Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network, Revised Edition

CHAPTER 4

Exploit

At this point in the attack process, the attacker has canvassed the systems to find all of the points of weakness in one’s network and facilities. The attacker will weigh the pros and cons of each weakness to determine the most effective attack that will have the lowest risk involved. There are various styles of attacks that an attacker could use to this end. For many attackers, a successful intrusion means having an available cache of exploits to use at a moment’s notice. However, the major failure of such exploits is that each is written in a nonstandard format with differing interfaces and controls. Metasploit solves this issue by providing a standardized framework by which all exploits are executed in the same manner, making ...