Hydra (software)

Last updated
THC Hydra
Developer(s) THC
Stable release
9.4 / September 8, 2022;2 years ago (2022-09-08) [1]
Repository github.com/vanhauser-thc/thc-hydra
Written in C
Operating system Cross-platform
Platform Unix
Type Password cracking
License GNU General Public License (version 3 or later)
Website www.thc.org

Hydra (or THC Hydra) is a parallelized network login cracker built into various operating systems like Kali Linux, Parrot and other major penetration testing environments. [2] It was created as a proof of concept tool, for security researchers to demonstrate how easy it can be to crack logins. Hydra works by using different approaches, such as brute-force attacks and dictionary attacks, in order to guess the right username and password combination. Hydra is commonly used by penetration testers together with a set of programmes like crunch, [3] cupp [4] etc, which are used to generate wordlists based on user-defined patterns.

Contents

Functionality

Hydra can launch attacks on multiple targets at once using threads, called hydra heads. The tool keeps track of the threads using another structure, the hydra brain. Each target is attacked using a module that corresponds to a protocol(eg. if the target is an SSH server, the SSH module is used).

Supported protocols

Hydra supports many common login protocols like forms on websites, FTP, SMB, POP3, IMAP, MySQL, VNC, SSH, HTTP(S) and others. [5]

Related Research Articles

The Secure Shell Protocol is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution.

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data connections between the client and the server. FTP users may authenticate themselves with a plain-text sign-in protocol, normally in the form of a username and password, but can connect anonymously if the server is configured to allow it. For secure transmission that protects the username and password, and encrypts the content, FTP is often secured with SSL/TLS (FTPS) or replaced with SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

SOCKS is an Internet protocol that exchanges network packets between a client and server through a proxy server. SOCKS5 optionally provides authentication so only authorized users may access a server. Practically, a SOCKS server proxies TCP connections to an arbitrary IP address, and provides a means for UDP packets to be forwarded. A SOCKS server accepts incoming client connection on TCP port 1080, as defined in RFC 1928.

lsh is a copyleft implementation of the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol version 2, by the GNU Project including both server and client programs. Featuring Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) as specified in secsh-srp besides, public-key authentication. Kerberos is somewhat supported as well. Currently however for password verification only, not as a single sign-on (SSO) method.

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passwd is a command on Unix, Plan 9, Inferno, and most Unix-like operating systems used to change a user's password. The password entered by the user is run through a key derivation function to create a hashed version of the new password, which is saved. Only the hashed version is stored; the entered password is not saved for security reasons.

Secure copy protocol (SCP) is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local host and a remote host or between two remote hosts. It is based on the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. "SCP" commonly refers to both the Secure Copy Protocol and the program itself.

S/KEY is a one-time password system developed for authentication to Unix-like operating systems, especially from dumb terminals or untrusted public computers on which one does not want to type a long-term password. A user's real password is combined in an offline device with a short set of characters and a decrementing counter to form a single-use password. Because each password is only used once, they are useless to password sniffers.

The Berkeley r-commands are a suite of computer programs designed to enable users of one Unix system to log in or issue commands to another Unix computer via TCP/IP computer network. The r-commands were developed in 1982 by the Computer Systems Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley, based on an early implementation of TCP/IP.

Expect is an extension to the Tcl scripting language written by Don Libes. The program automates interactions with programs that expose a text terminal interface. Expect, originally written in 1990 for the Unix platform, has since become available for Microsoft Windows and other systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webmin</span> Web-based control panel for Unix-like systems

Webmin is a web-based server management control panel for Unix-like systems. Webmin allows the user to configure operating system internals, such as users, disk quotas, services and configuration files, as well as modify and control open-source apps, such as BIND, Apache HTTP Server, PHP, and MySQL.

A penetration test, colloquially known as a pentest, is an authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system; this is not to be confused with a vulnerability assessment. The test is performed to identify weaknesses, including the potential for unauthorized parties to gain access to the system's features and data, as well as strengths, enabling a full risk assessment to be completed.

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dSniff is a set of password sniffing and network traffic analysis tools written by security researcher and startup founder Dug Song to parse different application protocols and extract relevant information. dsniff, filesnarf, mailsnarf, msgsnarf, urlsnarf, and webspy passively monitor a network for interesting data. arpspoof, dnsspoof, and macof facilitate the interception of network traffic normally unavailable to an attacker. sshmitm and webmitm implement active man-in-the-middle attacks against redirected SSH and HTTPS sessions by exploiting weak bindings in ad-hoc PKI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BackTrack</span> Linux distribution

BackTrack was a Linux distribution that focused on security, based on the Knoppix Linux distribution aimed at digital forensics and penetration testing use. In March 2013, the Offensive Security team rebuilt BackTrack around the Debian distribution and released it under the name Kali Linux.


This is a comparison of notable free and open-source configuration management software, suitable for tasks like server configuration, orchestration and infrastructure as code typically performed by a system administrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenSSH</span> Set of computer programs providing encrypted communication sessions

OpenSSH is a suite of secure networking utilities based on the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, which provides a secure channel over an unsecured network in a client–server architecture.

Xplico is a network forensics analysis tool (NFAT), which is a software that reconstructs the contents of acquisitions performed with a packet sniffer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kali Linux</span> Debian-based Linux distribution for penetration testing

Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. The software is based on the Debian Testing branch: most packages Kali uses are imported from the Debian repositories. The tagline of Kali Linux and BackTrack is "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear", which is displayed on some backgrounds, see this example.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parrot OS</span> Debian-based Linux distribution

Parrot OS is a Linux distribution based on Debian with a focus on security, privacy, and development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kon-Boot</span> Password bypass software

Kon-Boot is a software utility that allows users to bypass Microsoft Windows passwords and Apple macOS passwords without lasting or persistent changes to system on which it is executed. It is also the first reported tool capable of bypassing Windows 10 online (live) passwords and supporting both Windows and macOS systems. It is also a widely used tool in computer security, especially in penetration testing. Since version 3.5 Kon-Boot is also able to bypass SecureBoot feature.

References

  1. "Releases · vanhauser-thc/thc-hydra". github.com. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  2. McNab, Chris (November 2011). Network Security Assessment: Know Your Network. O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 181. ISBN   978-0-596-51933-9.
  3. "Crunch | Kali Linux Tools".
  4. "CUPP - Common User Passwords Profiler". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  5. "Debian -- Details of package hydra in buster". packages.debian.org. Retrieved 2020-05-26.