1. BACK|TRACK
“THE quieter you become the
more you are able to hear….”
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2. What is backtrack:-
BackTrack 5 features:- A major addition in the new version
of BackTrack is the 64-bit offering. BackTrack 5 is based on
Ubuntu Lucid Lynx v10.04, the latest long term support (LTS)
release using Linux kernel v2.6.38. BackTrack 5 is the first version
to be released with the complete source code in its repositories. This
addition is expected to clear up licensing issues that existed in the
previous Backtrack distros. BackTrack 4 is no longer available for
download at the developer’s Website, and support for it has officially
been discontinued.
Here is a more detailed look at important features of BackTrack 5.
Support for KDE and Gnome:-
BackTrack 5 boasts of support for KDE Plasma (4.6), Gnome (2.6) and
Fluxbox. This makes it much simpler to migrate from Gnome-based
distributions. Unifying the desktop environment has the added
advantage of an easier learning curve for new users. Streamlined
images for each desktop environment (DE) are available on
the backtrack website. Tool integration with supported environments is
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3. seamless with DE-specific menu structures. However, while Gnome has
a smaller memory footprint and is less resource hungry, the Gnome
versions lack default package managers, which need to be added
separately.
32-bit and 64-bit support:-
The addition of 64-bit support in BackTrack 5 makes it possible to tap
additional power for processor-intensive tasks such as brute force
password cracking. The 32-bit and 64-bit images support various boot
modes, including a “Stealth” mode that boots without generating
network traffic and a “Forensics” mode for forensic purposes.
ARM architecture support:-
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4. An ARM image of BackTrack 5 is available, having officially been
tested on the Motorola Xoom tablet and the Motorola Atrix 4G
smart phone by the developers. Custom chrootscripts are already
available to run BackTrack 5 on Android systems with ARM
processors.
Users have successfully deployed BackTrack 5 on Samsung Galaxy
S and Sony Xperia smart phones. However, there are still some
issues with these systems and not all features are available. There
are known issues with wireless drivers on ARM-based systems
including lack of support, for WiFi packet injection.
Packaged tools:-
BackTrack 5’s arsenal of tools have been upgraded to the latest
versions. BackTrack 5 comes preloaded with tools for LAN and WLAN
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5. sniffing, vulnerability scanning, digital forensics and password cracking.
The Metasploit exploit framework v3.7.0 has been packaged into
BackTrack 5. The tools are organized into a comprehensive menu
structure, streamlined to comply with the PTES and OSSTMM
standards.
Conclusion:-
BackTrack 5 promises to surpass previous versions in terms of
functionality and stability. However, users have raised concerns over
the discontinued support for Ubuntu repositories. BackTrack 5 instead
uses its own repositories, which have been benchmarked to work with
its tools. The BackTrack 5 team justified this move by highlighting
performance concerns when the custom features of BackTrack’s tools
are used with other repositories, including corruption of the
installation. There is no official support for any repository other than
that which is provided by the developers.
In the next post I will come with the installation of backtrack on a pc.
I hope you enjoyed the post…
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