OWASP ZAP vs Intrace: Which AI Inference Platform 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.

Intrace is an open-source, command-line traceroute-like utility, pre-installed on Kali Linux at /usr/bin/intrace, designed to enumerate IP hops along a network path by exploiting existing TCP connections. Developed by Robert Swiecki in 2007, based on Michal Zalewski’s concept, Intrace uses TCP packets (e.g., SYN, ACK) to trace routes, offering insights into network topology without relying on ICMP, which is often blocked by firewalls. Ideal for cybersecurity professionals, ethical hackers, and network administrators, it supports firewall bypassing and reconnaissance tasks. Released under the GNU General Public License, InTrace is a lightweight tool for advanced network path analysis.