Open-source alternatives to Security Research

This project is a comprehensive, community-sourced knowledge base designed for security professionals and researchers. It functions as a centralized repository of offensive security techniques, providing a structured collection of exploit payloads, attack vectors, and methodologies for conducting vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. The repository distinguishes itself through a cross-platform payload taxonomy that categorizes exploitation methods by vulnerability type and target environment, enabling rapid lookup during security assessments. It maintains high standards of data i

Strix is an automated security research and vulnerability scanning platform that leverages language models to orchestrate complex security analysis tasks. It functions as a comprehensive framework for penetration testing and continuous security integration, allowing users to embed automated vulnerability research directly into development pipelines or execute it within isolated, containerized environments. The platform distinguishes itself through a multi-agent orchestration engine that coordinates specialized autonomous agents to perform parallel security assessments. By integrating LLM-agno

This project is a comprehensive web application penetration testing guide and vulnerability research framework. It provides a structured methodology for identifying and exploiting security flaws through a phased approach involving reconnaissance, analysis, and exploitation. The resource is distinguished by its use of a curated methodology framework that links theoretical vulnerability patterns to real-world bug bounty reports and historical exploit examples. It includes a payload-based testing library and a reference system that maps specific vulnerability categories to recommended third-part

dirsearch is a command-line security tool and web path scanner used for discovering hidden directories and files on web servers. It functions as a recursive directory fuzzer and brute-force utility that identifies undocumented paths and sensitive files using wordlists and HTTP status codes. The tool distinguishes itself through template-driven path generation and an automated HTTP response filter that uses status codes, content length, and regex patterns to isolate valid targets. It supports recursive directory crawling to map complex web structures and provides state-persistence serializatio

phpggc is a security assessment utility and command-line tool designed for the automated generation, obfuscation, and wrapping of serialized object chains. It functions as a gadget chain framework used to identify and verify remote code execution vectors by testing for PHP object injection vulnerabilities. The project provides a modular system for constructing complex serialized object sequences and includes a dedicated payload obfuscator to transform byte streams for bypassing web application firewalls and security filters. It also features a generator for wrapping serialized data into archi

Fuzzing101 is an educational resource providing a structured curriculum and containerized security labs for learning software fuzzing and vulnerability research. It functions as a training course that guides users through the process of identifying security flaws using systematic input manipulation and memory corruption analysis. The project distinguishes itself by providing isolated environments that ensure consistent build dependencies for practicing software instrumentation and crash triaging. It includes a practical tutorial on using evolutionary fuzzing engines and instrumentation tools

This project is a public exploit code archive and vulnerability database. It serves as a collection of documented software exploits and vulnerability data, providing a reference library of exploit scripts and payloads used to validate security flaws in target environments. The archive supports security threat intelligence, vulnerability research, and penetration testing workflows. It functions as a historical record of software vulnerabilities and the proof-of-concept code used to trigger them. The codebase is organized through directory-based categorization and flat-file data storage, utili

This project is a vulnerability intelligence database and aggregator that organizes common vulnerabilities and exposures alongside their corresponding proof-of-concept exploit code. It functions as a security vulnerability tracker and an indexed directory of public exploit payloads. The system monitors new security flaws and updates to known exploits through repository watches and atom feeds. It utilizes automated aggregation to collect vulnerability details from centralized repositories and discovers associated exploit code via reference analysis and global searches. The tool provides capab

EHole is a specialized toolkit for network asset parsing, binary transformation, payload generation, and vulnerability research. It functions as an asset discovery and fingerprinting tool designed to identify software versions and high-value assets across IP ranges and URLs using custom fingerprints. The project provides a vulnerability research toolkit for decrypting software credentials and retrieving factory default passwords for security devices and web applications. It also includes a security payload generator for encoding and escaping command strings to bypass shell tokenization and ex

ExploitDB is a curated archive of exploit code and vulnerability data designed for penetration testing and security research. It serves as an offensive security knowledge base and a repository of publicly available proof-of-concept code used to validate software flaws. The project provides a searchable collection of historical and current exploit vectors. It supports security threat intelligence by tracking public releases and aids in vulnerability research by providing a reference library for analyzing how specific systems can be compromised. The archive is managed through a curated input p

This project is a set of specialized utilities for generating malformed documents, obfuscating payloads, and crafting specific attack vectors to evaluate the resilience of security scanners. It functions as a PDF fuzzing framework and security testing tool designed to create PDF files with embedded payloads for verifying how document viewers and web applications handle vulnerabilities. The toolkit provides capabilities for encoding and hiding malicious content to test the detection effectiveness of security scanners. It includes a security payload generator for crafting specific attack vector

Drozer is a security testing framework and runtime analyzer for Android applications and devices. It functions as an exploit management framework and a security toolset used to identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and leaks within the Android operating system and its installed applications. The framework enables the simulation of application behavior and the interaction with communication endpoints to detect security flaws. It manages the execution, analysis, and sharing of public exploits for mobile security research. The system provides capabilities for application auditing, vulner

HowToHunt is a bug bounty hunting knowledge base and a structured guide for web application penetration testing. It provides a research methodology for organizing security testing procedures and validating application behaviors against known vulnerability patterns. The project features a curated library of security flaws and reconnaissance techniques. It organizes security testing into modular playbooks, checklists, and categorical vulnerability mappings to align specific exploitation techniques with target weaknesses. The repository covers a systematic sequence of information gathering task

The Mobile Application Security Testing Guide is a comprehensive framework and technical resource designed for the assessment of mobile software security. It provides a structured collection of requirements and methodologies to identify vulnerabilities and security flaws in mobile applications prior to their deployment. The project distinguishes itself by integrating reverse engineering techniques with standardized testing procedures to evaluate application logic and binary structures. It supports both Android and iOS platforms, utilizing threat-model-driven methodologies to ensure that secur

Frida is a dynamic binary instrumentation toolkit that provides a framework for deep process introspection and live application state manipulation. It enables the injection of custom scripts into running processes to trace function calls, modify memory, and analyze application behavior in real-time across diverse operating systems and processor architectures. The project distinguishes itself by embedding a high-performance JavaScript engine directly within the target process, allowing for the execution of user-defined logic for real-time inspection. It utilizes instruction-level hooking to re

This project is a technical repository of kernel exploit guides, memory corruption analyses, and archived methods for gaining root access. It serves as a centralized library of security flaws and reproduction steps used for testing system protections and verification. The documentation focuses on the Linux kernel, providing technical breakdowns of how memory management errors and multi-page write techniques allow for the modification of read-only files. It details the use of race conditions to achieve administrative privilege escalation. The repository covers a broad surface of security rese

Dependency-Track is a software composition analysis tool and vulnerability management system designed to track dependencies and supply chain risk. It functions as a platform for ingesting and analyzing CycloneDX software bills of materials to identify known vulnerabilities and license compliance issues within third-party software components. The system distinguishes itself by mirroring external vulnerability databases locally to enable fast offline analysis and using VEX documents to differentiate between technical vulnerabilities and actual contextual risks. It also integrates with identity

LOLBAS is a curated database and knowledge base of signed Windows binaries that can be misused to bypass security restrictions and execute unauthorized code. It serves as a technical registry that maps trusted system files to their functional capabilities and the offensive tactics they enable. The project distinguishes itself by providing a capability-driven indexing system and a tactics registry that relates legitimate binary functionality to known security evasion techniques. It includes an association layer that links specific system binaries to attack patterns and tactical objectives, pro

SecurityAdvisories is a software composition analysis tool and PHP security advisory database used to audit project dependencies against known security flaws and CVEs. It functions as a vulnerability scanner for PHP projects to identify and manage risky third-party libraries. The project implements a system for detecting and blocking vulnerable dependencies during the software development lifecycle. It prevents the installation of software packages with known security flaws by maintaining an exclusion list of forbidden versions. The tool integrates with the PHP package manager to intercept d

GTFOBins is a curated knowledge base documenting security-related techniques for Unix-based system binaries. It serves as a reference for offensive security research, detailing how standard, pre-installed system utilities can be repurposed to facilitate privilege escalation, restricted environment escapes, and post-exploitation workflows. The project distinguishes itself by cataloging insecure execution paths and misconfigured permissions inherent in common system tools. By identifying legitimate binary functions that can be leveraged to bypass security controls, the repository provides a str

radare2 is a reverse engineering framework and binary analysis toolset. It functions as a multi-architecture disassembler, low-level binary debugger, and hexadecimal editor for inspecting executable structures and interpreting machine code when original source files are unavailable. The framework provides capabilities for decompiling machine instructions, performing symbolic analysis, and diffing binary files to identify structural changes across versions. It also includes a digital forensic analyzer and disk analyzer for browsing filesystem formats in userland. The toolset supports binary p

This project is a GitHub secret scanner and dorking tool designed to identify leaked credentials and private keys within repositories. It functions as an API reconnaissance utility that uses curated search queries and automated dorks to locate sensitive data across public and enterprise GitHub instances. The tool enables security vulnerability research and enterprise auditing by targeting both public cloud instances and private enterprise installations via configurable base URLs. It utilizes token-based authentication to access private repository content and bypass API rate limits. The syste

This project is an educational and research platform designed to simulate security vulnerabilities within AI-integrated systems and Model Context Protocol implementations. It provides a controlled environment where users can practice identifying and mitigating common attack vectors, such as prompt injection and unauthorized code execution, by interacting with intentionally insecure tools and protocol configurations. The platform distinguishes itself by offering a dedicated laboratory for auditing Model Context Protocol integrations. It exposes server-side functions as discoverable tools and p

Pentagi is an autonomous security testing framework and agent orchestrator designed to plan and execute end-to-end security assessments. It utilizes a coordination engine to decompose complex goals into actionable subtasks, performing automated penetration testing and vulnerability research within isolated container environments. The system distinguishes itself through a temporal knowledge graph that tracks semantic relationships between entities and vulnerabilities to reuse intelligence across projects. It includes a web intelligence reconnaissance tool for automated data gathering and agent

cve-rs is a memory safety testing framework and vulnerability simulator designed to recreate buffer overflows and segmentation faults. It provides a set of safe memory primitives and a WebAssembly-based security sandbox to evaluate how programs handle unsafe memory access within an isolated execution environment. The project replaces raw pointer manipulation and type transmutation with functional alternatives, allowing for the simulation of memory-unsafe operations. It enables the reinterpretation of data types through memory representation manipulation rather than unsafe casting to study the

HaE is a network traffic analysis tool designed to extract, classify, and highlight specific data fragments within network messages and HTTP traffic. It functions as an HTTP data extractor and traffic content filter, utilizing a network metadata aggregator to centralize highlighted data fragments and annotations for analysis. The tool identifies high-value network packets by mapping classification results to visual color markers and employs a modular classification system to isolate data fragments from binary or text streams. It distinguishes the severity of matched data by piping extracted c

This project is a curated archive and cybersecurity research dataset of raw source code from various malware families. It serves as a malware analysis library designed to help researchers study the inner workings of different threats and identify attack patterns across multiple platforms and programming languages. The repository supports security research by providing raw text distribution of original source code. This allows for the study of platform vulnerabilities, threat intelligence gathering, and the development of security products and detection signatures. The collection is organized