Programming & Scripting for Pentesters
Go, C# & Rust for Offensive Tooling
Compiled languages for fast, portable, evasion-friendly tools.
As you mature, you'll move beyond scripting to compiled languages that produce fast, single-binary tools — and, for red teams, payloads that are harder for EDR to catch.
- Go — cross-compiles to a single static binary for any OS; powers modern recon tools (nuclei, subfinder, ffuf).
- C# — the native language of Windows/.NET; essential for AD tooling and offensive .NET (Rubeus, SharpHound, Seatbelt).
- Rust — increasingly popular for tooling and malware dev due to speed, safety, and evasion characteristics.