Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET)

What is the SET?

Social engineering is sometimes referred to as the art or science of manipulation. Since it involves the human element, social engineering attacks need to be highly flexible and attackers need to switch strategies on the fly, especially when aiming for particularly high-profile or difficult targets. After conducting due research on their target, the attacker plays off deep, human-rooted impulses, such as fear, anxiety, desire, and empathy. The attacker hijacks the target’s train of thought and manipulates them to do their bidding without giving themselves away.

In order to automate the ever-changing vectors of social engineering attacks, cybersecurity firm TrustedSec released the Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET). Ever since its release, it has gained a huge following, and many of the previously discussed types of social engineering attacks can now be performed in a few button presses.

The SET can be used to perform a variety of social engineering attacks. Unfortunately, most of these attack vectors involve the Windows operating system or Windows versions of software. Therefore, we’ll only be able to see a limited potential of its power.