Metasploit Fundamentals : Technology Overview !

Metasploit is the most advanced and popular Framework that can be used

for pen-testing.

Metasploit Framework :

                               

From the above pic,

You can see the main components of the framework architecture are:

Rex
Framework Core
Framework Base
Interfaces
Modules
Plugins

Interfaces : -

Metasploit offers more than one interface to its underlying

functionality, including console, command line, and graphical

interfaces.

MSFconsole :

Msfconsole is by far the most popular part of the Metasploit Framework

Starting MSFconsole

To launch msfconsole, enter msfconsole at the command line.

Tab Completion :

Tab completion depends on the ruby readline extension and nearly every

command in the console supports tab completion.

        use exploit/windows/dce
        use .*netapi.*
        set LHOST
        show
        set TARGET
        set PAYLOAD windows/shell/
        exp

MSFcli :

Msfcli and msfconsole take very different approaches to providing

access to the Framework.

msfcli runs directly from the command line, which allows you to

redirect output from other tools into msfcli and direct msfcli output

to other command-line tools.

Benefits of mscli :

 Supports the launching of exploits and auxiliary modules 
 Convenient to use when testing or developing a new exploit
 Good tool for one-off exploitation
 Excellent if you know exactly which exploit and options you need
 Wonderful for use in scripts and basic automation

Armitage :

The armitage component of Metasploit is a fully interactive graphical

user interface.

Running Armitage

To launch armitage, run the command armitage.

After armitage is running, simply click a menu to perform a particular

attack or access other Metasploit functionality

Metasploit Utilities:

MSFpayload:

The msfpayload component of Metasploit allows you to generate shellcode,

executables, and much more for use in exploits outside of the Framework.

Shellcode can be generated in many formats including C, Ruby,

JavaScript, and even Visual Basic for Applications.

MSFencode:

The shellcode generated by msfpayload is fully functional, but it

contains several null characters that, when interpreted by many

programs, signify the end of a string, and this will cause the code to

terminate before completion.

In other words, those x00s and xffs can break your payload!

To avoid detection ,Metasploit’s developers offer msfencode, which

helps you to avoid bad characters and evade antivirus and IDSs by

encoding the original payload in a way that does not include “bad”

characters. Enter msfencode -h to see a list of msfencode options.

Exploits:

An exploit is the means by which an attacker, or pen tester for that

matter, takes advantage of a flaw within a system, an application, or a

service. An attacker uses an exploit to attack a system in a way that

results in a particular desired outcome that the developer never

intended.

All exploits in the Metasploit Framework will fall into two categories:

active and passive.

Active Exploits

Active exploits will exploit a specific host, run until completion, and

then exit.

   Brute-force modules will exit when a shell opens from the victim.

   Module execution stops if an error is encountered.

   You can force an active module to the background by passing '-j' to

   the exploit command.

 Passive Exploits

Passive exploits wait for incoming hosts and exploit them as they

connect.

  Passive exploits almost always focus on clients such as web browsers,

  FTP clients, etc.

  They can also be used in conjunction with email exploits, waiting for

  connections.

  Passive exploits report shells as they happen can be enumerated by

  passing '-l' to the sessions command. Passing '-i' will interact with a shell.

Payloads :

A payload is code that we want the system to execute and that is to be

selected and delivered by the Framework

There are three different types of payload module types in Metasploit:

Singles, Stagers, and Stages.

Databases :

When conducting a penetration test, it is frequently a challenge to

keep track of everything you have done to the target network. This is

where having a database configured can be a great time saver. Metasploit

has built-in support for the PostgreSQL database system.