Cisco IOS vs. Kali Linux vs. Metasploit

I've worked with several network device vendors in my 10+ years of being in the industry and my favorite continues to be Cisco IOS. Overall, Cisco IOS tends to be the most stable, the most intuitive, has the best TAC support, and has the best knowledge base articles and white papers.

Incentivized

Kali Linux is especially well suited in environments where high security is needed for your custom developed applications. This is well suited for offensive testing your high security in house developed applications. It is also very good for doing penetration testing on in house developed applications and safe guarding them from external attackers. Kali Linux is tough for use as a day to day Linux operating system as this was never intended to be used by beginners and occasional Linux users.

Incentivized

It is easy to use with sufficient documentation on how to use the tools for end users or newbies. Experienced testers will find it easy to customise and configure the test cases. Just wished that I could have taken up a course on using this tool in my study days so that I could had explored more and improved my familiarity with the tool, unlike when working where access and time to explore the other features of the tool is limited

Incentivized

• User friendly CLI.
• Quick fixes for critical bugs.
• Longer uptime.

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• Analyzing SSL certificates
• Analyzing SSL server configurations
• Vulnerability scanning
• Port scanning

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• Easy to use.
• Many exploits available.
• Multi-platform.

Incentivized

• By this point, there are several "flavors" of the Cisco IOS such as XE, XR, and the standard Cisco IOS. While they are all fairly similar, there does exist syntax differences between them. It would be ideal if at some point in the future, Cisco is able to unify all of them into one standard operating system which would use the same syntax across all platforms.
• While overall Cisco does a great job of QA'ing their IOS, no matter the release, there's always some minor bugs. I think it's important that Cisco continue to pour resources into their QA team to test their software.
• While I'm very familiar with the graphical readouts of "show processes cpu history" I would love for Cisco to eventually find a more intuitive way to display this data. I can't begin to count how many times I've had to teach more entry level (and even mid level) engineers how this graph is interpreted.
• I do wish that Cisco had something similar to Juniper's "commit check" or "commit confirmed". This helps validate the changes you're about to apply, and catch errors, so that you have a better idea of the impact of the change.

Incentivized

• Option to deselect tools upon install
• Instructions for all the tools
• Lightweight install option

Incentivized

• More robust menus
• Better plugin inter-operation

Incentivized

The data that Cisco IOS is able to provide is extremely relevant, it's fast, and it's intuitive. I also love that you're able to leverage things like macros or EEM scrips to run multiple commands at once. This is especially useful when you have more junior or entry level engineers in your environment and you want to provide them with a "shortcut" by having them type a single command to execute multiple commands.

Incentivized

We don't use it.

Incentivized

We have found other Cisco software to be filled with added functionalities as compared to iOS. New NCS software has certain programmability features that are advantageous to legacy iOS software but are more complex to use for some users. Hence, we still have most areas of the network that functions using iOS software.

Incentivized

I will Stack Kali Linux at the top of among to its similar devices.

Incentivized

Metasploit is the most well-known tool in the average pen tester's toolkit. It's hard to compare to its neighbor's due to its size and following.

Incentivized

• Great uptimes on proven availability/reliability.
• Longevity of these switches ensures great ROI.
• Easy to learn for new users.

Incentivized

• Costs
• Time taken to setup
• Configurations needed for each use

Incentivized

• Positive: Improves efficiency of our network penetration testing operations.
• Positive: Allows for collaboration and information sharing during a penetration test.

Incentivized