Cracking FTP passwords

In this recipe, we will try and crack FTP passwords.

Cracking FTP passwords is a great way to both access the system through FTP and get the username and passwords against other systems and services. For this recipe, we will use hydra to test the system.

Getting ready

Let's ensure the following prerequisites:

• Your Kali machine is powered up
• Your Metasploitable machine is powered up
• Validate the IP address of the Metasploitable machine

How to do it...

Let's attempt to crack an FTP server passwords:

1. Let's start by logging into the Metasploitable machine and we will create a couple of users to test against:

cd
sudo useradd raj -p cinnamon -m 
sudo useradd penny -p monkey -m
sudo useradd leonard -p penny -m

2. Validate the IP address of the Metasploitable machine – in my case it is 192.168.56.104.

You have a username but not a password

In this section we will proceed having a known username but an unknown password:

1. Open a terminal window in Kali by clicking the icon. 
   

2. We will use a hydra...