Any security professional will tell you that your tools should earn half your paycheck. The quality and reliability of the results your tools give you directly influences how good you are at your job. Couple this with the fact that we always need a good way to carry these tools around, for testing, recovering crashed systems etc.
I recently came accross two incredibly distributions of Linux. The first is Knoppix-STD
www.knoppix-std.org
The STD stands for 'Security Tools Distribution', and for those of you who don't know, Knoppix is a fully functional incredible distro of Linux that runs of a single CD without needing to be installed or touching your machine at all.
Knoppix STD is meant for security professionals, it contains the most mind numbing collection of the latest tools -- from the usual latest nmap, nessus etc, down to really obscure little known tools that are very handy. Just have a look at the partial list of tools to get an idea of what I'm talking about
www.knoppix-std.org/tools.html
I have fallen in love with this distro.. in fact I carry it around everywhere I go, and just love the fact that it has everything in one place. I have used it in the field for penetration testing, cyber-forensics, data recovery, recovery of a crashed Windows box, and just for when I needed a Linux box under my feet.
It is also great for learning about a. Linux and b. Security. You can boot this disk and use Linux without touching your hard disk, while experimenting and trying out all the best security tools.. without worrying about downloading them, compiling them, failed dependencies etc. (Do remember that knoppix-std comes with the fluxbox window manager that not many people like because its not crammed with useless bells and whistles, if you just wanna try linux get plain Knoppix instead
www.knoppix.net
).
The second security tools distribution I discovered is Local Area Security.
www.localareasecurity.com
. This is also based on Knoppix, and is a collection of security tools.. its even smaller than knoppix-std.. and fits on one of those really neat mini-cds. I havent used it much, but frankly I found knoppix-std much more complete in terms of the toolset, as well as the general organisation of tools. Thats not to say theres anything wrong with localareasecurity.. it rocks.. I just prefer knoppix-std.
So go download them both and check them out. I can tell you this is the most useful thing I have ever downloaded off the net since Winamp 1.0, I can also gaurantee that you that you will learn or discover something new with it.
Cant sing praises any higher than that
hehe..