Understanding the services command

The services command allows us to display the services running on the hosts. To view the help for the services command, we can use the -h option:

msf > services -h

Usage: services [-h] [-u] [-a] [-r <proto>] [-p <port1,port2>] [-s <name1,name2>] [-o <filename>] [addr1 addr2 ...]

  -a,--add          Add the services instead of searching
  -d,--delete       Delete the services instead of searching
  -c <col1,col2>    Only show the given columns
  -h,--help         Show this help information
  -s <name1,name2>  Search for a list of service names
  -p <port1,port2>  Search for a list of ports
  -r <protocol>     Only show [tcp|udp] services
  -u,--up           Only show services which are up
  -o <file>         Send output to a file in csv format
  -O <column>       Order rows by specified column number
  -R,--rhosts       Set RHOSTS from the results of the search
  -S,--search       Search string to filter by

Available columns: created_at, info, name, port, proto, state, updated_at

How to do it...

1. Using the search command without any options displays all the available services:

2. The services command allows us to filter the stored information with granularity, allowing us to search for a specific service name:

3. Search for a port number as follows:

4. Like the hosts command, we can use the -S option to search for specific strings:

5. By combining multiple options, you can search just a specific host and only display the columns you want:

In later chapters, we will address the remaining database commands, such as loot, creds, vulns, and notes.