Metasploit

Metasploit is an open source penetration testing framework that lets security professionals find, exploit and validate vulnerabilities in systems. Written in Ruby it has a collection of tools for gathering info, scanning for vulns and executing exploits.

Key Insights

Metasploit is a full platform for developing and executing exploit code against targets. It’s modular so you can choose from a huge library of exploits, payloads and auxiliary modules to customize your penetration testing and security assessments.

Functionality

Metasploit has a huge database of exploit modules so you can simulate real world attacks. It supports multiple payloads like command shells and Meterpreter sessions so you can interact with compromised machines. Metasploit also has evasion techniques to get past security defenses and post exploitation tools to maintain access and gather more info.

Applications

Metasploit is used for security research, developing custom security tools and training. Being open source it encourages community contributions and keeps it relevant against new threats.

Known Variants

Metasploit itself is a framework not a single piece of malware but its components like Meterpreter have been used by threat actors. For example nation-state actors have used customized Meterpreter to establish command and control channels during attacks.

Mitigation Strategies

Keep systems up to date and patched.
Implement IDS/IPS to monitor for exploits.
Do security assessments regularly to find and fix weaknesses.
Limit penetration testing tools to authorized users only.

Targeted Industries or Sectors

Metasploit is used across many industries for legitimate security testing. But threat actors have also used it to target government, healthcare and finance sectors, to exploit vulnerabilities and get access to sensitive systems.

Associated Threat Actors

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups like nation-state actors have used Metasploit in their attacks. For example APT29 also known as Cozy Bear has used Metasploit modules in their cyber espionage campaigns.