It's probably safe to assume color support in terminals without linking against and checking with ncurses. diff -u -r ../thc-hydra-8.4/hydra.c ./hydra.c --- ../thc-hydra-8.4/hydra.c 2017-01-27 17:19:18.000000000 +0100 +++ ./hydra.c 2017-01-31 13:37:34.496298083 +0100 @@ -2622,10 +2622,6 @@ colored_output = 0; } } -#else - //don't want border line effect so disabling color output - //if we are not sure about the term - colored_output = 0; #endif if (debug)