Prior to defining the module to be run, Metasploit needs to be opened:
- To open Metasploit in Kali Linux, we use the msfconsole command in a Terminal session, as follows:
- To run the UDP sweep module in Metasploit, we call the use command with the relative path of the auxiliary module. Once the module has been selected, the show options command can be used to identify and/or modify scan configurations. This command will display four column headers to include: Name, Current Setting, Required, and Description. The Name column identifies the name of each configurable variable. The Current Setting column lists the existing configuration for any given variable. The Required column identifies whether a value is required for any given variable. The Description column describes the function of each variable. The value for any given variable can be changed using the set command and by providing the new value as an argument:
- In the example provided, the RHOSTS value was changed to the IP address of the remote system that we wish to scan. Additionally, the number of threads has changed to 20. The THREADS value defines the number of concurrent tasks that will be performed in the background. Determining thread values consists of finding a good balance that will noticeably improve the speed of the task without overly depleting system resources. For most systems, 20 threads is a fast and reasonably safe number of concurrent processes. After the necessary variables have been updated, the configurations can be verified using the show options command again. Once the desired configurations have been verified, the scan can be launched, as follows:
- The run command is used in Metasploit to execute the selected auxiliary module. In the example provided, the run command executed a UDP sweep against the specified IP address. The udp_sweep module can also be run against a sequential series of addresses using dash notation:
- In the example provided, a UDP scan was performed against ten host addresses that were specified by the RHOSTS variable. Similarly, RHOSTS can be used to define a network range using the CIDR notation, as follows:
