22 October 2009, 12:18

Rapid7 acquires the Metasploit project

The US security firm Rapid7 has bought the Metasploit project. According to a posting by Sheldon Malm in the Rapid7 company blog, H.D. Moore, founder of the Metasploit project, now assumes the post of chief security officer at Rapid7 and will coordinate the further development of Metasploit by the existing team. The acquisition of course raises questions about Metasploit's ability to continue to supply impartial exploit information. Malm says "To the community: there is no reason to fear. H.D. and the rest of the Rapid7 team are committed to supporting The Metasploit Project as an open-source, community-based effort".

The Metasploit logo Metasploit is the best known and most comprehensive programming framework for developing exploits for vulnerabilities and is used by security researchers, penetration testers and black hat crackers alike.

Rapid7 has been active in the field of vulnerability, risk management and penetration testing since 2000. Their security experts have already identified a number of vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, in the Adobe Flash Player and in various anti-virus products.