How to Install and Set Up Burp Suite on Linux
Burp Suite is a popular and powerful tool used by security professionals, developers, and quality assurance testers to identify and fix security vulnerabilities in web applications.
Let’s learn what Burp Suite is and how you may install and set it up on your Linux system.
What Is Burp Suite?
Burp Suite is a powerful tool used to evaluate the safety of web applications. It essentially works as a MITM (man-in-the-middle) proxy, enabling you to intercept, inspect, and manipulate traffic bi-directionally.
It comes equipped with a powerful arsenal of tools that you can use to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in web applications. The suite includes tools for performing automated scans, manual testing, and customized attacks.
You can use Burp Suite for various purposes, including identifying SQL injections (SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), andother security vulnerabilities. Burp Suite is highly customizable and you can tailor it to meet the specific needs of testing a target application.
Prerequisites for Installing Burp Suite on Linux
Before installing any software, it’s recommended to update and upgrade the system to ensure it has the latest security patches and updates. you could do so using the following commands:
On Ubuntu- andDebian-based Linux distros:
On Arch Linux and its derivatives:
On RHEL and Fedora:
Once you’ve updated and upgraded your system, you’re ready to move on to the next steps.
Downloading and Installing Burp Suite on Linux
you may download Burp Suite from the official PortSwigger website. They are the developers and maintainers of Burp Suite.
Download:Burp Suite
Here are the steps to download and install Burp Suite on your Linux system:
You should now have Burp Suite installed on your Linux system. To launch Burp Suite, open the application drawer and search for it. You can add it to your dock/favorites for quick access.
With the installation process out of the way, let’s get to setting Burp Suite up for security testing.
Setting Up the Web Browser for Burp Suite
Burp Suite is designed to work with most modern web browsers. However, you need to perform some additional configuration to ensure that Burp Suite can communicate with the browser correctly.
For the demonstration, we’ll be using Mozilla Firefox as the primary browser.
The first step in setting up your browser for use with Burp Suite is to install the FoxyProxy Standard extension. FoxyProxy is a tool that allows users to configure their browser to use a proxy server. This is crucial for Burp Suite to intercept and modify the traffic between the browser and the server.
it’s possible to find the FoxyProxy browser extension on the Chrome Web Store for Google Chrome or on the Addons page for Mozilla Firefox.
Download:FoxyProxy (Google Chrome|Mozilla Firefox)
Once FoxyProxy is successfully installed, the next step is configuring it properly to use Burp Suite as the proxy server. Follow the steps below for configuration:
Now you’ve successfully configured your browser to send and receive traffic to and from the Burp Suite application.
To test it, simply activate the FoxyProxy extension, and under theProxytab in the Burp Suite application, click onIntercept On. You should see the incoming requests populated with web traffic.
Uninstalling Burp Suite From Linux
Sometimes you may run into errors with Burp Suite or in general, face configuration issues. The best way to fix it is a clean reinstallation of the Burp Suite application.
While the Burp Suite installation and setting up process is a rather lengthy one, in contrast, the uninstallation process is a piece of cake. To uninstall Burp Suite, navigate to the directory where it’s installed—remember you set this during the installation process.
In the app directory, you’ll find anuninstall.shscript. Make it executable using the “chmod +x filename” command and run it. That should fire up the uninstaller which you’re able to use to uninstall Burp Suite from your Linux distribution.
To reinstall Burp Suite, simply re-do all the steps you did to install it the first time.
The Best Vulnerability Scanning Tools for Linux
While Burp Suite is one of the best security testing tools on the market, it is not wise to rely on a single tool to thoroughly test the security stature of your website or application.
There are a lot of other vulnerability scanning tools that automate vulnerability hunting, and, when coupled with Burp Suite, can acutely test the security of your applications.
Want to improvise your company’s vulnerability management policies? Here are some tools that can help you move forward.
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