SET vs Cowpatty vs Mimikatz: Which DNS Enumeration Tool tool is Best in 2025?

SET, or Social-Engineer Toolkit, is a leading open-source framework pre-installed in Kali Linux (version 8.0.3), designed for ethical hackers and penetration testers. This social engineering toolkit for cybersecurity automates attacks like phishing, credential theft, and payload delivery, making it a premier penetration testing tool for social engineering assessments. With a 30.40 MB footprint and over 10 attack vectors, SET empowers red teams to simulate real-world threats, integrating seamlessly with Metasploit for robust security testing.

Cowpatty is a robust open-source wireless network auditing tool for ethical hacking, seamlessly integrated into Kali Linux (version 2024.06.R1). As a WPA/WPA2-PSK dictionary attack tool for cybersecurity, it performs offline passphrase cracking using captured 4-way handshakes, making it a top choice for wireless password cracking in penetration testing. Developed by Joshua Wright, its 77 KB size and genpmk utility enable efficient attacks on pre-shared key (PSK) networks.

Mimikatz is an open-source, highly potent post-exploitation tool developed by Benjamin Delpy for extracting plaintext credentials, NTLM hashes, and Kerberos tickets from Windows systems. Available on Kali Linux at /usr/share/windows-resources/mimikatz, it is a cornerstone for penetration testers, red teamers, and ethical hackers conducting authorized security assessments. By leveraging Windows’ memory structures, Mimikatz uncovers sensitive authentication data, enabling privilege escalation, lateral movement, and persistence in compromised environments.