Categories: Password Attacks

Online Password Bruteforce with Hydra-GTK

Hydra (better known as “thc-hydra”) is an online password attack tool. It brute forces various combinations on live services like telnet, ssh, http, https, smb, snmp, smtp etc. Hydra supports 30+ protocols including their SSL enabled ones. It brute forces on services we specify by using user-lists & wordlists. Hydra works in 4 modes:

  • One username & one password
  • User-list & One password
  • One username & Password list
  • User-list & Password list

Pentesters use this tool to test/audit the password complexity of live services mostly where direct sniffing is not possible. We discuss th gui of the tool in the following tutorial. In future, the command line mode will be discussed.

Hydra Homepage: https://www.thc.org/thc-hydra/

Options

You can open xHydra from the Kali linux menu or terminal.

Target Settings

Target- Settings of various target oprions

Passwords – Specify password options & wordlists

Tuning – Secify how fast should hydra work. Other timing options are also available.

Specific – For testing on specific targets like a domain, https proxy etc.

Start – Start/Stop & shows the output.

Lab 1: Breaking an ssh with wordlist attack – Hydra

In this lab we try to break an ssh authentication on a remote has who has IP address 192.168.0.103. Here we do a wordlist attack by using a wordlist containing most common passwords to break into the root account.

Step 1: Open thc-hydra

Step 2: Set Target & protocol in the target tab.<here 192.168.0.103><use your target>

Setting the Target

Step 3: Set the username as root & specify the location for a wordlist in passwords tab.

Note: Kali Linux comes with built-in wordlists. Search them using the command: locate *.lst in terminal.

command: locate *.lst

Other wide ranges of wordlist ranging up to 3GB or more are available on the internet. Just google for 5 minutes.

Setting Password Options

Step 4: Set no of tasks to 1 in tuning tab since this will reduce congestion & chance of detection. But takes longer to complete. This is also necessary to mitigate account lockout duration.

Tuning Options

Step 5: Start the thc-hydra from Start tab.

Starting the Attack

Step 6: Scroll Down & Wait until the password gets cracked

Password Logged in UI of Hydra
Ravi Sankar

Recent Posts

git fetch vs git pull: How They Work and When to Use Each

Both git fetch and git pull talk to a remote repository, but they do very different things to your…

5 days ago

git cherry-pick Command: Apply Commits from Another Branch

Sometimes the change you need already exists, just on the wrong branch. A hotfix lands…

5 days ago

Best Email APIs for Secure Business Email: Why Developers Are Moving Beyond SMTP

Email is still one of the most important communication channels inside modern applications. Password resets,…

6 days ago

Nginx Commands in Linux: Start, Stop, Reload, Test, and Log

Nginx is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy trusted by some of the largest…

1 week ago

ufw Command in Linux: Manage Firewall Rules with Examples

ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) sits on top of iptables (or nftables on newer systems) and replaces…

1 week ago

who Command in Linux: Show All Logged-In Users and Sessions

When you share a server with a team or investigate unexpected activity, the first question…

1 week ago