FIND VULNERABILITIES USING NIKTO

Nikto is a web scanner which test the web servers /URL of the target. Nikto performs the comprehensive scan, checks the outdated version of servers. It scans over 6700 vulnerable programs/directories. Nikto checks the configuration of the server like multiple index files, backup files lying on the server and other things. This tool is currently maintained by David Lodge but lot of contributors has involved in making of the tool.

As per past researches done by ethical hacker in international institute of cyber security, nikto examine the web servers/URLs and can be used in further hacking activities.

To launch nikto simply type nikto –help in linux terminal. This tool is preinstalled in kali linux distribution.

===============OUTPUT SNIP==============

• In the above screen shot, nikto also offers full list of options which tells what exactly each and every option perform while scanning the target.

FOR SCANNING THE URL:-

• Type nikto -h http://testphp.vulnweb.com/

• After scanning URL, the query has detected that XSS header is not encrypted so any attacker can use script attack method to hijack the scripts of the target.
• In the above scanned output there is another vulnerability with OSVDB-8450. This OSVDB (Open Sourced Vulnerability Database) entry can be found on google by simply typing the OSVDB no:- OSVDB-8450 on google search. One of the link found while searching this OSVDB details can be seen below:

• In the above screen shot, the vulnerability can reveal the directories on the remote server. This Attacker can also use the brute force method to find the password. This vulnerability can be exploited as shown below:

http:///mysql/db_details_importdocsql.php?submit_show=true&do=import&docpath=%5B../../../]

SCAN USING ANY PLUGINS:-

• Type nikto -h http://testphp.vulnweb.com/ plugins:cookie

• The plugin cookie is used in grabbing the cookies of the target. If particular vulnerability found, it can be used in session hijacking.
• Attacker can gain some unauthorised information which not publicly available. This scan might show some credentials of the target.

Note:- If you know some specific URL about the target, you can try some other options according to scan but default provide a lot of information on the targets. Any website with IDS(Intrusion Detection System) will detect that you are scanning their website. Nikto is used to find vulnerabilities not to steal information.