I installed Kali Linux via VMware and did a full system upgrade:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get full-upgrade
As part of the upgrade postgresql upgraded from v11 to v12. I followed the instructions to finish this part of the upgrade:
pg_dropcluster 12 main --stop
pg_upgradecluster 11 main
pg_dropcluster 11 main
I start postgresql, initialize metasploit, and start Armitage:
/etc/init.d/postgresql start
msfdb init
armitage
The only console output appears unrelated:
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=on -Dswing.aatext=true
I do get the popup box with the connection information. I found that I get the "Unexpected end of file from server" if I use 'localhost' as the host, so - per their instructions - I change it to the external IP (in this case 192.168.9.134). I checked metasploit-framework/config/database.yml for the port and login credentials.
After clicking 'Connect' with this information I get a connection window stating:
Connecting to 192.168.9.134:5432 Connection refused (Connection refused)
There's also the progress bar that over time will completely fill up (unless I click 'Cancel'). After which nothing happens. As I run the command from the terminal I can see that the process is still running (I don't get my prompt back) but the window disappears and Armitage doesn't actually start. The log file, as verified by pg_lsclusters (/var/log/postgresql/postgresql-12-main.log) doesn't is actually empty.
The link I mentioned before suggests that the problem could either be not enough RAM (I set the VM to have 4gb and free -m shows):
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 3964 803 2677 29 483 2787
Swap: 4093 0 4093
Or that the Metasploit RPC daemon never started (that window does come up the first time, but not subsequent times). I verified that it's running via msfdb status:
● postgresql.service - PostgreSQL RDBMS Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/postgresql.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: active (exited) since Fri 2020-02-07 16:06:52 EST; 19min ago Process: 1753 ExecStart=/bin/true (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 1753 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Feb 07 16:06:52 kali systemd1: Starting PostgreSQL RDBMS... Feb 07 16:06:52 kali systemd1: Started PostgreSQL RDBMS.
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME postgres 1735 postgres 3u IPv6 32516 0t0 TCP localhost:5432 (LISTEN) postgres 1735 postgres 4u IPv4 32517 0t0 TCP localhost:5432 (LISTEN)
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY STAT TIME CMD postgres 1735 1 0 16:06 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/postgresql/12/main -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf
[+] Detected configuration file (/usr/share/metasploit-framework/config/database.yml)
Also, running regular Metasploit appears to work fine (msfconsole) and loads without error (not sure if there's any output that would be helpful here). I don't use postgresql directly, so I haven't messed with any configuration nor do I have any other applications (that I'm aware of) that use it, so it should be a pretty clean setup (not to mention this is a fresh install of Kali Linux). I'm out of ideas for what to check next. An online search didn't seem to match this problem well. Any thoughts?
