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Hydra, a really useful tool for penetration testing.
June 14, 2022

Hydra, a really useful tool for penetration testing.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Hydra

We use Hydra in our organization to provide a penetration testing solution for several clients that need such a service. The tool is used in conjunction with some other penetration tools offered in Kali Linux virtual machines. The scope here is to test different client services with brute force (FTP, TLENE, SSH, etc.).
  • One of most important thing is that Hydra's ability to perform HTTP post form attacks.
  • The tool also can be used to attack a great number of protocols.
  • The source code of the tool/software is also available for others (so it is not a closed source one).
  • A good thing about this tool is also the support available and it also has a high ranking on GitHub (over 1000 stars).
  • It is not a straightforward tool to use, it needs certain dependencies to be installed so it can function as intended by its creators. This is one of the most important steps that need to be done while configuring the tool as one needs.
  • Sometimes the tool gives False Positives passwords.
  • There are some issues in the functionality of the tool itself (like some bugs, for example affecting the running and hanging process after a number of tries), but most of them have a solution and there is big community support for the tool.
  • One important feature is the high number of supported protocols (FTP, POP3, IMAP, SSH, VNC, etc.)
  • In regards to pricing, the tool is free to use.
  • The performance of the tool is very good (it is also fast) and also it is compatible with lots of devices.
  • It can be used to launch parallel brute force cracking attacks.
  • Our business objectives are accomplished using the tool as Hydra covers our needs for a free password cracking tool.
  • The tool is a free one that has a lot of advantages because it is a powerful one to use for the specific task of performing some activities that are related to penetration testing.
  • The services that our business provides for several clients in the field of penetration testing are at the level our customers are expecting.
There are many other tools similar to Hydra, one of them being "John the Ripper ". Notable differences are that while John the Ripper works offline, Hydra works online; also Hydra is more popular and with a wider usage as it supports Windows, Linux, and macOSX. An important thing is that both software are free to use, making both very useful tools. We can note that JTR has also a "pro" version that is not free to use and it is more optimized for speed and performance and focused on a specific operating system, while Hydra is free and offers all features at no cost.

Do you think Hydra delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Hydra's feature set?

Yes

Did Hydra live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Hydra go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Hydra again?

Yes

One scenario that fits well Hydra's ability is to test the strength of Drupal usernames and passwords. So, as an example, if we have a Drupal site at some HTTP web address, we could use lots of methods in order to collect a list with some valid users. After we create the list and also the list of some possible passwords we can try to initiate a Hydra brute force attack. Hydra for example is not suited for finding the vulnerabilities of a host, for this other solutions can be used.