Payloads and payload options

We can tell MSFvenom is one of the most versatile and useful payload-generation tools just by looking at the available payloads; the list proves that MSFvenom can help you get a session in almost any situation.

Getting ready

To start experimenting with msfvenom, launch a Terminal window, and use msfvenom –h or msfvenom --help to display the help menu.

How to do it...

1. Let's take a look at the available payloads, using the msfvenom command with the -l option:

root@kali:~# msfvenom -l payloads

Because the output of the command is too extensive to fit in this recipe, I will leave that for you to try out.

2. To generate a payload, we always need to use at least two options, -p and -f. The -p option is used to specify which payload to generate from all those available in the Metasploit Framework, in this example a bind shell via GNU AWK:

root@kali:~# msfvenom -p cmd/unix/bind_awk -f raw
No platform was selected, choosing Msf::Module::Platform::Unix from the payload
No Arch selected...