How to Hack Linux, Windows System/Server (Brute Force ssh) with Metasploit?

Brute force SSH attacks are becoming increasingly popular due to their low cost and ease of use. These attacks are often used to gain access to remote systems, and have been used to compromise many high profile targets including Sony Pictures Entertainment, the U.S. Department of State, and even the White House.

In order to perform brute force SSH attacks, we need to first understand how SSH works. SSH stands for Secure Shell Protocol, and is a protocol designed to provide secure communication between two computers over a network. In its simplest terms, SSH provides a way to securely log onto a computer using standard user accounts without having to know any passwords.

The basic steps involved in performing a brute force attack are as follows:

1. Find a target system

2. Attempt login credentials until successful

3. Repeat step 2 until unsuccessful

This method is extremely effective at gaining access to remote systems, however, it does not take into account the fact that some users may have strong passwords. If we were able to guess these passwords, then we could bypass the security measures provided by SSH and gain full control of the system.

To combat this issue, we can leverage tools like Metasploit to automate our brute force SSH attacks. Metasploit is a framework that contains various exploits and payloads that allow us to remotely execute code on vulnerable systems. We can use the Meterpreter module to perform brute force SSH attempts against systems and extract information about them.

Metasploit's Meterpreter module comes pre-loaded with several modules that can help us perform different types of attacks. One of these modules is called 'brute', which allows us to perform brute force SSH authentication attempts. To use this module, we simply need to specify the IP address of the target system, along with the username and password we want to attempt to authenticate with. Once we've specified these details, we can start the attack by running the following command:

msfconsole -r meterpreter --show options

We can now run the brute module to begin our brute force attack. When we do this, we'll be prompted for the IP address of the system we wish to attack. After entering the IP address, we'll be asked if we would like to use a username and password. We can choose either option, and after doing so, we'll be presented with a list of possible usernames and passwords. From here, we can select whichever username/password combination we'd like to try.

Once we've selected a username/password combination, we'll be given the opportunity to enter a number of tries before giving up. After we've entered the number of times we'd like to try, we're presented with a summary of what we've done. At this point, we can exit the module by pressing Ctrl+C.