Nikto alternatives

Arachni is framework written in Ruby with focus on evaluating the security of web applications. Typical users include security professionals and system administrators.

The tooling is free and open source. Besides Linux, it also runs on macOS and Microsoft Windows.

Wapiti is typically used to audit web applications.

This simple tool is a good option to test if advised HTTP headers are available on web application and websites. It can be used as a defensive measure during development, or offensive to find weaknesses in existing applications.

CMSeeK is a security scanner for content management systems (CMS). It can perform a wide range of functions starting from the detection of the CMS, up to vulnerability scanning. The tool claims to support over 100 different CMS tools, with extensive support for the commonly used ones like Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress.

The scans performed by CMSeeK include version detection. It can also do enumeration of users, plugins, and themes. This might be useful to see what users or components are available. The tool includes admin page discovery, file discovery, and directory listing. Anything that might be useful to a penetration test or security assessment, might be displayed.

JoomScan could be used to test your Joomla installation or during security assessments. As it has a primary focus on Joomla, it may provide better results than generic vulnerability scanners.

Tulpar is a vulnerability scanner that can be used to test new or existing web applications. In the former case, it could be helpful to test a new project before it is deployed into production. This could be done by the developer or a security professional. If some web application is already in production, then it might be a good tool to perform regular testing on known vulnerabilities. In this case, it is typically a pentester or security specialist that does the testing.

SQLMate is a tool to perform security assessments and vulnerability of web applications. It can discover admin panels of websites, which might be a way to break into a web application. It also has the option for dorking, which means it can find possible vulnerable targets to a particular attack.

Wfuzz is a fuzzing tool written in Python. Tools like Wfuzz are typically used to test web applications and how they handle both expected as unexpected input.

WhatWeb can be used stealthy and fast to determine what technologies are used on a particular website or web application. This process called fingerprinting can tell a lot about how it was build and possible weaknesses it might have. The tool can be used in different levels, from stealthy to very aggressive. This last one is useful in penetration tests or during development.

WordPress is still one of the most popular frameworks for websites. A variety of open source tools exist to assess the security of this content management system, and its themes and plugins.

WordPress is a popular choice among content management systems (CMS). Powering many websites and blogs, it is also a popular target. So regular updates and security testing can help to reduce the risk. WordStress can help with this testing.

Yasuo is a Ruby script that scans for vulnerable and exploitable third-party web applications. There are many remotely exploitable vulnerabilities for web applications and their front-end components. Yasuo helps to make it easier to scan for the weaknesses like remote code execution (RCE), SQL injections, and file inclusions.

ZAP is an intercepting proxy of web traffic. You will need to configure your browser to connect to the web application you wish to test through ZAP.

Note: Zed Attack Proxy, or ZAP, is also known as zaproxy.

Wig is a security tool to discover what particular software is for a web application or website. It can detect several Content Management Systems (CMS) and other administrative applications. This may be useful for those performing reconnaissance or information gathering, like during a penetration test of security assessment.

Tools like VHostScan are powerful to perform reconnaissance and discover configuration defaults. This can be useful during penetration tests or security testing, to see if a system has been stripped from default pages. If not, this tool might discover them and provide valuable information about the system.

This tool is a useful addition to the pentesting toolbox of security professionals. It can help discover and exploit any local file inclusion weakness in applications. Upon success, a reverse shell can be used to get access to the system.

Lynis is an open-source security auditing tool that is available since 2007 and created by Michael Boelen. Its primary goal is to evaluate the security defenses of systems running Linux or other flavors of Unix. It provides suggestions to install, configure, or correct any security measures.

OpenVAS is an open source vulnerability scanner that emerged from when Nessus became closed source in October of 2005.

Supported engines and tools:

• Nessus
• OpenVAS
• Nmap
• Nikto
• Medusa
• Qualys SSL labs
• SkipFish
• SSLyze
• testssl.sh
• ZAP

VulnWhisperer helps with the collection of vulnerability data and its reports. The goal of the tool is to make vulnerability data more actionable. It supports scans and data from products like Nessus, Qualys products, OpenVAS, and Tenable.io.

Damn Small Vulnerable Web (DWVW) is a deliberately vulnerable web application to test your exploitation skills. It provides developers and penetration testers a practice tool. For developers, it is good to see common mistakes and create more secure software. Pentesters will be able to improve vulnerability detection and improving their attacks. Hopefully with the end goal of achieving privilege escalation or unauthorized data retrieval.

Pompem is written in Python and helps pentesters to search public sources for vulnerability information and a related exploit.

Sources

• CXSecurity
• National Vulnerability Database
• PacketStorm security
• Vulners
• WPScan Vulnerability Database
• ZeroDay

SearchSploit is a small by OffensiveSecurity to search for exploits and related data in the exploit database (Exploit-DB). This may help penetration testers in their security assignments.

Vulnreport is a platform to deal with penetration test results. The tool formats them and provides actionable findings reports. The platform is strong in focusing on automation, to reduce the time spent by engineers.