Essential Tools

Core tools, methodology, and reporting standards for penetration testing.

Components

| Component | Purpose | |-----------|---------| | Burp Suite | Proxy, scanner, intruder, repeater, sequencer | | Playwright | Browser automation, evidence capture, SPA testing | | Binary Analysis | Static analysis, reverse engineering, string extraction | | Nuclei | Templated exposure & misconfiguration scanning | | sslscan | TLS posture (protocols, ciphers, cert) | | Methodology | PTES, OWASP WSTG, attack prioritization | | Reporting | Professional report templates, PDF generation |

Reference

• reference/essential-skills*.md - Burp Suite techniques and web security testing methodology
• reference/playwright-automation.md - Playwright MCP usage for pentesting
• reference/binary-analysis-quickstart.md - Static analysis for executable files and reverse engineering
• reference/web-application-attacks.md - Web application attack methodology
• formats/transilience-report-style/pentest-report.md - Finding quality standards, compliance mapping, and pre-delivery checklist

Required-at-start tooling (web/API engagements)

Run an availability check before declaring recon complete:

command -v subfinder nuclei sslscan httpx; curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.${DOMAIN}&output=json" | head -c1

• Subdomain/CT enum: subfinder, certspotter, crt.sh
• TLS posture: sslscan
• Templated exposure: nuclei

If a tool-class is unavailable, record it as an explicit limitation — NEVER declare recon COMPLETE having skipped a whole class. Hand-rolled urllib is not a substitute (see skills/coordination/reference/principles.md 'Real tools before hand-rolled HTTP').