☑️Introduction

The Metasploit Project is a Ruby-based, modular penetration testing platform that enables you to write, test, and execute the exploit code. This exploit code can be custom-made by the user or taken from a database containing the latest already discovered and modularized exploits.

Metasploit as a product is split into two versions. The Metasploit Pro version is different from the Metasploit Framework one with some additional features:

• Task Chains

• Social Engineering

• Vulnerability Validations

• GUI

• Quick Start Wizards

• Nexpose Integration

To have a general idea of what Metasploit Pro's newest features can achieve, check out the list below:

Infiltrate	Collect Data	Remediate
Manual Exploitation	Import and Scan Data	Bruteforce
Anti-virus Evasion	Discovery Scans	Task Chains
IPS/IDS Evasion	Meta-Modules	Exploitation Workflow
Proxy Pivot	Nexpose Scan Integration	Session Rerun
Post-Exploitation		Task Replay
Session Clean-up		Project Sonar Integration
Credentials Reuse		Session Management
Social Engineering		Credential Management
Payload Generator		Team Collaboration
Quick Pen-testing		Web Interface
VPN Pivoting		Backup and Restore
Vulnerability Validation		Data Export
Phishing Wizard		Evidence Collection
Web App Testing		Reporting
Persistent Sessions		Tagging Data

Architecture

By default, all the base files related to Metasploit Framework can be found under /usr/share/metasploit-framework in ParrotOS Security distro.

Data, Documentation, Lib are the base files for the Framework. The Data and Lib are the functioning parts of the msfconsole interface, while the Documentation folder contains all the technical details about the project.

The modules are seperated into categories in that folder:

anonmak9@htb[/htb]$ ls /usr/share/metasploit-framework/modules

auxiliary  encoders  evasion  exploits  nops  payloads  post

Plugins offer the pentester more flexibility when using the msfconsole since they can easily be manually or automatically loaded as needed to provide extra functionality and automation during our assessment.

anonmak9@htb[/htb]$ ls /usr/share/metasploit-framework/plugins/

aggregator.rb      ips_filter.rb  openvas.rb           sounds.rb
alias.rb           komand.rb      pcap_log.rb          sqlmap.rb
auto_add_route.rb  lab.rb         request.rb           thread.rb
beholder.rb        libnotify.rb   rssfeed.rb           token_adduser.rb
db_credcollect.rb  msfd.rb        sample.rb            token_hunter.rb
db_tracker.rb      msgrpc.rb      session_notifier.rb  wiki.rb
event_tester.rb    nessus.rb      session_tagger.rb    wmap.rb
ffautoregen.rb     nexpose.rb     socket_logger.rb

Scripts: Meterpreter functionality and other useful scripts.

anonmak9@htb[/htb]$ ls /usr/share/metasploit-framework/scripts/

meterpreter  ps  resource  shell

Tools: Command-line utilities that can be called directly from the msfconsole menu.

anonmak9@htb[/htb]$ ls /usr/share/metasploit-framework/tools/

context  docs     hardware  modules   payloads
dev      exploit  memdump   password  recon

Metasploit Framework Console

The MSFconsole is probably the most popular interface to the Metasploit Framework (MSF).

The features that msfconsole generally brings are the following:

• It is the only supported way to access most of the features within Metasploit

• Provides a console-based interface to the Framework

• Contains the most features and is the most stable MSF interface

• Full readline support, tabbing, and command completion

• Execution of external commands in msfconsole

To lanuch it we type msfconsole. We can add -q option to load it without the banner.

The MSF engagement structure can be divided into five main categories.

• Enumeration

• Preparation

• Exploitation

• Privilege Escalation

• Post-Exploitation

We will cover each components next.