Scanning for OWASP Top 10 With w3af – An Open-source Web Application Security Scanner

w3af is an open-source web application security scanner (OWASP Top 10) that enables developers and penetration testers to distinguish and exploit vulnerabilities in their web applications, especially OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities.

This tool also provides GUI framework but sadly most of the time GUI mode hangs up, most recommended is to work with w3afconsole.

It is also called “Metasploit for the web” but actually, it is more than that. w3af uses black-box scanning techniques and it has more than 130 plugins and can detect 200+ vulnerabilities including XSS, Injection, LFI, RFI, CSRF, and more.

Also, you can learn Advanced Pentesting and Web Hacking – Scratch to Advance level course

Scanning OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities with w3af

To start with w3af root@kali:~# w3af and then load the help menu w3af>>> help.

To navigate the profiles w3af>>> profiles and to list all the possible options  w3af/profiles>>> list

You need to select the Profile as OWASP_10 w3af/profiles>>> use OWASP_10

Also read: How to Do Penetration Testing with Your WordPress website detailed Explanation

Then you need to define the target to start the Scan w3af/profiles>>>back. to get back to the main menu and then

w3af>>> target

w3af/config:target>>> set target domain.com

w3af/config:target>>> save

w3af/config:target>>> back

It will save all the configurations.

Also Read: XSSer automated framework to detect, exploit and report XSS vulnerabilities

Then you need to start the scan with w3af.

w3af >> start

Normally scan will take around 20 minutes to complete all OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities, depending upon the target it may vary. Happy pentesting!!

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