is designed for ease of use and has high functionality. Here are some of the main features:
1. Phishing Attacks
One of the most popular techniques in the toolbox for social engineering involves sending phishy emails that appear to be from trust-worthy sources. SEToolkit provides various means for a penetration tester to send phishing emails with customized messages. Such phishing simulations facilitate organizations in finding out how their employees react in case of such a threat and pinpoint weak links in their security awareness.
2. Credential Harvesting
One of the other more common attack vectors is credential harvesting, whereby attackers set up fake login pages to steal usernames and passwords. SEToolkit enables users to clone a website and send targets to this clone, which captures login information. This tactic is very useful for identifying the actual vulnerability of an organization to credential-based attacks.
3. Spear Phishing Campaigns
Spear phishing is a form of phishing in which the attacker targets specific individuals in an organization. The SEToolkit contains tools to help the penetration tester craft an extremely personalized spear-phishing attack, making it an excellent candidate for testing high-profile employee awareness, such as executives.
4. SMS Spoofing
In addition to email attacks, SEToolkit supports SMS spoofing, whereby a tester can send fake text messages to targets. This allows an organization to test its defenses against other phishing techniques.
5. Java Applet Attacks
This has a Java Applet attack vector, which enables them to perform an attack on the computer. Users may be tricked into executing malicious code through innocuous-looking Java applets.
How does SEToolkit Work?
SEToolkit uses a command line that offers users different options to generate and launch social engineering attacks. After the toolkit’s installation, at the very beginning, the user has to indicate one of the attack methods: website cloning, phishing, or credential harvesting. Further, after the indication of an attack type, the toolkit leads a user through the process step by step in order to tune up an attack according to the needs of an organization.
For example, to clone a popular website for credential harvesting, the user only needs to feed the Uniform Resource Locator into SEToolkit, which then takes care of the rest, serving a near-identical clone to the target.
SETToolkit is designed to be flexible and to adapt to both a beginner and an advanced penetration tester. While it does contain some very powerful tools, SEToolkit should be used in a responsible manner, within the bounds of the law, and with proper authorization before testing any target’s security.
Supported platforms:
- Linux
- Mac OS X (experimental)
How to Install SEToolkit in Linux?
Step 1: Make sure that you have a working Kali Linux system with the SEToolkit installed. To install the SEToolkit on Kali Linux, use the following command.
$ git clone https://github.com/trustedsec/social-engineer-toolkit.git
Step 2: The Social Engineering Toolkit has been downloaded to your directory. Next, navigate to the internal directory of the toolkit by using the following command.
$ cd setoolkit
Step 3: Finally, you have downloaded the social engineering toolkit to your directory, SEToolkit. All the necessary requirements have been downloaded for your SEToolkit. Now, it’s time to install the downloaded requirements. To install the requirements, use the following command.
$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt
$ python setup.py
Step 4: The installation process is now complete. It’s time to launch the Social Engineering Toolkit (SEToolkit). To run the toolkit, use the following command.
Now, we will see how to perform the credential harvesting using SEToolkit.
Step 5: Select Social-Engineering Attacks: Once the SEToolkit opens, you will have a menu. Choose “1” for “Social-Engineering Attacks”.
Step 6: Select Website Attack Vectors: From the secondary option select “2” for “Website Attack Vectors”.
Step 7: Now, choose Web Jacking Attack Method. Web jacking is a cyber attack in which an attacker manipulates a valid website or web page that may redirect the users to any other malignant webpage without the user’s knowledge. “Web jacking” is related to “web hijacking,” which means taking control over the web session or website.
Step 8: It displays a list of predefined site templates. There are a lot of famous websites to choose from. For this demonstration, we will select “2”. It will completely clone a website of our choice.
Step 9: Generate a phishing link to obtain credentials. Here, SEToolkit generates a phishing link for you. Select the URL of a legitimate website and enter the URL to clone.
Step 10: Copy the link and send it to the victim. For this demonstration, we are using our other browser as a victim. Once the user enters the credentials in the sign-in box, they will be redirected to your Kali terminal.
Step 11: Capture the Credentials: SEToolkit will capture them, and they will show up in your terminal back at SEToolkit. In our example, the username is xyz@gmail.com, and the password is xyz111.
Conclusion:
In this tutorial, we discussed the Credential Harvester Attack of the SEToolkit, an essential tool for ethical hacking and penetration testing. First, we ran the SEToolkit from Kali Linux, the most used operating system by hackers. Second, we reviewed social engineering attacks, internet attack paths, and the Credential Harvester Attack to collect credentials. Finally, we cloned target web pages, an essential phase of credential harvesting. Remember, never leave ethics and legality aside during your practice. This contribution is significant because these are some of the key skills you will need to advance your career in cybersecurity. Stay curious, stay ethical, and keep yourself informed in the ever-changing world of ethical hacking.
