The big happy family of Metasploit modules designed to turn your foothold into total compromise is called post modules. There are a few types of post module, but two primary subfamilies: gather and manage. First, let's draw a distinction between the post manage and post gather modules:

• The post manage modules are what I like to call compromise management tools. In other words, they allow us to manage the compromise we've accomplished, mainly by modifying features of the host.
• The post gather modules are just what they sound like: they allow us to gather information from the target that will inform further compromise. Pushing past the initial foothold will require more information; a full penetration of the target network is an iterative process. Don't expect to only do recon and footprinting once, at the beginning of the assessment – you'll be doing it again at your foothold.

We don't have enough room to dive into all of the post modules, but you'll always need to do some enumeration once you've cracked that outer shell. You need to understand where you are in the network, and what kind of environment you're in. So, let's take a look at some core enumeration with gather modules. 

For our example, we've just compromised a Vista Business machine on this LAN. We're about to discover that this machine has another NIC attached to a hidden network. Later in the chapter, we'll take a look at this scenario to demonstrate pivoting our way into that hidden network. For now, let's pillage the Vista box.