Enumeration Task — Metasploitable 2

• Name: Mariam Mohamed
• Course: Cyber Security
• Task: Enumeration on Metasploitable 2
• Tools: Nmap, smbclient, smtp-user-enum, Netcat, SNMP scripts, Metasploit
• Date: 2026

Introduction to Enumeration

Enumeration is the process of actively gathering detailed information about a target system after discovering that it is reachable. Unlike simple scanning, enumeration focuses on identifying specific services, users, shares, configurations, and other information exposed by the target.

Enumeration is an important step in cybersecurity because the information discovered during this phase can help security professionals understand the attack surface of a system and identify potential security weaknesses.

In this task, enumeration was performed against a Metasploitable 2 machine in a controlled lab environment using several tools, including Nmap, smbclient, smtp-user-enum, Netcat, and Metasploit. The main focus was on SMB, SMTP, and SNMP services.

Initial Port Scanning

Before starting the enumeration process, we first performed a port scan against the Metasploitable 2 machine. The purpose of this step was to identify which ports were open and which network services were running on the target.

Knowing the open ports helps us determine which services should be investigated further during the enumeration phase. In our case, we focused on services such as SMB, SMTP, and SNMP after identifying the corresponding open ports.

"These screenshots show the results of SMB enumeration using Nmap scripts (smb-enum-shares, smb-enum-users, smb-os-discovery). I discovered the target's operating system (Unix/Samba), an extensive list of system users (e.g., msfadmin, postgres, root), and the available SMB shares along with their permissions (e.g., anonymous access is allowed on tmp and opt)."

"This screenshot shows manual SMTP enumeration using Netcat to connect to port 25. By interacting directly with the mail server and issuing VRFY commands manually, I confirmed the existence of specific users based on the server's response codes (e.g., code 252 indicates a valid user, while 550 indicates an unknown user)."

Conclusion

This task provided practical experience with enumeration techniques against a Metasploitable 2 lab machine. Nmap, smbclient, smtp-user-enum, Netcat, and Metasploit were used to investigate SMB, and SMTP services.

The results demonstrated that enumeration can reveal valuable information about a target before any exploitation is attempted. Understanding these techniques is therefore important for both penetration testers and defenders when assessing and securing networked systems.