OWASP ZAP vs Binwalk: Which Image Enhancer tool is Best in 2025?

OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy), developed by OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project), is a versatile, open-source web application security scanner pre-installed on Kali Linux. It is designed for penetration testers, developers, and security enthusiasts to identify vulnerabilities in web applications. Acting as a man-in-the-middle proxy, ZAP intercepts and modifies HTTP/HTTPS traffic, enabling active and passive scanning, fuzzing, and API testing. Its user-friendly GUI, automation framework, and heads-up display (HUD) make it accessible for beginners and powerful for experts. With features like spidering, brute-forcing, and marketplace add-ons, ZAP is ideal for detecting issues like SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF, ensuring robust web security.

Binwalk is an open-source, command-line utility pre-installed on Kali Linux at /usr/bin/binwalk, designed for analyzing, extracting, and reverse-engineering firmware images and binary files. Developed by Craig Heffner, Binwalk identifies embedded file systems, compressed archives, and executable code within the firmware, making it a vital tool for security researchers, penetration testers, and ethical hackers. Supporting formats like SquashFS, JFFS2, ZIP, and ELF, it facilitates vulnerability assessments and IoT device analysis in cybersecurity workflows.