Exploring post exploitation
Post exploitation is a phase in penetration testing where we have got limited (or full) access to our target system and now want to search for certain files or folders, dump user credentials, capture screenshots remotely, dump out the keystrokes from the remote system, escalate the privileges (if required), and try to make our access persistent.
In this section, we'll learn about Meterpreter, which is an advanced payload known for its feature-rich post-exploitation capabilities.
What is Meterpreter?
Meterpreter is an advanced extensible payload that uses an in-memory DLL injection. It significantly increases the post-exploitation capabilities of the Metasploit Framework. By communicating over the stager socket, it provides an extensive client-side Ruby API.
Some of the notable features of Meterpreter are as follows:
- Stealthy: Meterpreter completely resides in the memory of the compromised system and writes nothing to the disk....