Summary and exercises

In this chapter, we learned the basics of Metasploit and phases of penetration testing. We learned about the various syntax and semantics of Metasploit commands. We saw how we could initialize databases. We performed a basic scan with Metasploit and successfully exploited the scanned service. Additionally, we saw some basic post-exploitation modules that aid in harvesting vital information from the target.

If you followed correctly, this chapter has successfully prepared you to answer the following questions:

• What is Metasploit Framework?
• How do you perform port scanning with Metasploit?
• How do you perform banner-grabbing with Metasploit?
• How is Metasploit used to exploit vulnerable software?
• What is post-exploitation and how can it be performed with Metasploit?

For further self-paced practice, you can attempt the following exercises:

1. Find a module in Metasploit which can fingerprint services running on port 21.
2. Try running post-exploitation modules for keylogging, taking a picture of the screen, and dumping passwords for other users.
3. Download and run Metasploitable 2 and exploit the FTP module.

In Chapter 2, Identifying and Scanning Targets, we will look at the scanning features of Metasploit in depth. We will look at various types of services to scan, and we will also look at customizing already existing modules for service scanning.