Assess system security using a Linux LiveCD

"This article talks about about these security-assessment tools and the fastest, easiest way to test your systems using them. [...] Apart from making your system more secure, there are lots of tools you can use to determine your system's ability to withstand any kind of attack. For example:

* Using firewall tools like blockall, you can restrict all inbound TCP traffic; with a tool like floppyfw, you can turn a floppy into a firewall.
* Labrea is a honeypot that can tarpit worms and port scanners, thereby nullifying their effect.
* Then there are a number of intrusion detection systems (IDS) like the very popular Snort and logsnorter.
* Packet Sniffers like ethereal, dsniff, driftnet, urlsnarf, and msgsnarf can help sniff-out useless traffic like IM messages that waste bandwidth.
* Wireless Tools like airsnarf, airsnort, kismet can help you asses the strength of your wireless network.
* The success-rate of tools such as chntpw (which can reset passwords on a Windows box) and pwl9x (which can crack Windows 9x password files), along with allwords2 (a 27-MB English dictionary), will drive home the point of having long, alphanumeric, nonstandard passwords.
* And if you think you have everything covered, try vulnerability assessment tools like hydra, nessus, and nmap. [...]

About LiveCD [...[ Auditor [...] Whoppix [...] Knoppix-STD [...] PHLAK [...] Conclusion [...] Resources"

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-livecdsec/