What Does Hydra's -t Option Control in an SSH Brute Force Attack?
A company recruited a penetration tester to brute force an SSH password on a server. The tester would like to use THC Hydra to perform the attack and remember the use of the -t option. Which of the following should be considered when using this option?
Community Votes
77% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Community Insight
The exam tests whether you know Hydra's -t limits concurrent connections per target, and the common trap is confusing it with the uppercase -T option, which controls overall parallel connections.
THC Hydra's -t option is a common source of confusion in penetration testing exams. This PT0-002 question verifies that -t controls the number of parallel connection attempts per target, not the overall task count, which is handled by -T.
Choosing option B ('The number of task connects in parallel overall') because test-takers often confuse lowercase -t with uppercase -T. Hydra's -T is the option that sets the total number of connections in parallel, especially when using multiple targets with -M.
Community Discussion (6 comments)
Comments & Corrections
No comments yet — spotted an error or have a note? Share it below.
Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
Hydra's built-in help clearly states: -t TASKS run TASKS number of connects in parallel per target (default: 16). When brute-forcing a single SSH server, the -t option controls how many parallel login attempts Hydra sends to that specific target. This is exactly what the question asks about.
Community comment [1], [2], and [3] all quote the official syntax and agree with option A. The Kali Tools Hydra page cited in comment [3] confirms the same definition.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option B is incorrect because the overall number of parallel connections across multiple hosts is set by the uppercase -T option, not lowercase -t. Comment [4] and [6] argue for B, but they overlook this distinction, which is a common mistake.
Option C is wrong because the waiting time for a response is controlled by -w (timeout), not by -t. Option D is wrong because toggling whether Hydra shows logins and passwords for each attempt relates to verbosity options like -v or -o, not the -t task count.
Community Comment Notes
High-voted comments [1], [2], and [3] each quote the -t vs -T syntax from the official Hydra documentation, making the correct answer clear. These comments are valuable because they cite the exact option definitions from the tool itself.
Comment [4] and [6] choose B, but their reasoning confuses task scheduling concepts. The community ultimately voted 77 to 23 in favor of A, and the official tool documentation supports that result.
Official Reference
Exam Strategy
For Hydra option questions, memorize the lowercase vs uppercase pairing: lowercase -t is tasks per target, uppercase -T is tasks overall. If the exam mentions a single target or asks what -t does, choose 'per target'; if it mentions multiple hosts via -M or says 'overall', choose -T.