Current Release: v1.4 (20222.09.03)
An advanced command-line tool designed to brute force directories and files in webservers, AKA web path scanner
Idea by @maurosoria and @shelld3v
Developement-2022 is being actively developed by @nu11secur1ty
- Installation
- Wordlists
- Options
- Configuration
- How to use
- Support Docker
- References
- Tips
- Contribution
- License
Requirement: python 3.10.5 or higher
Choose one of these installation options:
- Install with git:
git clone https://github.com/nu11secur1ty/insect.git --depth 1(RECOMMENDED) - Install with ZIP file: Download here
- Install with Docker:
docker build -t "insect:latest" .(more information can be found here)
- Install with PyPi:
pip3 install dirsearch - Install with Kali Linux:
sudo apt-get install dirsearch(deprecated)
Summary:
- Wordlist is a text file, each line is a path.
- About extensions, unlike other tools, dirsearch and insect only replaces the
%EXT%keyword with extensions from -e flag. - For wordlists without
%EXT%(like SecLists), -f | --force-extensions switch is required to append extensions to every word in wordlist, as well as the/. - To apply your extensions to wordlist entries that have extensions already, use -O | --overwrite-extensions (Note: some extensions are excluded from being overwritted such as .log, .json, .xml, ... or media extensions like .jpg, .png)
- To use multiple wordlists, you can separate your wordlists with commas. Example:
wordlist1.txt,wordlist2.txt.
Examples:
- Normal extensions:
index.%EXT%
Passing asp and aspx as extensions will generate the following dictionary:
index
index.asp
index.aspx
- Force extensions:
admin
Passing php and html as extensions with -f/--force-extensions flag will generate the following dictionary:
admin
admin.php
admin.html
admin/
- Overwrite extensions:
login.html
Passing jsp and jspa as extensions with -O/--overwrite-extensions flag will generate the following dictionary:
login.html
login.jsp
login.jspa
Usage: insect.py [-u|--url] target [-e|--extensions] extensions [options]
Options:
--version show program's version number and exit
-h, --help show this help message and exit
Mandatory:
-u URL, --url=URL Target URL(s), support multiple flags
-l PATH, --url-file=PATH
URL list file
--stdin Read URL(s) from STDIN
--cidr=CIDR Target CIDR
--raw=PATH Load raw HTTP request from file (use `--scheme` flag
to set the scheme)
-s SESSION_FILE, --session=SESSION_FILE
Session file
--config=PATH Full path to config file, see 'config.ini' for
example (Default: config.ini)
Dictionary Settings:
-w WORDLISTS, --wordlists=WORDLISTS
Customize wordlists (separated by commas)
-e EXTENSIONS, --extensions=EXTENSIONS
Extension list separated by commas (e.g. php,asp)
-f, --force-extensions
Add extensions to the end of every wordlist entry. By
default insect only replaces the %EXT% keyword with
extensions
-O, --overwrite-extensions
Overwrite other extensions in the wordlist with your
extensions (selected via `-e`)
--exclude-extensions=EXTENSIONS
Exclude extension list separated by commas (e.g.
asp,jsp)
--remove-extensions
Remove extensions in all paths (e.g. admin.php ->
admin)
--prefixes=PREFIXES
Add custom prefixes to all wordlist entries (separated
by commas)
--suffixes=SUFFIXES
Add custom suffixes to all wordlist entries, ignore
directories (separated by commas)
-U, --uppercase Uppercase wordlist
-L, --lowercase Lowercase wordlist
-C, --capital Capital wordlist
General Settings:
-t THREADS, --threads=THREADS
Number of threads
-r, --recursive Brute-force recursively
--deep-recursive Perform recursive scan on every directory depth (e.g.
api/users -> api/)
--force-recursive Do recursive brute-force for every found path, not
only directories
-R DEPTH, --max-recursion-depth=DEPTH
Maximum recursion depth
--recursion-status=CODES
Valid status codes to perform recursive scan, support
ranges (separated by commas)
--subdirs=SUBDIRS Scan sub-directories of the given URL[s] (separated by
commas)
--exclude-subdirs=SUBDIRS
Exclude the following subdirectories during recursive
scan (separated by commas)
-i CODES, --include-status=CODES
Include status codes, separated by commas, support
ranges (e.g. 200,300-399)
-x CODES, --exclude-status=CODES
Exclude status codes, separated by commas, support
ranges (e.g. 301,500-599)
--exclude-sizes=SIZES
Exclude responses by sizes, separated by commas (e.g.
0B,4KB)
--exclude-texts=TEXTS
Exclude responses by texts, separated by commas (e.g.
'Not found', 'Error')
--exclude-regex=REGEX
Exclude responses by regex (e.g. '^Error$')
--exclude-redirect=STRING
Exclude responses if this regex (or text) matches
redirect URL (e.g. '/index.html')
--exclude-response=PATH
Exclude responses similar to response of this page,
path as input (e.g. 404.html)
--skip-on-status=CODES
Skip target whenever hit one of these status codes,
separated by commas, support ranges
--min-response-size=LENGTH
Minimum response length
--max-response-size=LENGTH
Maximum response length
--max-time=SECONDS Maximum runtime for the scan
Request Settings:
-m METHOD, --http-method=METHOD
HTTP method (default: GET)
-d DATA, --data=DATA
HTTP request data
--data-file=PATH File contains HTTP request data
-H HEADERS, --header=HEADERS
HTTP request header, support multiple flags
--header-file=PATH File contains HTTP request headers
-F, --follow-redirects
Follow HTTP redirects
--random-agent Choose a random User-Agent for each request
--auth=CREDENTIAL Authentication credential (e.g. user:password or
bearer token)
--auth-type=TYPE Authentication type (basic, digest, bearer, ntlm, jwt,
oauth2)
--cert-file=PATH File contains client-side certificate
--key-file=PATH File contains client-side certificate private key
(unencrypted)
--user-agent=USERAGENT
--cookie=COOKIE
Connection Settings:
--timeout=TIMEOUT Connection timeout
--delay=DELAY Delay between requests
--proxy=PROXY Proxy URL, support HTTP and SOCKS proxies (e.g.
localhost:8080, socks5://localhost:8088)
--proxy-file=PATH File contains proxy servers
--proxy-auth=CREDENTIAL
Proxy authentication credential
--replay-proxy=PROXY
Proxy to replay with found paths
--tor Use Tor network as proxy
--scheme=SCHEME Scheme for raw request or if there is no scheme in the
URL (Default: auto-detect)
--max-rate=RATE Max requests per second
--retries=RETRIES Number of retries for failed requests
--ip=IP Server IP address
--exit-on-error Exit whenever an error occurs
Advanced Settings:
--crawl Crawl for new paths in responses
View Settings:
--full-url Full URLs in the output (enabled automatically in
quiet mode)
--redirects-history
Show redirects history
--no-color No colored output
-q, --quiet-mode Quiet mode
Output Settings:
-o PATH, --output=PATH
Output file
--format=FORMAT Report format (Available: simple, plain, json, xml,
md, csv, html, sqlite)
--log=PATH Log file
Default values for dirsearch and insect flags can be edited in the configuration file, by default is config.ini but you can select another file with the --config flag
# If you want to edit dirsearch or insect default configurations, you can
# edit values in this file. Everything after `#` is a comment
# and won't be applied
[general]
threads = 25
recursive = False
deep-recursive = False
force-recursive = False
recursion-status = 200-399,401,403
max-recursion-depth = 0
exclude-subdirs = %%ff/,.;/,..;/,;/,./,../,%%2e/,%%2e%%2e/
random-user-agents = False
max-time = 0
# subdirs = /,api/
# include-status = 200-299,401
# exclude-status = 400,500-999
# exclude-sizes = 0b,123gb
# exclude-texts = "Not found"
# exclude-regex = "^403$"
# exclude-redirect = "*/error.html"
# exclude-response = 404.html
# skip-on-status = 429,999
[dictionary]
default-extensions = php,aspx,jsp,html,js
force-extensions = False
overwrite-extensions = False
lowercase = False
uppercase = False
capitalization = False
# exclude-extensions = old,log
# prefixes = .,admin
# suffixes = ~,.bak
# wordlists = /path/to/wordlist1.txt,/path/to/wordlist2.txt
[request]
httpmethod = get
follow-redirects = False
# headers-file = /path/to/headers.txt
# user-agent = MyUserAgent
# cookie = SESSIONID=123
[connection]
timeout = 7.5
delay = 0
max-rate = 0
max-retries = 1
exit-on-error = False
## By disabling `scheme` variable, insect will automatically identify the URI scheme
# scheme = http
# proxy = localhost:8080
# proxy-file = /path/to/proxies.txt
# replay-proxy = localhost:8000
[advanced]
crawl = False
[view]
full-url = False
quiet-mode = False
color = True
show-redirects-history = False
[output]
## Support: plain, simple, json, xml, md, csv, html, sqlite
report-format = plain
autosave-report = True
# log-file = /path/to/insect.log
# report-output-folder = /path/to/reports
Some examples for how to use dirsearch and insect - those are the most common arguments. If you need all, just use the -h argument.
python3 insect.py -u https://target
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target -w /path/to/wordlist
dirsearch and insect are allows you to pause the scanning progress with CTRL+C, from here, you can save the progress (and continue later), skip the current target, or skip the current sub-directory.
- Recursive brute-force is brute-forcing continuously the after of found directories. For example, if insect finds
admin/, it will brute-forceadmin/*(*is where it brute forces). To enable this feature, use -r (or --recursive) flag
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target -r
- You can set the max recursion depth with --recursion-depth, and status codes to recurse with --recursion-status
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target -r --recursion-depth 3 --recursion-status 200-399
-
There are 2 more options: --force-recursive and --deep-recursive
- Force recursive: Brute force recursively all found paths, not just paths end with
/ - Deep recursive: Recursive brute-force all depths of a path (
a/b/c=> adda/,a/b/)
- Force recursive: Brute force recursively all found paths, not just paths end with
-
If there are sub-directories that you do not want to brute-force recursively, use
--exclude-subdirs
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target -r --exclude-subdirs image/,media/,css/
The thread number (-t | --threads) reflects the number of separated brute force processes. And so the bigger the thread number is, the faster dirsearch or insect runs. By default, the number of threads is 25, but you can increase it if you want to speed up the progress.
In spite of that, the speed still depends a lot on the response time of the server. And as a warning, we advise you to keep the threads number not too big because it can cause DoS (Denial of Service).
python3 insect.py -e php,htm,js,bak,zip,tgz,txt -u https://target -t 20
- --prefixes: Add custom prefixes to all entries
python3 insect.py -e php -u https://target --prefixes .,admin,_
Wordlist:
tools
Generated with prefixes:
tools
.tools
admintools
_tools
- --suffixes: Add custom suffixes to all entries
python3 insect.py -e php -u https://target --suffixes ~
Wordlist:
index.php
internal
Generated with suffixes:
index.php
internal
index.php~
internal~
Inside the db/ folder, there are several "blacklist files". Paths in those files will be filtered from the scan result if they have the same status as mentioned in the filename.
Example: If you add admin.php into db/403_blacklist.txt, whenever you do a scan that admin.php returns 403, it will be filtered from the result.
Use -i | --include-status and -x | --exclude-status to select allowed and not allowed response status-codes
For more advanced filters: --exclude-sizes, --exclude-texts, --exclude-regexps, --exclude-redirects and --exclude-response
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --exclude-sizes 1B,243KB
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --exclude-texts "403 Forbidden"
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --exclude-regexps "^Error$"
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --exclude-redirects "https://(.*).okta.com/*"
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --exclude-response /error.html
dirsearch or insect are allows you to import the raw request from a file. The content would be something looked like this:
GET /admin HTTP/1.1
Host: admin.example.com
Cache-Control: max-age=0
Accept: */*Since there is no way for dirsearch or insect to know what the URI scheme is, you need to set it using the --scheme flag. By default, dirsearch and insect automatically detects the scheme.
Supported wordlist formats: uppercase, lowercase, capitalization
admin
index.html
ADMIN
INDEX.HTML
Admin
Index.html
Use -X | --exclude-extensions with an extension list will remove all paths in the wordlist that contains the given extensions
python3 insect.py -u https://target -X jsp
Wordlist:
admin.php
test.jsp
After:
admin.php
- From an URL, you can scan a list of sub-directories with --subdirs.
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --subdirs /,admin/,folder/
dirsearch and insect supports SOCKS and HTTP proxy, with two options: a proxy server or a list of proxy servers.
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --proxy 127.0.0.1:8080
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --proxy socks5://10.10.0.1:8080
python3 insect.py -e php,html,js -u https://target --proxylist proxyservers.txt
Supported report formats: simple, plain, json, xml, md, csv, html, sqlite
python3 insect.py -e php -l URLs.txt --format plain -o report.txt
python3 insect.py -e php -u https://target --format html -o target.json
cat urls.txt | python3 insect.py --stdin
python3 insect.py -u https://target --max-time 360
python3 insect.py -u https://target --auth admin:pass --auth-type basic
python3 insect.py -u https://target --header-list rate-limit-bypasses.txt
There are more to discover, try yourself!
Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | bashTo use docker you need superuser power
To create image
docker build -t "dirsearch:v0.4.2" .
docker build -t "insect:latest" .dirsearch is the name of the image and v0.4.2 is the version
insect is the name of the image and latest is the version
For using
docker run -it --rm "insect:latest" -u target -e php,html,js,zip- Comprehensive Guide on Dirsearch by Shubham Sharma
- Comprehensive Guide on Dirsearch Part 2 by Shubham Sharma
- How to Find Hidden Web Directories with Dirsearch by GeeksforGeeks
- GUÍA COMPLETA SOBRE EL USO DE DIRSEARCH by ESGEEKS
- How to use Dirsearch to detect web directories by EHacking
- dirsearch how to by VK9 Security
- Find Hidden Web Directories with Dirsearch by Wonder How To
- Brute force directories and files in webservers using dirsearch by Raj Upadhyay
- Live Bug Bounty Recon Session on Yahoo (Amass, crts.sh, dirsearch) w/ @TheDawgyg by Nahamsec
- Dirsearch to find Hidden Web Directories by Irfan Shakeel
- Getting access to 25000 employees details by Sahil Ahamad
- Best Tools For Directory Bruteforcing by Shubham Goyal
- Discover hidden files & directories on a webserver - dirsearch full tutorial by CYBER BYTES
- Low protection directories find by using insect- example. by nu11secur1ty
- The server has requests limit? That's bad, but feel free to bypass it, by randomizing proxy with
--proxy-list - Want to find out config files or backups? Try
--suffixes ~and--prefixes . - Want to find only folders/directories? Why not combine
--remove-extensionsand--suffixes /! - The mix of
--cidr,-F,-qand will reduce most of noises + false negatives when brute-forcing with a CIDR - Scan a list of URLs, but don't want to see a 429 flood?
--skip-on-status 429will help you to skip a target whenever it returns 429 - The server contains large files that slow down the scan? You might want to use
HEADHTTP method instead ofGET - Brute-forcing CIDR is slow? Probably you forgot to reduce request timeout and request retries. Suggest:
--timeout 3 --retries 1
We have been receiving a lot of helps from many people around the world to improve this tool. Thanks so much to everyone who have helped us so far! See CONTRIBUTORS.md to know who they are.
Copyright (C) Mauro Soria (maurosoria@gmail.com)
Development for 2022 (C) nu11secur1ty (https://nu11secur1ty.com/)
License: GNU General Public License, version 2