Cisco Torch mass scanning, fingerprinting, and exploitation tool was written while working on the next edition of the "Hacking Exposed Cisco Networks", since the tools availalbe on the market could not meet our needs.

The main feature that makes Cisco-torch different from similar tools is the extensive use of forking to launch multiple scanning processes on the background for maximum scanning efficiency. Also, it uses several methods of application layer fingerprinting simultaneously, if needed. We wanted something fast to discover remote Cisco hosts running Telnet, SSH, Web, NTP and SNMP services and launch dictionary attacks against the services discovered.