DNSChef vs Nessus vs BeEF-XSS vs Strace: Which Sniffing & Spoofing tool is Best in 2025?

DNSChef is a highly configurable, open-source DNS proxy tool tailored for penetration testers, malware analysts, and cybersecurity professionals. Integrated into Kali Linux, it enables users to intercept, analyze, and manipulate DNS traffic with precision. Known as a Fake DNS tool, DNSChef can redirect domain requests to custom IP addresses, making it ideal for network traffic analysis, security testing, and simulating malicious scenarios. Its cross-platform compatibility and support for advanced DNS record types set it apart as a critical asset for ethical hacking and network vulnerability assessments.

Nessus is a leading vulnerability assessment tool developed by Tenable, Inc., widely recognized as the industry’s most trusted scanner for identifying security weaknesses across networks, devices, applications, and cloud environments. Launched in 1998 as an open-source project by Renaud Deraison, it transitioned to a proprietary model in 2005 and now offers two enterprise versions: Nessus Professional and Nessus Expert. With over 252,000 plugins and 100,000 plus CVEs, Nessus delivers high-accuracy scans to detect vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues. It supports unlimited IT assessments, customizable templates (450+), and vulnerability prioritization using CVSS v4, EPSS, and Tenable’s VPR. Nessus Expert extends capabilities to web application scanning, external attack surface monitoring, and cloud infrastructure audits.

BeEF-XSS, or Browser Exploitation Framework, is a powerful open-source tool pre-installed in Kali Linux (version 0.5.4.0), designed for penetration testers and red teams. This browser exploitation tool for ethical hacking hooks web browsers using JavaScript payloads to launch client-side attacks like XSS, keylogging, and phishing. With over 300 command modules and an 81.48 MB footprint, BeEF-XSS is a leading web browser vulnerability scanner for cybersecurity professionals, enabling real-time control via a web UI for assessing browser security.

Strace is a powerful open-source diagnostic and debugging tool for Linux, available on Kali Linux at /usr/bin/strace, used to monitor and manipulate interactions between user-space processes and the Linux kernel. Developed initially by Paul Kranenburg for SunOS in 1991 and ported to Linux in 1992, Strace leverages the ptrace kernel feature to trace system calls, signals, and process state changes. Maintained by Dmitry Levin and released under the GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1, it’s a staple for cybersecurity professionals, system administrators, and developers for troubleshooting programs without source code.