HYDRA
Introduction to hydra
Hydra is a network logon cracker that is incredibly fast and compatible with many different services. It is a multi-pronged login cracker that operates in simultaneously. It is also very flexible and quick, and it is easy to add new modules. Researchers and security professionals can use this application to show how easy it would be to gain unauthorized remote access to a system.
What is Hydra?
Hydra is a quick and flexible password-cracking program that’s frequently used in ethical hacking and penetration testing. It focuses on brute-force and dictionary assaults, which test a variety of login and password combinations in an attempt to log into services and protocols.
Key Features of Hydra:
Multi-Protocol Support: Hydra supports a wide range of network protocols, including but not limited to:
- SSH
- FTP
- HTTP/HTTPS (web forms)
- RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)
- SMB (Windows shares)
- MySQL/PostgreSQL databases
- POP3/IMAP (Email services)
- Telnet
- Brute-Force and Dictionary Attacks: Hydra uses wordlists, which are dictionaries of potential usernames and passwords, or brute-force, which involves methodically trying every conceivable combination, to try to guess usernames and passwords.
- Parallel Processing: Hydra is much faster than single-threaded brute-force tools since it can launch many attacks at once (using multiple threads).
- Customizable Requests: Hydra can be set up to modify HTTP methods, login forms, and other headers to fit the needs of the application being tested while attacking online applications.
Use Cases for Hydra:
- Penetration Testing: To test the robustness of authentication procedures and find weak passwords on services like SSH, FTP, RDP, and others, ethical hackers utilize Hydra.
- Security Auditing: By mimicking these kinds of threats, Hydra helps IT professionals make sure their systems are safe from password-based assaults.
• Red Team Operations: During red team engagements, Hydra is used to attempt common or guessable credentials in order to obtain illegal access to accounts.
How to use Hydra
A well-liked and effective tool for brute-force password attacks on a variety of protocols and services is Hydra. Penetration testers and ethical hackers frequently use it to evaluate the security of authentication systems. Here is a simple Hydra usage guide:
To guess Password for specific username
You can use a list of passwords to brute force the host’s FTP service credentials if you have the correct username but can’t remember the password.
hydra -L /root/pass.list -P /root/pass.list192.168.177.130 ftp
Here -l option is for username -P for password lists and host ip address for ftp service.
To guess username for specific password
Your password may not be working even though you know what username to use. Assume you know the password to a certain FTP account. You can utilize wordlists of legitimate usernames to brute force the field and find the right one. You can supply user wordlists with the -L option, and you can specify a password with the -p option.
hydra -L user.1.txt -P pass.txt 192.168.177.130 ftp
Verbose and Debug Mode
The -V option activates verbose mode, which shows the login+pass combination for every attempt. In this instance, the brute force attack entailed generating every possible login and password combination, and verbose mode showed each attempt. User.1.txt and pass.txt were the two wordlists I had.
hydra -L user.1.txt -P pass.txt 192.168.177.130 ftp -V
This mode is now activated using the -d option. Every element of the assault is shown, including the socket, PID, RECV, wait time, and conwait.
hydra -L user.1.txt -P pass.txt 192.168.177.130 ftp -d
-d option enabled debug mode which, as shown displayed complete detail of the attack.
NULL/Same as Login or Reverse login Attempt
Hydra will proceed with brute-forcing three more passwords when the -e option is used. The username’s null, same, and reverse are represented by the symbols [n], [s], and [r], respectively. The screenshot shows how the null option is verified first, then the same choice, and lastly the reverse while brute-forcing the password field. and then the list I’ve provided.
hydra -L user.1.txt -P pass.txt 192.168.177.130 ftp -V -e nsr
HTTP Login Form Brute Force
The hydra form can be used to brute-force basic web-based login forms that use GET or POST requests to retrieve username and password variables. For testing, I used the dvwa (damn vulnerable web application) login page. This page uses the POST method because I’m providing some data
hydra -L user.1.txt -P user.txt 192.168.177.130 http-post form “/dvwa/login.php:username=^USER^&password=^PASS^&Login=Login:Login failed”
