Responder vs Bully: Which Risk Assessment & Compliance tool is Best in 2025?

Responder is a robust, open-source tool designed for network penetration testing, specializing in Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR), NetBIOS Name Service (NBT-NS), and Multicast DNS (mDNS) poisoning. Pre-installed on Kali Linux, Responder enables cybersecurity professionals and ethical hackers to intercept network authentication requests, capture NTLM hashes, and perform man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks by mimicking legitimate servers. Developed by Laurent Gaffié, it targets Windows environments where LLMNR and NBT-NS are enabled by default, making it a powerful tool for credential harvesting and network security assessments.

Bully is a robust open-source wireless network auditing tool for ethical hacking, seamlessly integrated into Kali Linux (version 2024.06.R1). As a Wi-Fi Protected Setup brute-force tool for cybersecurity, it targets WPS vulnerabilities to recover WPA/WPA2 passphrases, making it a top wireless password recovery tool for penetration testing. Written in C with a 1.4 MB size, Bully offers improved performance over Reaver, supporting Pixie-Dust attacks for rapid PIN cracking.