BackTrack For Linux

BackTrack was an open source Linux distribution that could be used by security professionals for penetration testing and digital forensics tasks in a native computing environment dedicated to hacking. It has been officially discontinued in February 2014.

Thanks to Softpedia, users can still download BackTrack Linux and install it on their personal computers or laptops. It is distributed as four Live DVD ISO images, supporting the GNOME and KDE desktop environments, as well as both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures.

The Live DVDs feature a custom boot menu that allows users to start the live environment in stealth mode (without network connection), forensics mode (without drive or swap mount), text mode, safe mode, as well as to boot the existing OS or test the RAM for errrors.

When booting the Live DVD, users will be dropped to a shell prompt, where they need to execute the startx command in order to enter the live session, which provides users with a traditional desktop environment (KDE or GNOME).

The distribution has been heavily customized to be used in real-life penetration testing tasks. It includes a vast collection of security oriented applications and provides users with two popular desktop environments. As a matter of fact, it is the only Linux distribution in the world that contains so many security applications. It is geared towards experts and novice security users alike.

The security-oriented applications have been arranged into 12 categories: information gathering, vulnerability assessment, exploitation tools, privilege escalation, maintaining access, reverse engineering, RFID tools, stress testing, forensics, reporting tools, services, and miscellaneous.

Whether you use this system to learn new hacking techniques, exploit servers, hack wireless networks, or perform a web app assessment, BackTrack is the number one solution for all of your security needs. Since March 2013, BackTrack has been rebuilt around the Debian GNU/Linux operating system and it is now released as Kali Linux. On August 30, 2014, BackTrack was the first Linux distribution to reach one million downloads on Softpedia!