Recon-ng alternatives
Looking for an alternative tool to replace Recon-ng? During the review of Recon-ng we looked at other open source tools. Based on their category, tags, and text, these are the ones that have the best match.
Top 3
- OSINT-SPY (open source intelligence gathering tool)
- Wappalyzer (discovery of technology stack)
- Infoga (email information gathering)
These tools are ranked as the best alternatives to Recon-ng.
Alternatives (by score)
OSINT-SPY
Introduction
OSINT-SPY is a modular tool to query information on different subjects like an IP address, domain, email address, or even Bitcoin address. This tool can be valuable during the reconnaissance phase of a penetration test. It can be used also for defenses purpose, like learning what information is publically available about your organization and its assets.
Project details
OSINT-SPY is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code is easy to read and understand
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
- Penetration testing
- Reconnaissance
Wappalyzer
Introduction
Wappalyzer can be a useful asset when performing reconnaissance on a particular target like a web application or website. It helps to find what software is used to run a particular page. Components that can be detected are the content management system (CMS), JavaScript framework, e-commerce software, web server, and more.
Project details
Wappalyzer is written in Node.js.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Has 300+ contributors
- + More than 4000 GitHub stars
- + Many releases available
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
- Reconnaissance
- Software identification
Infoga
Introduction
This tool could be used during penetration testing to learn what information is leaked regarding email addresses. For a company, it may be useful to do security monitoring and learn the same.
Project details
Infoga is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
- Reconnaissance
Domain Analyzer
Introduction
Domain Analyzer is an information gathering tool and comes in handy for reconnaissance. This can be useful for doing penetration testing or evaluating what information is publically available about your own domains. Some pieces of information that can be discovered include DNS servers, IP addresses, mail servers, SPF information, open ports, and more.
Project details
Domain Analyzer is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 1000 GitHub stars
- + Very low number of dependencies
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
- Penetration testing
Intrigue Core
Introduction
Intrigue Core provides a framework to measure the attack surface of an environment. This includes discovering infrastructure and applications, performing security research, and doing vulnerability discovery.
Intrigue also allows enriching available data and perform OSINT research (open source intelligence). The related scans include DNS subdomain brute-forcing, email harvesting, IP geolocation, port scanning, and using public search engines like Censys, Shodan, and Bing.
Project details
Intrigue Core is written in Ruby.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- OSINT research
- Asset discovery
- Attack surface measurement
- Intelligence gathering
- Penetration testing
- Security assessment
Sandmap
Introduction
Where Nmap is a powerful tool, it comes with many bells and whistles. Sandmap helps with the automation of using the Nmap engine, making it more user-friendly interface. It simplifies, automates, and speeds up the scanning, while still using the advanced scanning techniques available.
Project details
Sandmap is written in shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Used language is shell script
Typical usage
- Reconnaissance
Gitem
Introduction
Gitem is a reconnaissance tool to extract information about organizations on GitHub. It can be used to find the leaking of sensitive data.Project details
Gitem is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
- Security assessment
- Security monitoring
- Self-assessment
detectem
Introduction
Detectem can be a good early vulnerability detection system. By scanning regularly the dependencies of web applications, old versions of tools can be detected and upgraded. This tool is also helpful for penetration tests to find out what kind of software components are used.
Project details
detectem is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Application security
- Application testing
- Reconnaissance
- Vulnerability scanning
Gitmails
Introduction
This tool can be used to perform reconnaissance on a company or individual target by looking into software repositories. Meta-data like commit activity can reveal who is working for a particular company. This tool helps to extract emails from software repositories.
Project details
Gitmails is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Very low number of dependencies
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Email harvesting
- Information gathering
- Reconnaissance
Gitrob
Introduction
Especially open source developers may share their code in a public repository like GitHub. This is a great way to collaborate between the developer(s) and the community. The risk of sharing code is that sensitive data is part of the repository and uploaded by accident. GitRob helps to detect this kind of accidental leaks.
Project details
Gitrob is written in Ruby.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 1000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Data leak prevention
- Information gathering
- Penetration testing
- Security assessment
SubFinder
Introduction
SubFinder is a tool to scan domains and discover subdomains. This may be useful during the reconnaissance phase of penetration testing where information is collected. Some subdomains may reveal sensitive data or point to interesting targets such as a backup location.
Project details
SubFinder is written in Golang.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Tool is modular and extendable
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Discovery of sensitive information
- Information gathering
- Penetration testing
- Reconnaissance
- Security assessment
Th3inspector
Introduction
This tool can be called a true 'inspector tool' as it helps to discover many types of data.
- Website information
- Domain and subdomain information
- Mail server information and email
- Phone details
- IP addresses
- Detection of used CMS
Project details
Th3inspector is written in Perl.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Discovery of sensitive information
- Information gathering
subDomainsBrute
Introduction
The subDomainsBrute tool is one of the tools to perform a scan on a domain to discover subdomains and store the output.Project details
subDomainsBrute is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- - Full name of author is unknown
- - Unknown project license
web-hunter
Introduction
Tools like web-hunter help with information gathering. This can be useful for penetration testing or when doing a self-assessment on your organization.
Project details
web-hunter is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
Admin Page Finder (PHP)
Introduction
Admin Page Finder is a tool written in PHP to find admin sections within a website. It can be used during pentesting and security assessments.Project details
Admin Page Finder (PHP) is written in PHP.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - Unknown project license
Typical usage
- Penetration testing
- Reconnaissance
BlindElephant
Introduction
BlindElephant is a security tool to perform fingerprinting of web applications. It can discover the name and version of known web applications.Project details
CMSeeK
Introduction
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.
Project details
CMSeeK is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - Full name of author is unknown
Typical usage
- Penetration testing
- Software exploitation
- Software identification
- Vulnerability scanning
VHostScan
Introduction
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.
Project details
VHostScan is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Penetration testing
- Reconnaissance
shcheck (Security Header Check)
Introduction
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.
Project details
shcheck is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Very low number of dependencies
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Application security
- Web application analysis
0trace.py
Introduction
This security tool enables the user to perform hop enumeration (similar to traceroute). Instead of sending actual packets, it uses an established TCP connection.
Project details
0trace.py is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Project is mature (10+ years)
- - Unknown project license
Typical usage
- Bypassing firewall rules
- Bypassing security measures
- Reconnaissance
DataSploit
Introduction
DataSploit is a framework to perform intelligence gathering to discover credentials, domain information, and other information related to the target. It uses various reconnaissance techniques on companies, people, phone numbers, and even cryptocoin technology. It allows aggregating all raw data and return it in multiple formats.
Project details
DataSploit is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 1000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- OSINT research
- Information gathering
- Security monitoring
IVRE
Introduction
IVRE is a framework to perform reconnaissance for network traffic. It leverages other tools to pull in the data and show it in the web interface.Project details
IVRE is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 1000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Digital forensics
- Information gathering
- Intrusion detection
- Network analysis
InstaRecon
Introduction
InstaRecon is a security tool that can help with the reconnaissance phase of a penetration test. It can collect a number of data points with limited input.Project details
InstaRecon is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Penetration testing
- Reconnaissance
OSINT Framework
Introduction
The OSINT framework provides a collection of tools to gather and parse public data. The tool is web-based and makes it easy to find tools for a particular task.
Project details
OSINT Framework is written in JavaScript.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- OSINT research
- Footprinting
- Intelligence gathering
- Reconnaissance
Sn1per
Introduction
Sn1per is security scanner that can be used during a penetration test to enumerate and scan for vulnerabilities.Project details
Sn1per is written in Python, shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 1000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
- - Unknown project license
Typical usage
- Penetration testing
- Reconnaissance
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