Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable live CD based on Fedora Core.

Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable live CD based on Fedora Core. The toolkit was designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed open source network security applications and should run on most x86 platforms.

The main intent of developing this toolkit was to provide the network security administrator with a comprehensive set of open source network security tools. What we find rather fascinating with NST is that we can transform most x86 systems (Pentium II and above) into a system designed for network traffic analysis, intrusion detection, network packet generation, wireless network monitoring, a virtual system service server, or a sophisticated network/host scanner.

Many tasks that can be performed within NST are available through a web interface called NST WUI. Among the tools that can be used through this interface are nmap with the vizualization tool ZenMap, ntop, a session manager for VNC, a minicom-based terminal server, serial port monitoring, and WPA PSK management.

Other features include visualization of ntop, wireshark, traceroute and kismet data by geocoding the host addresses and displaying them via Google Earth, a browser base packet capture and protocol analysis system capable of monitoring up to four network interfaces using Wireshark, as well as a Snort-based intrusion detection system with a "collector" backend that stores incidents in a MySQL database. For web developers, there is also a JavaScript console with a built-in object library with functions that aid the development of dynamic web pages.

Updates (via Distrowatch):

Paul Blankenbaker has announced the release of Network Security Toolkit (NST) 2.15.0, a Fedora-based live DVD featuring a collection of best-of-breed open-source network security applications: "We are pleased to announce the latest NST release, version 2.15.0. This release is based on Fedora 15 using Linux kernel 2.6.40, re-based from latest Linux kernel 3.0. Here are some of the highlights for this release: developed a new interactive dynamic SVG/AJAX enabled network interface bandwidth monitor application that is integrated into the NST WUI for monitoring pseudo real-time network bandwidth rates; added NST RPM packages and NST WUI integration for the Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner (OpenVAS) and Greenbone security tools; added an NST RPM package for IPv6 network security investigation...."

Continue reading the release announcement for a complete list of improvements.

Download: nst-2.15.0-2515.i686.iso (1,328MB, MD5).

Recent releases:

• 2011-08-10: Distribution Release: Network Security Toolkit 2.15.0
• 2010-10-07: Distribution Release: Network Security Toolkit 2.13.0
• 2009-09-23: Distribution Release: Network Security Toolkit 2.11.0
• 2009-01-09: Distribution Release: Network Security Toolkit 1.8.1
• 2008-06-29: Distribution Release: Network Security Toolkit 1.8.0
• 2007-02-13: Distribution Release: Network Security Toolkit 1.5.0

Here are some of the highlights for this release:

Created a framework for geolocating network entities with NST.
Manage and configure the geolocation methods and database repositories.
Geolocate hosts discovered by ntop. These hosts can be plotted on a world map as a bitmap image or viewed in Google Earth with supporting network traffic information for each host detected.
Geolocate IPv4 Address Conversations from a network packet capture. These conversations can be displayed on a world map as a bitmap image or viewed in Google Earth. This can be done from the NST WUI Single or Multi-Tap Network Packet Capture decode page.
Manage, view and schedule geolocated information using the NST WUI.
The NST WUI can be used to geolocate traceroute information. The results can be viewed using Google Earth.
The NST WUI can be used to geolocate data collected by Kismet and the results can be viewed in Google Earth.
The NST WUI can be used to quickly setup and manage Subversion (SVN) repositories. Each with a corresponding Trac Wiki.
This release includes both NST 32 bit (i686) and 64 bit (x86_64) builds as well as an NST 32 bit and 64 bit RPM repository.
Many new applications have been added to this distribution release. Previous existing networking and security applications have been updated to their latest revision.