“Medusa” is a security tool for performing brute-force attacks on login credentials for a variety of protocols. It is designed to be fast, efficient, and modular, allowing for the use of multiple modules for different protocols.
Medusa is commonly used by security professionals for penetration testing, identifying and exploiting weaknesses in target systems. The tool can perform brute-force attacks on a range of protocols including SSH, FTP, HTTP, and SMB, among others.
The tool supports parallel brute-forcing, allowing multiple login attempts to be made simultaneously, speeding up the process. Medusa also supports various authentication mechanisms, including password authentication, public key authentication, and Kerberos authentication.
If you encounter the below error while running the command Medusa:
Medusa: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install medusa |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install medusa |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S medusa |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install medusa |
| Fedora | dnf install medusa |
| Raspbian | apt-get install medusa |
Medusa Command Examples
1. Execute brute force against an FTP server using a file containing usernames and a file containing passwords:
# medusa -M ftp -h host -U path/to/username_file -P path/to/password_file
2. Execute a login attempt against an HTTP server using the username, password and user-agent specified:
# medusa -M HTTP -h host -u username -p password -m USER-AGENT:"Agent"
3. Execute a brute force against a MySQL server using a file containing usernames and a hash:
# medusa -M mysql -h host -U path/to/username_file -p hash -m PASS:HASH
4. Execute a brute force against a list of SMB servers using a username and a pwdump file:
# medusa -M smbnt -H path/to/hosts_file -C path/to/pwdump_file -u username -m PASS:HASH