The Metasploit Project is a computer security project that provides information about security vulnerabilities and aids in penetration testing and IDS signature development.
One of the sub-projects is Metasploit Framework, a tool for developing and executing exploit code against a remote target machine.
Metasploit Framework is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Command line interface.
- Third-party import.
- Manual exploitation.
- Manual brute forcing.
- A modular approach for exploiting a system using the framework:
- Optionally checking whether the intended target system is vulnerable to an exploit.
- Choosing and configuring an exploit (code that enters a target system by taking advantage of one of its bugs; about 900 different exploits for Windows, Unix/Linux and macOS systems are included).
- Choosing and configuring a payload (code that will be executed on the target system upon successful entry; for instance, a remote shell or a VNC server). Metasploit often recommends a payload that should work.
- Choosing the encoding technique so that hexadecimal opcodes known as “bad characters” are removed from the payload, these characters will cause the exploit to fail.
- Executing the exploit.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: www.metasploit.com
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Rapid7 LLC
License: BSD-style license (Metasploit Framework)
Metasploit is written in Ruby. Learn Ruby with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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