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WAPITI(1) WAPITI(1)

wapiti - A web application vulnerability scanner in Python

wapiti -u BASE_URL [options]

Wapiti allows you to audit the security of your web applications.

It performs "black-box" scans, i.e. it does not study the source code of the application but will scans the webpages of the deployed webapp, looking for scripts and forms where it can inject data.

Once it gets this list, Wapiti acts like a fuzzer, injecting payloads to see if a script is vulnerable.

Wapiti is useful only to discover vulnerabilities: it is not an exploitation tools. Some well known applications can be used for the exploitation part like the recommended sqlmap.

Here is a summary of options. It is essentially what you will get when you launch Wapiti without any argument. More detail on each option can be found in the following sections.

TARGET SPECIFICATION:

  • -u URL
  • --scope {page,folder,domain,url,punk}

ATTACK SPECIFICATION:

  • -m MODULES_LIST
  • --list-modules
  • -l LEVEL

PROXY AND AUTHENTICATION OPTIONS:

  • -p PROXY_URL
  • -a CREDENTIALS
  • --auth-type {basic,digest,kerberos,ntlm,post}
  • -c COOKIE_FILE

SESSION OPTIONS:

  • --skip-crawl
  • --resume-crawl
  • --flush-attacks
  • --flush-session
  • --store-session PATH
  • --store-config PATH

SCAN AND ATTACKS TUNING:

  • -s URL
  • -x URL
  • -r PARAMETER
  • --skip PARAMETER
  • -d DEPTH
  • --max-links-per-page MAX_LINKS_PER_PAGE
  • --max-files-per-dir MAX_FILES_PER_DIR
  • --max-scan-time MAX_SCAN_TIME
  • --max-attack-time MAX_ATTACK_TIME
  • --max-parameters MAX
  • -S, --scan-force {paranoid,sneaky,polite,normal,aggressive,insane}

HTTP AND NETWORK OPTIONS:

  • -t SECONDS
  • -H HEADER
  • -A AGENT
  • --verify-ssl {0,1}

OUTPUT OPTIONS:

  • --color
  • -v LEVEL

REPORT OPTIONS:

  • -f {json,html,txt,xml}
  • -o OUPUT_PATH

OTHER OPTIONS:

  • --no-bugreport
  • --version
  • --update
  • -h

  • -u, --url URL
    The URL that will be used as the base for the scan. Every URL found during the scan will be checked against the base URL and the corresponding scan scope (see --scope for details).
    This is the only required argument. The scheme part of the URL must be either http or https.
  • --scope SCOPE
    Define the scope of the scan and attacks. Valid choices are :
  • url : will only scan and attack the exact base URL given with -u option.
  • page : will attack every URL matching the path of the base URL (every query string variation).
  • folder : will scan and attack every URL starting with the base URL value. This base URL should have a trailing slash (no filename).
  • domain : will scan and attack every URL whose domain name match the one from the base URL.
  • punk : will scan and attack every URL found whatever the domain. Think twice before using that scope.

  • -m, --module MODULE_LIST
    Set the list of attack modules (modules names separated with commas) to launch against the target.
    Default behavior (when the option is not set) is to use the most common modules.
    Common modules can also be specified using the "common" keyword.
    If you want to use common modules along with XXE module you can pass -m common,xxe.
    Activating all modules can be done with the "all" keyword (not recommended though).
    To launch a scan without launching any attack, just give an empty value (-m "").
    You can filter on http methods too (only get or post). For example -m "xss:get,exec:post".
  • --list-modules
    Print the list of available Wapiti modules along with a short description then exit.
  • -l, --level LEVEL
    In previous versions Wapiti used to inject attack payloads in query strings even if no parameter was present in the original URL.
    While it may be successful in finding vulnerabilities that way, it was causing too many requests for not enough success.
    This behavior is now hidden behind this option and can be reactivated by setting -l to 2.
    It may be useful on CGIs when developers have to parse the query-string themselves.
    Default value for this option is 1.

  • -p, --proxy PROXY_URL
    The given URL will be used as a proxy for HTTP and HTTPS requests. This URL can have one of the following scheme : http, https, socks.
  • --tor
    Make Wapiti use a Tor listener (same as --proxy socks://127.0.0.1:9050/)
  • -a, --auth-cred CREDENTIALS
    Set credentials to use for authentication on the target.
    Given value should be in the form login%password (% is used as a separator)
  • --auth-type TYPE
    Set the authentication mechanism to use. Valid choices are basic, digest, kerberos, ntlm and post (web login form).
    Kerberos and NTLM authentication may require you to install additional Python modules. "Post" authentication could be combined with -s to specify where to find the login form.
  • -c, --cookie COOKIE_FILE
    Load cookies from a Wapiti JSON cookie file. See wapiti-getcookie(1) for more information.

Since Wapiti 3.0.0, scanned URLs, discovered vulnerabilities and attacks status are stored in sqlite3 databases used as Wapiti session files.
Default behavior when a previous scan session exists for the given base URL and scope is to resume the scan and attack status.
Following options allows you to bypass this behavior/

  • --skip-crawl
    If a previous scan was performed but wasn´t finished, don´t resume the scan. Attack will be made on currently known URLs without scanning more.
  • --resume-crawl
    If the crawl was previously stopped and attacks started, default behavior is to skip crawling if the session is restored.
    Use this option in order to continue the scan process while keeping vulnerabilities and attacks in the session.
  • --flush-attacks
    Forget everything about discovered vulnerabilities and which URL was attacked by which module.
    Only the scan (crawling) information will be kept.
  • --flush-session
    Forget everything about the target for the given scope.
  • --store-session PATH Specify an alternative path for storing session (.db and .pkl) files.
  • --store-config PATH Specify an alternative path for storing particular module (apps.json and nikto_db) files.

  • -s, --start URL
    If for some reasons, Wapiti doesn´t find any (or enough) URLs from the base URL you can still add URLs to start the scan with.
    Those URLs will be given a depth of 0, just like the base URL.
    This option can be called several times.
    You can also give it a filename and Wapiti will read URLs from the given file (must be UTF-8 encoded), one URL per line. Combined with --auth-type=post, Wapiti will try to find a login form on the first URL provided and to authenticate with the given credentials.
  • -x, --exclude URL
    Prevent the given URL from being scanned. Common use is to exclude the logout URL to prevent the destruction of session cookies (if you specified a cookie file with --cookie).
    This option can be applied several times. Excluded URL given as a parameter can contain wildcards for basic pattern matching.
  • -r, --remove PARAMETER
    If the given parameter is found in scanned URL it will be automatically removed (URLs are edited).
    This option can be used several times.
  • --skip PARAMETER
    Given parameter will be kept in URLs and forms but won´t be attacked.
    Useful if you already know non-vulnerable parameters.
  • -d, --depth DEPTH
    When Wapiti crawls a website it gives each found URL a depth value.
    The base URL, and additional starting URLs (-s) are given a depth of 0.
    Each link found in thoses URLs got a depth of 1, and so on.
    Default maximum depth is 40 and is very large.
    This limit make sure the scan will stop at some time.
    For a fast scan a depth inferior to 5 is recommanded.
  • --max-links-per-page MAX
    This is another option to be able to reduce the number of URLs discovered by the crawler.
    Only the first MAX links of each webpage will be extracted.
    This option is not really effective as the same link may appear on different webpages.
    It should be useful is rare conditions, for exeample when there is a lot a webpages without query string.
  • --max-files-per-dir MAX
    Limit the number of URLs to crawl under each folder found on the webserver.
    Note that an URL with a trailing slash in the path is not necessarily a folder with Wapiti will treat it as its is.
    Like the previous option it should be useful only in certain situations.
  • --max-scan-time SECONDS Stop the scan after SECONDS seconds if it is still running. Should be useful to automatise scanning from another process (continuous testing).
  • --max-attack-time SECONDS Each attack module will stop after SECONDS seconds if it is still running. Should be useful to automatise scanning from another process (continuous testing).
  • --max-parameters MAX
    URLs and forms having more than MAX input parameters will be discarded before launching attack modules.
  • -S, --scan-force FORCE
    The more input parameters an URL or form have, the more requests Wapiti will send.
    The sum of requests can grow rapidly and attacking a form with 40 or more input fields can take a huge amount of time.
    Wapiti use a mathematical formula to reduce the numbers of URLs scanned for a given pattern (same variables names) when the number of parameters grows.
    The formula is maximum_allowed_patterns = 220 / (math.exp(number_of_parameters * factor) ** 2) where factor is an internal value controller by the FORCE value you give as an option.
    Available choices are : paranoid, sneaky, polite, normal, aggressive, insane.
    Default value is normal (147 URLs for 1 parameter, 30 for 5, 5 for 10, 1 for 14 or more).
    Insane mode just remove the calculation of those limits, every URL will be attacked.
    Paranoid mode will attack 30 URLs with 1 parameter, 5 for 2, and just 1 for 3 and more).
  • --endpoint URL Some attack modules are using an HTTP endpoint to check for vulnerabilities.
    For example the SSRF module inject the endpoint URL into webpage arguments to check if the target script try to fetch that URL.
    Default endpoint is http://wapiti3.ovh/. Keep in mind that the target and your computer must be able to join that endpoint for the module to work.
    On internal pentests this endpoint may not be accessible to the target hence you may prefer to set up your own endpoint.
    This option will set both internal and external endpoint URL to the same value.
  • --internal-endpoint URL You may want to specify an internal endpoint different from the external one.
    The internal endpoint is used by Wapiti to fetch results of attacks.
    If you are behind a NAT it may be an URL for a local server (for example http://192.168.0.1/)
  • --external-endpoint URL Set the endpoint URL (the one that the target will fetch in case of vulnerability).
    Using your own endpoint may reduce risk of being caught by NIDS or WAF.

  • -t, --timemout SECONDS
    Time to wait (in seconds) for a HTTP response before considering failure.
  • -H, --header HEADER
    Set a custom HTTM header to inject in every request sent by Wapiti. This option can be used several times.
    Value should be a standard HTTP header line (parameter and value separated with a : sign).
  • -A, --user-agent AGENT
    Default behavior of Wapiti is to use the same User-Agent as the TorBrowser, making it discreet when crawling standard website or .onion ones.
    But you may have to change it to bypass some restrictions so this option is here.
  • --verify-ssl VALUE
    Wapiti doesn´t care of certificates validation by default. That behavior can be changed by passing 1 as a value to that option.

Wapiti prints its status to standard output. The two following options allow one to tune the output.

  • --color
    Outpout will be colorized based on the severity of the information (red is critical, orange for warnings, green for information).
  • -v, --verbose LEVEL
    Set the level of verbosity for the output. Possible values are quiet (O), normal (1, default behavior) and verbose (2).

Wapiti will generate a report at the end of the attack process. Several formats of reports are available.

  • -f, --format FORMAT
    Set the format of the report. Valid choices are json, html, txt and xml.
    Although the HTML reports were rewritten to be more responsive, they still are impracticable when there is a lot of found vulnerabilities.
  • -o, --output OUTPUT_PATH
    Set the path were the report will be generated.

  • --version
    Print Wapiti version then exit.
  • --no-bugreport
    If a Wapiti attack module crashes of a non-caught exception a bug report is generated and sent for analysis in order to improve Wapiti reliability. Note that only the content of the report is kept.
    You can still prevent reports from being sent using that option.
  • --update Update particular Wapiti modules (download a fresh version of the apps.json and nikto_db files) then exit. You can combine it with --store-config to specify where to store downloaded files.
  • -h, --help
    Show detailed options description. More details are available in this manpage though.

Wapiti is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2. Please read the LICENSE file for more information.

Copyright (c) 2006-2021 Nicolas Surribas.

Nicolas Surribas is the main author, but the whole list of contributors is found in the separate AUTHORS file.

http://wapiti.sourceforge.io/

If you find a bug in Wapiti please report it to https://github.com/wapiti-scanner/wapiti/issues

The INSTALL.md file that comes with Wapiti contains every information required to install Wapiti.

February 2021