POP3 Banner Grabber - Metasploit


This page contains detailed information about how to use the auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

Table Of Contents
hide

Module Overview

Name: POP3 Banner Grabber
Module: auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version
Source code: modules/auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version.rb
Disclosure date: -
Last modification time: 2017-07-24 06:26:21 +0000
Supported architecture(s): -
Supported platform(s): -
Target service / protocol: -
Target network port(s): 110
List of CVEs: -

POP3 Banner Grabber

Module Ranking and Traits

Module Ranking:

  • normal: The exploit is otherwise reliable, but depends on a specific version and can't (or doesn't) reliably autodetect. More information about ranking can be found here.

Basic Usage

This module is a scanner module, and is capable of testing against multiple hosts.

msf > use auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version
msf auxiliary(pop3_version) > show options
    ... show and set options ...
msf auxiliary(pop3_version) > set RHOSTS ip-range
msf auxiliary(pop3_version) > exploit

Other examples of setting the RHOSTS option:

Example 1:

msf auxiliary(pop3_version) > set RHOSTS 192.168.1.3-192.168.1.200

Example 2:

msf auxiliary(pop3_version) > set RHOSTS 192.168.1.1/24

Example 3:

msf auxiliary(pop3_version) > set RHOSTS file:/tmp/ip_list.txt

Required Options

  • RHOSTS: The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'

Knowledge Base

Description

This module identifies the version of POP3 in use by the server based on the server's banner. Any POP3 sever should return this information.

Vulnerable Application

Install Dovecot on Kali Linux:

With this install, we'll only install POP3 for dovecot, as the other protocols are not required. However, this is unrealistic in a production environment.

  1. sudo apt-get install dovecot-pop3d
  2. /etc/init.d/dovecot start

Verification Steps

  1. Do: use auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version
  2. Do: set rhosts [ips]
  3. Do: run

Scenarios

Dovecot 2.3.2 (582970113) on Kali

  msf5 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > use auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version
  msf5 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > set rhosts 10.168.202.216
  msf5 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > run

  [+] 10.168.202.216:110    - 10.168.202.216:110 POP3 +OK Dovecot (Debian) ready.\x0d\x0a
  [*] 10.168.202.216:110    - Scanned 1 of 1 hosts (100% complete)
  [*] Auxiliary module execution completed

Go back to menu.

Msfconsole Usage

Here is how the scanner/pop3/pop3_version auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:

msf6 > use auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version

msf6 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > show info

       Name: POP3 Banner Grabber
     Module: auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version
    License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
       Rank: Normal

Provided by:
  hdm <[email protected]>

Check supported:
  No

Basic options:
  Name     Current Setting  Required  Description
  ----     ---------------  --------  -----------
  RHOSTS                    yes       The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
  RPORT    110              yes       The target port (TCP)
  THREADS  1                yes       The number of concurrent threads (max one per host)

Description:
  POP3 Banner Grabber

Module Options

This is a complete list of options available in the scanner/pop3/pop3_version auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > show options

Module options (auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version):

   Name     Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----     ---------------  --------  -----------
   RHOSTS                    yes       The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
   RPORT    110              yes       The target port (TCP)
   THREADS  1                yes       The number of concurrent threads (max one per host)

Advanced Options

Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the scanner/pop3/pop3_version auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > show advanced

Module advanced options (auxiliary/scanner/pop3/pop3_version):

   Name                 Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----                 ---------------  --------  -----------
   CHOST                                 no        The local client address
   CPORT                                 no        The local client port
   ConnectTimeout       10               yes       Maximum number of seconds to establish a TCP connection
   Proxies                               no        A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
   SSL                  false            no        Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
   SSLCipher                             no        String for SSL cipher - "DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA" or "ADH"
   SSLVerifyMode        PEER             no        SSL verification method (Accepted: CLIENT_ONCE, FAIL_IF_NO_PEER_CERT, NONE, PEER)
   SSLVersion           Auto             yes       Specify the version of SSL/TLS to be used (Auto, TLS and SSL23 are auto-negotiate) (Accepted: Auto, TLS, SSL23, SSL3, TLS1, TLS1.1, TLS1.2)
   ShowProgress         true             yes       Display progress messages during a scan
   ShowProgressPercent  10               yes       The interval in percent that progress should be shown
   VERBOSE              false            no        Enable detailed status messages
   WORKSPACE                             no        Specify the workspace for this module

Auxiliary Actions

This is a list of all auxiliary actions that the scanner/pop3/pop3_version module can do:

msf6 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > show actions

Auxiliary actions:

   Name  Description
   ----  -----------

Evasion Options

Here is the full list of possible evasion options supported by the scanner/pop3/pop3_version auxiliary module in order to evade defenses (e.g. Antivirus, EDR, Firewall, NIDS etc.):

msf6 auxiliary(scanner/pop3/pop3_version) > show evasion

Module evasion options:

   Name                Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----                ---------------  --------  -----------
   TCP::max_send_size  0                no        Maxiumum tcp segment size.  (0 = disable)
   TCP::send_delay     0                no        Delays inserted before every send.  (0 = disable)

Go back to menu.

Error Messages

This module may fail with the following error messages:

Error Messages

Check for the possible causes from the code snippets below found in the module source code. This can often times help in identifying the root cause of the problem.

<IP>:<RPORT> - The service failed to respond

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "<IP>:<RPORT> - The service failed to respond" error message:

27:	      banner_sanitized = Rex::Text.to_hex_ascii(banner.to_s)
28:	      print_good("#{ip}:#{rport} POP3 #{banner_sanitized}")
29:	      report_service(:host => rhost, :port => rport, :name => "pop3", :info => banner)
30:	    rescue ::Rex::ConnectionError
31:	    rescue ::EOFError
32:	      print_error("#{ip}:#{rport} - The service failed to respond")
33:	    rescue ::Exception => e
34:	      print_error("#{ip}:#{rport} - #{e} #{e.backtrace}")
35:	    end
36:	  end
37:	end

Go back to menu.

Go back to menu.

See Also

Check also the following modules related to this module:

Authors

hdm

Version

This page has been produced using Metasploit Framework version 6.2.29-dev. For more modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

Go back to menu.