hydra "0 of 1 target successfully completed, 0 valid passwords found" on authorized lab

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

That flat zero usually means hydra never really talked to the service: wrong module syntax, wrong port, or a failure string it misread. Verify the login manually first, then fix the module invocation, then re-run verbose so you can see what the server actually said on each attempt.

0 of 1 target successfully completed, 0 valid passwords found

Use this when

• Hydra completes cleanly against an authorized lab target but reports nothing, and you know at least one test credential should hit.
• You are unsure whether the problem is the target, the wordlists, or the command line.

Not for this skill when

• Hydra crashes or hangs. That is a different failure with its own fix.
• You are testing credentials you do not own against systems outside your scope. This skill is lab and authorized-engagement only.

Steps

1. Prove the service and a known-good credential manually first, with the real client or the login form in a browser. Verify: you have a confirmed working login before blaming hydra.
2. Run hydra verbose against that one known credential: hydra -l knownuser -p knownpass -V ssh://target/. Verify: -V shows per-attempt lines so you can see what the server returns.
3. For web form modules, confirm the failure string matches what the app actually returns on a bad login. Verify: the failure string you gave hydra appears verbatim in a manual bad-login response.
4. Drop parallelism to isolate the issue: -t 1 -w 30. Verify: the result is the same single-threaded, which rules out a race or a lockout.
5. Check the service banner and port: the ssh module pointed at a non-ssh port fails silently into zero results. Verify: the banner matches the module you chose.

Variant phrasings

hydra found no valid passwords but password is correct

The false-negative phrasing.

hydra 0 valid passwords http-post-form

Module-specific version of the same problem.

Compatibility: thc-hydra 9.x. The service://host/options module syntax is stable across recent versions.

Why it happens

Hydra decides success by matching server responses against expected patterns. A wrong module, a subtly wrong failure string, or a service that silently rate-limits all produce the same flat zero: hydra technically completed, it just never recognized a hit.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Lab apps that return HTTP 200 for both good and bad logins need the failure string to be exact. One wrong word and every attempt reads as failed.
• Account lockout policies on the lab target can turn an early attempt into a lockout that poisons the rest of the run. Check the lockout policy before a big wordlist.
• Never point hydra at credentials or systems outside the engagement scope. A zero-result run against the wrong target is still an unauthorized login attempt.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstb-hrj-jo63gdGIsAIYk_w

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstb-hrj-jo63gdGIsAIYk_w

Thread query: hydra "0 of 1 target successfully completed, 0 valid passwords found" on authorized lab

TL;DR: That flat zero usually means hydra never really talked to the service: wrong module syntax, wrong port, or a failure string it misread. Verify the login manually first, then fix the module invocation, then re-run verbose so you can see what the server actually said on each attempt.