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Medusa

Official Documentation: https://www.kali.org/tools/medusa/

Cheat Sheet: Medusa Commands

Purpose

Medusa is a parallel, modular login brute-forcer similar to Hydra, designed for speed and flexibility across many protocols.

Scenarios

  • CTF: Rapidly test credentials against services in lab environments.
  • Real world: Use in authorized penetration tests for credential stuffing or multi-service testing.

All needed info to run

  • Target service and module (e.g., ssh, ftp, http).
  • Username/password lists.
  • Common flags:
  • -h <host> → target host
  • -U <userlist> → usernames file
  • -P <passlist> → passwords file
  • -M <module> → module/service name (e.g., ssh)
  • -t <threads> → concurrent threads
  • -f → stop on first found login
  • Check medusa -H for module list and syntax details.

Example commands & outputs

# SSH brute-force with medusa
$ medusa -h 192.168.56.101 -U users.txt -P passwords.txt -M ssh -t 8 -f
# Output snippet:
# SUCCESS: 192.168.56.101:22 ssh - login: root password: toor123

# FTP example
$ medusa -h 192.168.56.101 -U users.txt -P passwords.txt -M ftp

Medusa Basics

  • Medusa is fast and parallel — set -t carefully to avoid overwhelming targets.
  • Use -f to stop after a success and save time.
  • Modules differ in argument requirements; check medusa module docs.
  • Only use Medusa on authorized targets and be mindful of lockouts.

Medusa Commands