, 2007-03-27
The Metasploit Framework is a development platform for creating security tools and exploits. Federico Biancuzzi interviewed H D Moore to discuss what's new in release 3.0, the new license of the framework, plans for features and exploits development, and the links among the bad guys and Metasploit and the law.
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Fear? Yep. A vendor can scare you by demonstrating that your firewall isn't working, or the likes.
Uncertainty? Hardly. An exploit demonstrated by Metasploit is more tangible than anything else you'll see. It also lets you test noncommercial alternatives like changing firewall rules or inserting an IPS: plug in your countermeasures and rerun Metasploit.
Doubt? Again, ignorance is only bliss until you get hacked. Being able, via metasploit, to do deeper tests against a published/detected vulnerability lets you confirm or disprove your vulnerability.
Looking back over years of doing this, I can see times when I was too paranoid and times when I had wide-open vulnerabilities. The discovery of these usually involved tools like metasploit and nessus and ethereal. I never had too much time or too much knowledge.
When a vendor walks in and says 'Buy my $10,000 widget because X'... yawn.
When a vendor walks in and says 'Lookie lookie, Metasploit can cut thru your security setup like a hot knife thru butter, but we can secure against all these', I have *2* reactions. First, I say 'tell me more...', and second, I make a note to myself 'hmm... metasploit'.
If you pay attention to their secondary tools, watching some vendors is almost as educational as a good security training course.
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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/439/34470#34470