30 open-source projects similar to sullo/nikto, ranked by shared indexed features. Tags may describe platforms or build tools rather than the same primary purpose. Check each project’s use case, license, and deployment requirements before treating it as a replacement.
Nuclei is a modular security scanning framework designed for automated vulnerability detection and infrastructure reconnaissance. It functions as a template-driven engine that executes security checks across diverse network protocols, allowing users to define custom detection logic to identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and exposed assets. The platform distinguishes itself through its highly extensible architecture, which supports distributed scanning, headless browser automation for dynamic web content, and out-of-band interaction monitoring to detect blind vulnerabilities. It integ
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
w3af is a web penetration testing suite and security audit framework designed to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in web applications. It functions as a vulnerability scanner that crawls targets to find injection points and a fuzzer used to discover hidden endpoints and test input validation. The project distinguishes itself by providing an intercepting HTTP proxy for capturing and modifying traffic, combined with a knowledge-base driven exploitation system. It enables the execution of security exploits to gain remote shell access and supports post-exploitation activities, such as routing
Feroxbuster is an HTTP directory brute forcer and web resource enumerator designed to discover hidden files and directories on web servers. It functions as a recursive URL scanner that identifies unlinked endpoints and API resources by combining wordlist-based scanning with automated crawling. The tool operates as a proxy-aware fuzzer, allowing network requests to be routed through HTTP or SOCKS proxies for traffic interception or anonymity. It utilizes recursive directory crawling to automatically queue discovered paths and find nested content. The system includes capabilities for discovery
afrog is an HTTP vulnerability scanner and web vulnerability management system that identifies security flaws and known CVEs using a YAML-based rule engine. It functions as a payload generator and scanner, comparing server responses against detection rules to find unauthorized access points. The project provides a framework for out-of-band security testing, detecting blind vulnerabilities by triggering and verifying external DNS or HTTP callbacks. Beyond web traffic, it includes a protocol fuzzer capable of executing multi-step read and write sequences over raw TCP and SSL sockets to identify
Vuls is an agentless vulnerability scanner and CVE intelligence aggregator. It identifies security flaws in operating systems, containers, and network devices without requiring the installation of permanent software agents on target machines. The project distinguishes itself by cross-referencing software versions against multiple vulnerability databases, security advisories, and known exploit catalogs. It utilizes platform-based enumeration and lockfile analysis to detect vulnerabilities in network hardware, programming libraries, and website plugins. The tool covers a broad range of securit
Dalfox is an automated web application security tool specifically designed for discovering and verifying cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. It functions as an XSS vulnerability scanner that analyzes HTTP parameters and DOM structures to identify reflected, stored, and blind injection points. The project distinguishes itself by providing a Model Context Protocol server and a REST API, allowing artificial intelligence agents and remote interfaces to trigger and manage security scans programmatically. It utilizes a payload mutation engine and fingerprinting strategies to execute WAF evasion t
Sn1per is a vulnerability management platform and penetration testing orchestrator designed to automate reconnaissance, vulnerability scanning, and exploit verification. It functions as a dockerized security toolkit that coordinates multiple tools into a unified automated pipeline to identify security flaws across network and web assets. The platform features an attack surface manager for discovering internet-facing assets through OSINT, DNS enumeration, and certificate transparency. It distinguishes itself with an AI-powered security analyzer that uses large language models to summarize scan
WhatWeb is a web application fingerprinting tool that identifies the technology stack powering a website by scanning HTTP responses and page content. It matches responses against a library of over 1800 signatures to detect CMS platforms, JavaScript libraries, web servers, embedded devices, and third-party addons, while also extracting technical metadata such as software versions, user accounts, and module names. The tool operates through a plugin-based detection framework that supports both passive and aggressive scanning modes. Passive plugins analyze existing HTTP headers and page content w
Subfinder is a security reconnaissance framework designed for subdomain enumeration and attack surface management. It functions as a discovery engine that identifies and maps internet-exposed infrastructure, cloud-hosted assets, and network ranges to maintain a comprehensive inventory of an organization's digital footprint. The project distinguishes itself through a modular, template-driven scanning engine that executes security checks against discovered assets. It leverages cloud-native asset discovery to query provider APIs and infrastructure metadata, while supporting distributed agent orc
Osmedeus is a security workflow orchestration engine that coordinates AI agents, shell commands, and scanning tools through declarative YAML pipelines. It functions as a distributed security scanner, a declarative workflow automator, and an AI agent framework for security, enabling automated multi-step security analysis with conditional branching, parallel execution, and distributed workers. The engine distinguishes itself through a hybrid runner model that executes workflow steps on the local host, inside Docker containers, or over SSH to remote machines, selected per step or module. It supp
WPScan is a security analysis utility and vulnerability scanner designed specifically for auditing WordPress installations and other content management systems. It functions as a web application security tool that identifies misconfigurations, outdated software, and security holes in core installations, plugins, and themes. The tool employs black-box scanning techniques to perform site component enumeration, identifying users, themes, and plugins by matching known file paths and response signatures. It matches these detected components against a database of known security flaws to analyze the
Naabu is a port scanner library and tool that probes hosts for open ports using SYN, CONNECT, and UDP methods to identify active services. It functions as a Go library for embedding port scanning into programs, and as a standalone tool that accepts targets as hostnames, IP addresses, CIDR ranges, or ASN numbers. The tool discovers live hosts before scanning, filters ports by range or top lists, and can integrate with Nmap for service version detection. The project distinguishes itself through its SYN-based port probing approach that sends TCP SYN packets and analyzes responses without complet
Maskphish is a comprehensive security toolkit that integrates capabilities for digital forensics, network vulnerability scanning, open-source intelligence, penetration testing, and social engineering. It functions as a multi-purpose framework for automating reconnaissance and executing security audits across diverse network environments. The project features a specialized phishing and social engineering toolkit used for cloning websites, masking URLs, and deploying deceptive pages to capture user credentials. It also includes a remote access Trojan builder for generating platform-specific exe
Xray is a security assessment tool focused on web vulnerability scanning, attack surface mapping, and technology fingerprinting. It identifies common security flaws through automated scanning and semantic analysis, while verifying findings via a custom proof-of-concept execution engine. The system distinguishes itself with a containerized vulnerability testbed used to deploy pre-configured vulnerable applications. This environment allows for the simulation of specific vulnerabilities and edge-case scenarios to validate scanner accuracy and eliminate false positives. The platform covers a bro
OWASP ZAP is a dynamic application security testing tool and intercepting HTTP proxy used to find vulnerabilities in web applications. It functions as a penetration testing framework that enables both automated security scanning and manual security testing of running web services. The tool provides a suite of capabilities for analyzing web applications from the outside in, including the ability to capture and modify traffic between a browser and a target application. It is designed to integrate into DevSecOps pipelines to provide consistent security checks across different environments.
Nuclei-templates is a security automation framework and vulnerability scanning library designed for the continuous assessment of distributed infrastructure. It functions as a collection of structured configuration files that define how to identify security flaws and misconfigurations across web applications and network services. The project utilizes a declarative domain-specific language to decouple detection logic from the underlying execution engine. This approach allows for the creation of modular, protocol-agnostic scanning rules that can be updated independently of the core software. By
Tsunami Security Scanner is a network vulnerability scanner and security auditor designed to identify high-severity flaws across network assets. It functions as an asynchronous security probe engine that utilizes automated probes and specialized detection logic to find critical weaknesses and prioritize remediation efforts. The project is distinguished by a plugin-based scanning engine, which uses a modular architecture of interchangeable detection plugins to identify vulnerabilities. This extensibility allows for the development and integration of custom security plugins to expand the variet
Arachni is a dynamic application security testing vulnerability scanner and web application security tool. It functions as a distributed web audit framework that performs active and passive audits to identify security flaws such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. The project features a JavaScript-aware web crawler that executes scripts and monitors DOM changes to analyze modern dynamic web applications. It utilizes server platform fingerprinting to target compatible security payloads and provides a grid-based system to distribute scanning workloads across multiple nodes. The tool cov
XSStrike is an automated security scanning engine designed for web application discovery, input
Nettacker is an automated penetration testing framework designed to orchestrate reconnaissance, port scanning, and vulnerability detection. It functions as a network reconnaissance tool and vulnerability scanner that identifies open ports, fingerprints services, and checks systems against databases of known security flaws. The framework distinguishes itself by combining a web application crawler for discovering hidden paths via fuzzing with a vulnerability management system that persists scan results in a database to track historical assessments. It also includes specialized capabilities for
Striker is an offensive information and vulnerability scanner.
Trufflehog is a security tool designed to continuously monitor code repositories and cloud environments to detect, verify, and remediate exposed sensitive credentials and API keys. It functions as a comprehensive secret scanning engine that integrates directly into deployment pipelines and version control systems to intercept sensitive data before it is committed or pushed. By utilizing read-only operations and volatile memory processing, the system ensures that discovered credentials are never stored persistently, maintaining strict data privacy throughout the scanning lifecycle. The platfor
Lonkero - Wraps around your attack surface. Professional-grade scanner for real penetration testing. Fast. Modular. Rust.
Commix is an automated tool for detecting and exploiting OS command injection vulnerabilities in web applications. It probes user-supplied input vectors with heuristic test payloads, analyzes response differences to identify injection points, and then automates the execution of arbitrary operating system commands on the target server. The tool distinguishes itself through a multi-layer filter bypass engine that evaluates input constraints independently per filter type and composes tailored evasion strategies into a single payload. A modular payload tamper pipeline transforms raw injection str
This project is an automated security testing suite designed to detect and exploit database vulnerabilities. It functions as a command-line utility that streamlines the identification, verification, and exploitation of web application flaws by automating the injection of malicious payloads into input parameters. The tool provides a comprehensive framework for database enumeration, allowing users to extract schema information, user data, and system configurations from identified injection points. What distinguishes this tool is its sophisticated engine for dynamic payload adaptation and heuris
This project is an open-source intelligence reconnaissance framework and recursive attack surface mapper. It functions as a containerized security scanner designed to map public-facing infrastructure, perform subdomain enumeration, and automate the gathering of open-source intelligence. The system employs a recursive discovery engine to iteratively explore target infrastructure, utilizing a plugin-based module architecture to extend scanning capabilities. It integrates third-party APIs for data enrichment and applies YARA rules across discovered assets to identify specific vulnerability patte
Katana is a web crawler and spider designed for security reconnaissance and web application mapping. It functions as a utility for identifying endpoints, forms, and API structures across web targets by combining standard HTTP request traversal with headless browser automation to render dynamic, JavaScript-heavy content. The tool distinguishes itself through its ability to maintain authenticated sessions and handle complex web interactions, such as automated form submission and captcha resolution. It provides granular control over the discovery process, allowing users to define specific crawl
gosec is a static analysis security tool designed to scan Go source code for vulnerabilities and common coding flaws. It functions as a security analyzer that inspects the abstract syntax tree to identify insecure function calls, API usage, and potential security risks. The tool distinguishes itself by mapping detected vulnerabilities to Common Weakness Enumeration identifiers for standardized reporting and integrating with external AI models to suggest code fixes for identified issues. Its capabilities cover the detection of injection vulnerabilities, hardcoded credentials, weak cryptograph
Lynis is an automated security auditing and system hardening framework designed for UNIX-based operating systems. It functions as a command-line utility that inspects local system configurations to identify security vulnerabilities, configuration weaknesses, and compliance gaps. By executing a series of modular tests, the tool generates actionable reports and remediation suggestions to assist in strengthening system defenses. The project distinguishes itself through a highly modular architecture that relies on shell-script-based execution and native system inspection. Users can define custom