web server scanner

Home / Website hacking / web server scanner - Nikto

web server scanner - Nikto

Posted by Deepanker Verma Friday, September 7, 2012 0 comments

web server scanner

Nikto is an open source web server scanner. Nikto is use to perform comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items and vulnerable scripts, including over 6400 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, checks for outdated versions of over 1000 servers, and version specific problems on over 270 servers.

It also checks for server configuration items such as the presence of multiple index files, HTTP server options, and will attempt to identify installed web servers and software. Scan items and plugins are frequently updated and can be automatically updated.

Nikto is not designed as an overly stealthy tool. It will test a web server in the quickest time possible, and is fairly obvious in log files. However, there is support for LibWhisker's anti-IDS methods in case you want to give it a try (or test your IDS system). Not every check is a security problem, though most are. There are some items that are "info only" type checks that look for things that may not have a security flaw, but the webmaster or security engineer may not know are present on the server. These items are usually marked appropriately in the information printed. There are also some checks for unknown items which have been seen scanned for in log files.

Nikto is written by Chris Sullo and David Lodge.

Fatures:
Here are some of the major features of Nikto. See the documentation for a full list of features and how to use them.

Full HTTP proxy support
SSL Support (Unix with OpenSSL or maybe Windows with ActiveState's

Perl/NetSSL)
Checks for outdated server components
Save reports in plain text, XML, HTML, NBE or CSV
Template engine to easily customize reports
Scan multiple ports on a server, or multiple servers via input file (including nmap output)
LibWhisker's IDS encoding techniques
Easily updated via command line
Identifies installed software via headers, favicons and files
Host authentication with Basic and NTLM
Subdomain guessing
Apache and cgiwrap username enumeration
Mutation techniques to "fish" for content on web servers
Scan tuning to include or exclude entire classes of vulnerability
checks
Guess credentials for authorization realms (including many default id/pw combos)
Authorization guessing handles any directory, not just the root
directory
Enhanced false positive reduction via multiple methods: headers,
page content, and content hashing
A "single" scan mode that allows you to craft an HTTP request by
hand
Reports "unusual" headers seen
Interactive status, pause and changes to verbosity settings
Logging to Metasploit
Thorough documentation