We're going to make use of Hydra and this is a tool used by ethical hackers and security testers to crack passwords for various network services.
It's like a digital lock picker, but for online passwords with Hydra, you can quickly try loads of different passwords to break into different types of services like email, websites or databases.
It can crack over 40 different kinds of security protocols, including things like FTP, HTTP, and more. It was created back in 2000 by a group called the Hackers Choice, to show how network logins could be attacked.
One cool thing about Hydra is that it can try multiple passwords at once, making the process faster compared to trying them one by one. Now, Hydra isn't the only tool out there for this job. There's also John the Ripper, which works a bit differently while John works offline, meaning you need to have the password file on your computer.
Hydra works online, meaning it tries passwords directly against the target system. Please note that these article are all about learning and education. I don't endorse any illegal activities. Always make sure you have permission before you start poking around and trying to crack passwords.
You can watch the video here:
To install Hydra. It's super easy if you're using Kali Linux or Parrot OS because it's already there waiting for you. If you're on Ubuntu, you can get Hydra using the APT package manager. Just type in apt install Hydra. Mac users you're covered too.
Just head to homebrew and type brew install Hydra. If you're a windows user, things get a bit trickier. I'd suggest setting up a VirtualBox and installing Linux on it.
Trust me for professional penetration testing, Linux is the way to go. Windows can be a bit of a hassle in that world. Let's dive into how to use Hydra.
We'll cover the basics of brute forcing usernames and passwords using different methods like single attacks, password spraying, and dictionary attacks. Once you've got Hydra installed, you can kick things off with the help command Hydra Dash H.
This command will give you a rundown of all the flags and options available in Hydra, which you can refer to while working with it. Let's kick off with a straightforward attack using Hydra. If we know the username and password we want to test on a system, we can use Hydra for that.
Here's how it's done. For example, say we have a user called Molly with the password butterfly on a server located at this IP address. We want to test these credentials for SSH. Here's how we'd use Hydra if everything goes well.
Here's what the result will look like. If we have a password but aren't sure which user is using it. We can use a password spray attack to find out. Here's how it works. We take a single password and try it against a bunch of users. If anyone is using that password, Hydra will find the match for us.
First, we need a list of users. Let's say we create a file called users dot Txt with these users. Now to test who's using the password butterfly, we run a password spray attack using Hydra like this. Notice that we've used the flag dash capital L instead of dash lowercase l.
Lowercase l is for a single username, while capital L is for a list of usernames. If any of the users match with the given password, we'll get a similar result to this output. Let's dive into performing a dictionary attack, which is a common use case for Hydra in real world scenarios.
In a dictionary attack, we provide Hydra with a list of usernames and a password word list. Then Hydra tests each password from the word list against every user in the list.
For this example, I'll use the Rockyou word list along with the user's. Txt file we created earlier. If you're using Kali Linux, you can find the Rockyou wordlist at usr share slash Wordlists slash rockyou Txt.
Here's the command for a dictionary attack. If the attack is successful, we'll see a result. Similar to the other commands, Hydra will highlight the successful username password combinations in green for all the matches. When running large brute force attacks, Hydra can be pretty silent, but if we need to make sure it's doing its job, there are two flags we can use.
The verbosity dash v flag shows us each login attempt for every username password combination. It can get overwhelming with lots of combinations, but if you need it, it's there. Here's what the result looks like with verbosity.
You can see Hydra prints info about failed attempts along with the successful ones. Then there's the debug dash D flag, which gives us even more info. But it's a lot.
Here's the same result with debug mode. Hydra prints way more info than we need. We'll only use debug mode in rare cases, but it's good to know we have that option to watch every action Hydra takes during a brute force attack.
Let's talk about saving results when using Hydra. After all, there's no point spending hours cracking a password only to lose it due to a system crash. We can use the dash o flag followed by a filename to save the result. Here are some more handy flags and formats that you might use.
Instead of specifying the service separately, we can use it along with the IP address. For example, to brute force SSH. If a Hydra session crashes while an attack is in progress, we can resume it using the Dash R flag instead of starting from scratch. Sometimes system admins change the default ports for services.
For example, FTP might run on port 3000 instead of 21. In those cases, we specify ports using the dash s flag. What if we have multiple hosts to attack? Use the Dash M flag. The host File.txt will contain a list of IP addresses or hostnames instead of just one. If we have a specific set of username password combinations we want to test, we can prepare a custom list for Hydra.
For instance, we can create a list where each line contains a username and password separated by a semicolon like this. Then we use the flag C to tell Hydra to use these specific combinations instead of trying all possible combinations.
This can significantly speed up a brute force attack. It's crucial to understand how to defend against these attacks. Remember, we're the good guys. First off, setting strong passwords is crucial.
The stronger the password, the tougher it is for brute force techniques to crack it. Enforcing password policies like regular changes every few weeks adds another layer of defense. Unfortunately, many folks and businesses stick with the same passwords for years, leaving them wide open to brute force attacks.
Limiting authorization attempts is another effective tactic. If we lock out accounts after just a few failed login tries, brute force attacks become much less effective. You've probably seen this in action on platforms like Google and Facebook, where your account gets locked if you mess up your login too many times.
Finally, tools like reCAPTCHA can be a game changer since automation tools like Hydra can't solve CAPTCHAs like real humans can. Adding them to the login process can effectively thwart brute force attacks. Hydra is indeed a powerful tool to have in your pentesting arsenal. Its speed, flexibility, and modular architecture make it a go-to option for attacking services like SSH and FTP with support for parallelization.
Hydra can efficiently test multiple login attempts simultaneously, making it even more effective. Plus, its extensibility allows for the inclusion of new protocols and services, ensuring it stays relevant and adaptable in the ever evolving landscape of network security testing.
Overall, Hydra is a must have for any serious penetration tester. Thanks for learning! Like this article for more!