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Table of Contents
Warnings ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Welcome ....................................................................................................................................... 4 About This Guide ........................................................................................................................ 5
Target Audience ................................................................................................................ 5 Organization ...................................................................................................................... 5 Document Conventions ...................................................................................................... 5 Support ............................................................................................................................. 6
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Warnings
Before installing Metasploit Express, please read the following information: Antivirus (AV) software such as McAfee, Symantec, and AVG will cause problems with installation and at run-time. You MUST disable your AV before installing and using Metasploit Express. Local firewalls, including the Windows Firewall, MUST be disabled in order to run exploits successfully. Alternatively, the "bind" connection type may be used, but some exploits still need to receive connections from the target host. The RPC service (:50505) on Metasploit Express runs as ROOT, so any Metasploit Express account has privileged access to the system on which it runs. In malicious hands, this can lead to system or network damage. Please protect the service accordingly. Metasploit Express is intended only for authorized users. Run Metasploit Express only on machines you own or have permission to test. Using this software for criminal activity is illegal and could result in jail time. Local firewalls, including the Windows Firewall, will need to be disabled in order to run exploits successfully. Alternatively, the "bind" connection type may be used, but some exploits still need to receive connections from the target host.
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Welcome
Metasploit Express is an easy-to-use penetration testing solution that provides network penetration testing capabilities, backed by the worlds largest fully tested and integrated public database of exploits. Built on feedback from the Metasploit user community, key security experts, and Rapid7 customers, Metasploit Express enables organizations to take the next step forward in security. Metasploit Express was designed for corporate security professionals, security consulting practices, and existing Metasploit users. If you already use the open-source Metasploit Framework to develop and test exploit code, you will appreciate the increased execution and browsing functionality of Metasploit Express. In addition to the capabilities offered by the open source framework, Metasploit Express goes above and beyond by delivering a full graphical user interface, automated exploitation capabilities, complete user action audit logs, customizable reporting, combined with an advanced penetration testing workflow. Metasploit Express is fully supported by Rapid7 security and support specialists in addition to the large and growing Metasploit community. Metasploit Express is a part of the Metasploit Project, the open-source penetration testing and development toolset for security professionals. The Metasploit Project was acquired by Rapid7 to continue the open-source community involvement, and to expand the projects capability and ease-of-use. Metasploit Express can be installed on Windows and Linux machines and runs on almost any web browser, or you can continue to use the command line interface.
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Target Audience
This User Guide is intended for IT and security professionals who wish to use Metasploit Express as their penetration testing solution.
Organization
This guide is divided into the following chapters: Warnings About This Guide Installing Metasploit Express Getting Started with Metasploit Express FAQs Index
Document Conventions
The following table lists the conventions and formats used within this guide.
Table 1: Document Conventions
Conventions
Command
Code
Title Note:
Description Text in this typeface indicates Metasploit Express buttons, options, features, and commands as well as filenames. For example, Click Forward to continue and Locate the Reports tab. Text in this typeface represents command line, file directory, or code. For example, chmod +x Desktop/metasploit-3.6.0-linux-x64installer. Text in this typeface refers to document, chapter, and section names. For example, For more information, see the Metasploit Express User Guide. Refers to additional information you may need to be aware of.
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Support
We are dedicated to delivering superior support for our products. Use the Customer Center to ask questions and get assistance for Metasploit Express. To log into the Customer Center, you will need to use the email and password you entered to create your account when you purchased Metasploit Express. The Customer Center can be accessed at the URL below: http://www.rapid7.com/customers/customer-login.jsp
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Supported Platforms
Windows XP SP2+ Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows 2003 Server SP1+ Windows 2008 RHEL 5 Ubuntu 8.08+
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6. Click Next to continue after you have read and accepted the Metasploit Express License Agreement. 7. Select a folder to install Metasploit Express. On the following screen, you can either choose to install Metasploit Express in the default c:\metasploit folder or click the folder icon to choose a different directory or hard drive. Please note that the directory you choose must be empty.
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8. Click Next after you have selected your destination directory. 9. Enter the SSL Port number. This will configure your Apache server for Secure Socket Layer (SSL). By default, Apache uses port 3790 for HTTPS. Click Next after you have entered a port number. Note: If the port you entered is open and responding to connections, then another process is already bound to it, and you will receive an error message that the installer was unable to bind to the port number. You can use netstat to determine if any process is listening on that port and kill the process, or you can just enter another port number such as 8080 or 442.
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10. If there is a conflict during the port configuration, a screen suggesting a different port for the Mongrel server, database server, or Apache Web server will appear. If the port suggested is in use, click Next, and you will be prompted to enter a new port. You will repeat this step until the issue is resolved. 11. Generate an SSL certificate by entering the domain name of your Web server in the Server Name field. This will enable the browser running the Metasploit Express Web client to match the information.
12. Enter the number of days the certificate will be valid in the Days of validity field. 13. Click Next to continue. Note: A firewall warning about the Apache HTTP server may appear. Accept the warning to continue. 14. A dialog will alert you that it is ready to install Metasploit Express on your computer. Click Next to install Metasploit Express and its bundled dependencies. The next screen will run the rest of the installer, which can take 20-25 minutes. The Setup dialog will show the installation progress, and you will not be prompted again until the installation is complete. When the installation is complete, you can start Metasploit Express immediately without restarting your computer. Click Finish to end the installation. 15. Click the Finish button when Metasploit Express has finished installing on your computer. At this point, you can choose to start Metasploit Express immediately without restarting your computer. After you have completed the installation process, you should go to the Creating a User Account section of this Installation Guide to create an account.
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7. Click Forward to continue. 8. Choose an installation folder for Metasploit Express. You can either choose the default folder provided or click the folder icon to select a different directory/hard drive.
9. Click Forward after you have selected your destination directory. Please note that the folder you select must be empty. 10. Select whether you want to install Metasploit Express as a service. It is highly recommended that you choose to install it as a service. This step will simple add an init script that will call $INSTALLERBASE/ctlscript.sh start at startup time.
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Please note that if the service script already exists, it will prompt you to provide a new name.
11. Click Forward after you have made your selection. 12. Enter the SSL port that you will use to access Metasploit Express in the SSL Port field. By default, Apache uses 3790 for HTTPS.
Figure 10:
SSL Port
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13. Click Forward to continue. 14. If there is a conflict during your port configuration, you will see a dialog that requests an alternative configuration for the service script, Mongrel server, Postgres database server, or Apache web server to use. You will be prompted to enter another port until the conflict is resolved. Please note that Metasploit Express can only be installed once on each PC, so make sure to uninstall before installing an alternative version. 15. Generate an SSL certificate by entering the domain name of your Web server in the Server Name field. This will enable the browser running the Metasploit Express Web client to match the information.
Figure 11:
SSL Certificate
16. Enter the number of days the certificate will be valid in the Days of validity field. 17. Click Forward to continue. 18. The next screen will run the rest of the installer, which will install all the bundled dependencies. This process can take 20-25 minutes. The Setup dialog will show the installation progress, and you will not be prompted again until the installation is complete.
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After you have completed the installation process, you should go to the Creating a User Account section of this Installation Guide to create an account.
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Figure 12:
Server Port
7. Enter the SSL port on which you will access Metasploit Express. By default, this port is 3790. 8. If there is a conflict during your port configuration, you will see a dialog that requests an alternative configuration for the service script, Mongrel server, Postgres database server, or Apache web server to use. You will be prompted to enter another port until the conflict is resolved. Please note that Metasploit Express can only be installed once on each PC, so make sure to uninstall before installing an alternative version. 9. Generate an SSL certificate by entering the domain name of your Web server so the browser running the Metasploit web client can match it. This can be in any name and does not need to be a fully qualified domain. Additionally, enter the number of days the certificate will be valid.
Figure 13:
SSL Certificate
10. The installation process will finish by installing all of the bundled dependencies. After you have completed the installation process, you should go to the Creating a User Account section of this Installation Guide to create an account.
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status of the Metasploit services. Additionally, if you chose to install Metasploit Express as a service, a symbolic link to the ctlscript.sh script will be placed in the /etc/init.d directory. To run the web client for Metasploit Express in Linux, browse to https://localhost:3790 (assuming the default SSL port was chosen).
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