Researcher HD Moore today released the second beta of Metasploit Framework 3.0 Beta 2, which fixes bugs in the previous beta release and comes with new features for the vulnerability-finding tool. (See Metasploit 3.0 Makes Splash at Black Hat.)

This release is geared mostly for developers building modules and plug-ins for Metasploit, as well as early adopters. The final Metasploit 3.0 release, due by the end of the year, will contain more refinements and be even more user-friendly for researchers and penetration testers, says Moore, who heads up the Metasploit Project.

The new beta repaired a bug that prevented many modules from working on Windows, as well as a handful of other glitches. Among the new features of Metasploit 3.0 is one that lets researchers use a single Metasploit exploit for multiple targets. "Previously, you would need to select the specific exploit for the type of system you were going to attack," Moore says. "Now you can write things like browser exploits, where you don't know the operating system or architecture of the target until the client connects."

And the new auxiliary module enhancement feature lets developers build modules that work on multiple types of hosts simultaneously. "That's a big deal because it's the next step toward using the framework as a generic vulnerability assessment platform, which is a side goal of the 3.0 release," Moore says.

Moore says Metasploit is looking for feedback from developers and early adopters with beta versions of Metasploit 3.0.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading