HYDRA
NETWORK LOGIN BRUTE-FORCE TRAINING ENVIRONMENT
MODULE 02 — PASSWORD CRACKING · SSH · FTP
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OBJECTIVES

Read the target brief
Run a basic Hydra SSH attack
Use -t flag to tune threads
Crack the SSH password
Verify login with SSH command
Crack the FTP service too
Submit the pentest report
💻
Terminal
📖
Reference
📝
Notepad
📋
Report
HYDRA LAB
Terminal
Reference
Notepad
Report
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PHASE 1 — RECON
MISSION BRIEF

MISSION BRIEFING

BRUTE-FORCE CREDENTIAL ATTACK — APEX CORP

SCENARIO

You are a penetration tester who has been engaged by Apex Corp to assess the security of their development server. Intelligence gathered during recon suggests the server is running SSH and FTP with weak credentials. Your job is to use Hydra to brute-force both services and document the findings.

TARGET

PropertyValue
IP Address192.168.1.105
Hostnamedevbox.apexcorp.local
OSUbuntu 22.04 LTS
Open Ports22 (SSH), 21 (FTP)
Known Usernamedeveloper
Wordlist/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

PHASES

  • Phase 1 — Understand the target
  • Phase 2 — Run Hydra against SSH
  • Phase 3 — Tune performance with flags
  • Phase 4 — Verify the cracked credentials
  • Phase 5 — Attack the FTP service
  • Phase 6 — Document findings

HINTS

  • The basic Hydra syntax is: hydra -l [user] -P [wordlist] [ip] [service]
  • Use -t 4 to set 4 parallel threads for SSH
  • Once you crack SSH, verify with: ssh [email protected]
  • FTP uses the same username but a different password
  • Type help in the terminal for all commands
Display Mode
TERMINAL — attacker@kali:~$
┌──(attacker㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ # Hydra Brute-Force Lab — Target: 192.168.1.105
└─$ # Type "help" for available commands
┌──(attacker㉿kali)-[~]
└─$
REFERENCE — HYDRA BRUTE-FORCE
HYDRA SYNTAX
hydra -l <user> -P <wordlist> <target> <service>
hydra -l <user> -P <wordlist> -t <threads> <target> <service>
KEY FLAGS
FlagMeaning
-l usernameSingle username to try
-L userlistFile with multiple usernames
-p passwordSingle password to try
-P wordlistFile with many passwords
-t 4Number of parallel threads
-s portCustom port (default: service default)
-vVerbose — show all attempts
-VVery verbose — show each attempt live
-o fileWrite results to output file
-fStop after first found pair
SUPPORTED SERVICES
ServiceDefault Port
ssh22
ftp21
http-get80
smb445
rdp3389
mysql3306
EXAMPLE COMMANDS
Basic SSH attack
hydra -l developer -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt 192.168.1.105 ssh
SSH with 4 threads (recommended)
hydra -l developer -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt -t 4 192.168.1.105 ssh
FTP attack
hydra -l developer -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt 192.168.1.105 ftp
Verify SSH login after cracking
ssh [email protected]
SSH RATE LIMITING
SSH servers often throttle connections. Use -t 4 (not higher) to avoid getting locked out. Hydra will warn you if the server is rate-limiting.
NOTEPAD — FINDINGS SCRATCHPAD
PENTEST REPORT — CREDENTIAL BRUTE-FORCE
CAPTURED FLAGS
Copy the flag lines exactly as they appeared in the Hydra terminal output and paste them below.
Score: 0 / 2