feroxbuster is a tool designed to perform Forced Browsing.
Forced browsing is an attack where the aim is to enumerate and access resources that are not referenced by the web application, but are still accessible by an attacker.
feroxbuster uses brute force combined with a wordlist to search for unlinked content in target directories. These resources may store sensitive information about web applications and operational systems, such as source code, credentials, internal network addressing, etc…
This attack is also known as Predictable Resource Location, File Enumeration, Directory Enumeration, and Resource Enumeration.
Installation
Download a Release
Releases for multiple architectures can be found in the Releases section. The latest release for each of the following systems can be downloaded and executed as shown below.
Linux (32 and 64-bit) & MacOS
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/epi052/feroxbuster/master/install-nix.sh | bash
Windows x86
https://github.com/epi052/feroxbuster/releases/latest/download/x86-windows-feroxbuster.exe.zip
Expand-Archive .\feroxbuster.zip
.\feroxbuster\feroxbuster.exe -VWindows x86_64
Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/epi052/feroxbuster/releases/latest/download/x86_64-windows-feroxbuster.exe.zip -OutFile feroxbuster.zip
Expand-Archive .\feroxbuster.zip
.\feroxbuster\feroxbuster.exe -VSnap Install
Install using snap
sudo snap install feroxbuster
The only gotcha here is that the snap package can only read wordlists from a few specific locations. There are a few possible solutions, of which two are shown below.
If the wordlist is on the same partition as your home directory, it can be hard-linked into ~/snap/feroxbuster/common
ln /path/to/the/wordlist ~/snap/feroxbuster/common
./feroxbuster -u http://localhost -w ~/snap/feroxbuster/common/wordlistIf the wordlist is on a separate partition, hard-linking won’t work. You’ll need to copy it into the snap directory.
cp /path/to/the/wordlist ~/snap/feroxbuster/common
./feroxbuster -u http://localhost -w ~/snap/feroxbuster/common/wordlistHomebrew on MacOS and Linux
Install using Homebrew via tap
MacOS
brew tap tgotwig/feroxbuster
brew install feroxbusterLinux
brew tap tgotwig/linux-feroxbuster
brew install feroxbusterCargo Install
feroxbuster is published on crates.io, making it easy to install if you already have rust installed on your system.
cargo install feroxbuster
Configuration
Default Values
Configuration begins with with the following built-in default values baked into the binary:
- timeout:
7seconds - follow redirects:
false - wordlist:
/usr/share/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/raft-medium-directories.txt- threads:
50 - verbosity:
0(no logging enabled) - scan_limit:
0(no limit imposed on concurrent scans) - status_codes:
200 204 301 302 307 308 401 403 405 - user_agent:
feroxbuster/VERSION - recursion depth:
4 - auto-filter wildcards –
true - output:
stdout - save_state:
true(create a state file in cwd whenCtrl+Cis received)
Threads and Connection Limits At A High-Level
This section explains how the -t and -L options work together to determine the overall aggressiveness of a scan. The combination of the two values set by these options determines how hard your target will get hit and to some extent also determines how many resources will be consumed on your local machine.
A Note on Green Threads
feroxbuster uses so-called green threads as opposed to traditional kernel/OS threads. This means (at a high-level) that the threads are implemented entirely in userspace, within a single running process. As a result, a scan with 30 green threads will appear to the OS to be a single process with no additional light-weight processes associated with it as far as the kernel is concerned. As such, there will not be any impact to process (nproc) limits when specifying larger values for -t. However, these threads will still consume file descriptors, so you will need to ensure that you have a suitable nlimit set when scaling up the amount of threads. More detailed documentation on setting appropriate nlimit values can be found in the No File Descriptors Available section of the FAQ
Threads and Connection Limits: The Implementation
- Threads: The
-toption specifies the maximum amount of active threads per-directory during a scan - Connection Limits: The
-Loption specifies the maximum amount of active connections per thread
Threads and Connection Limits: Examples
To truly have only 30 active requests to a site at any given time, -t 30 -L 1 is necessary. Using -t 30 -L 2 will result in a maximum of 60 total requests being processed at any given time for that site. And so on. For a conversation on this, please see Issue #126 which may provide more (or less) clarity
Command Line Parsing
Finally, after parsing the available config file, any options/arguments given on the commandline will override any values that were set as a built-in or config-file value.
USAGE:
feroxbuster [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] --url <URL>...
FLAGS:
-f, --add-slash Append / to each request
-D, --dont-filter Don't auto-filter wildcard responses
-e, --extract-links Extract links from response body (html, javascript, etc...); make new requests based on
findings (default: false)
-h, --help Prints help information
-k, --insecure Disables TLS certificate validation
--json Emit JSON logs to --output and --debug-log instead of normal text
-n, --no-recursion Do not scan recursively
-q, --quiet Only print URLs; Don't print status codes, response size, running config, etc...
-r, --redirects Follow redirects
--stdin Read url(s) from STDIN
-V, --version Prints version information
-v, --verbosity Increase verbosity level (use -vv or more for greater effect. [CAUTION] 4 -v's is probably
too much)
OPTIONS:
--debug-log <FILE> Output file to write log entries (use w/ --json for JSON entries)
-d, --depth <RECURSION_DEPTH> Maximum recursion depth, a depth of 0 is infinite recursion (default: 4)
-x, --extensions <FILE_EXTENSION>... File extension(s) to search for (ex: -x php -x pdf js)
-N, --filter-lines <LINES>... Filter out messages of a particular line count (ex: -N 20 -N 31,30)
-X, --filter-regex <REGEX>... Filter out messages via regular expression matching on the response's body
(ex: -X '^ignore me$')
-S, --filter-size <SIZE>... Filter out messages of a particular size (ex: -S 5120 -S 4927,1970)
-C, --filter-status <STATUS_CODE>... Filter out status codes (deny list) (ex: -C 200 -C 401)
-W, --filter-words <WORDS>... Filter out messages of a particular word count (ex: -W 312 -W 91,82)
-H, --headers <HEADER>... Specify HTTP headers (ex: -H Header:val 'stuff: things')
-o, --output <FILE> Output file to write results to (use w/ --json for JSON entries)
-p, --proxy <PROXY> Proxy to use for requests (ex: http(s)://host:port, socks5(h)://host:port)
-Q, --query <QUERY>... Specify URL query parameters (ex: -Q token=stuff -Q secret=key)
-R, --replay-codes <REPLAY_CODE>... Status Codes to send through a Replay Proxy when found (default: --status-
codes value)
-P, --replay-proxy <REPLAY_PROXY> Send only unfiltered requests through a Replay Proxy, instead of all
requests
--resume-from <STATE_FILE> State file from which to resume a partially complete scan (ex. --resume-from
ferox-1606586780.state)
-L, --scan-limit <SCAN_LIMIT> Limit total number of concurrent scans (default: 0, i.e. no limit)
-s, --status-codes <STATUS_CODE>... Status Codes to include (allow list) (default: 200 204 301 302 307 308 401
403 405)
-t, --threads <THREADS> Number of concurrent threads (default: 50)
--time-limit <TIME_SPEC> Limit total run time of all scans (ex: --time-limit 10m)
-T, --timeout <SECONDS> Number of seconds before a request times out (default: 7)
-u, --url <URL>... The target URL(s) (required, unless --stdin used)
-a, --user-agent <USER_AGENT> Sets the User-Agent (default: feroxbuster/VERSION)
-w, --wordlist <FILE> Path to the wordlistScan’s Display Explained
feroxbuster attempts to be intuitive and easy to understand, however, if you are wondering about any of the scan’s output and what it means, this is the section for you!
Discovered Resource
When feroxbuster finds a response that you haven’t filtered out, it’s reported above the progress bars and looks similar to what’s pictured below.
The number of lines, words, and bytes shown here can be used to filter those responses
Overall Scan Progress Bar
The top progress bar, colored yellow, tracks the overall scan status. Its fields are described in the image below.
Directory Scan Progress Bar
All other progress bars, colored cyan, represent a scan of one particular directory and will look similar to what’s below.
Example Usage
Multiple Values
Options that take multiple values are very flexible. Consider the following ways of specifying extensions:
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 -x pdf -x js,html -x php txt json,docx
The command above adds .pdf, .js, .html, .php, .txt, .json, and .docx to each url
All of the methods above (multiple flags, space separated, comma separated, etc…) are valid and interchangeable. The same goes for urls, headers, status codes, queries, and size filters.
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 -H Accept:application/json "Authorization: Bearer {token}"
IPv6, non-recursive scan with INFO-level logging enabled
./feroxbuster -u http://[::1] --no-recursion -vv
Read urls from STDIN; pipe only resulting urls out to another tool
cat targets | ./feroxbuster --stdin --quiet -s 200 301 302 --redirects -x js | fff -s 200 -o js-files
Proxy traffic through Burp
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --insecure --proxy http://127.0.0.1:8080
Proxy traffic through a SOCKS proxy (including DNS lookups)
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --proxy socks5h://127.0.0.1:9050
Pass auth token via query parameter
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --query token=0123456789ABCDEF
Extract Links from Response Body (New in v1.1.0)
Search through the body of valid responses (html, javascript, etc…) for additional endpoints to scan. This turns feroxbuster into a hybrid that looks for both linked and unlinked content.
Example request/response with --extract-links enabled:
- Make request to
http://example.com/index.html - Receive, and read in, the
bodyof the response - Search the
bodyfor absolute and relative links - Add the following directories for recursive scanning:
http://example.com/homepagehttp://example.com/homepage/assetshttp://example.com/homepage/assets/imghttp://example.com/homepage/assets/img/icons
- Make a single request to
http://example.com/homepage/assets/img/icons/handshake.svg./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --extract-links
Here’s a comparison of a wordlist-only scan vs --extract-links using Feline from Hack the Box:
Wordlist only
With --extract-links
Limit Total Number of Concurrent Scans (new in v1.2.0)
Limit the number of scans permitted to run at any given time. Recursion will still identify new directories, but newly discovered directories can only begin scanning when the total number of active scans drops below the value passed to --scan-limit.
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --scan-limit 2
Filter Response by Status Code (new in v1.3.0)
Version 1.3.0 included an overhaul to the filtering system which will allow for a wide array of filters to be added with minimal effort. The first such filter is a Status Code Filter. As responses come back from the scanned server, each one is checked against a list of known filters and either displayed or not according to which filters are set.
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --filter-status 301
Pause an Active Scan (new in v1.4.0)
NOTE: v1.12.0 added an interactive menu to the pause/resume functionality. Active scans can still be paused, however, now you’re presented with the option to cancel a scan instead of simply seeing a spinner.
Scans can be paused and resumed by pressing the ENTER key (shown below, please see v1.12.0‘s entry for the latest visual representation)
Replay Responses to a Proxy based on Status Code (new in v1.5.0)
The --replay-proxy and --replay-codes options were added as a way to only send a select few responses to a proxy. This is in stark contrast to --proxy which proxies EVERY request.
Imagine you only care about proxying responses that have either the status code 200 or 302 (or you just don’t want to clutter up your Burp history). These two options will allow you to fine-tune what gets proxied and what doesn’t.
./feroxbuster -u http://127.1 --replay-proxy http://localhost:8080 --replay-codes 200 302 --insecure
Of note: this means that for every response that matches your replay criteria, you’ll end up sending the request that generated that response a second time. Depending on the target and your engagement terms (if any), it may not make sense from a traffic generated perspective.
Stop and Resume Scans (–resume-from FILE) (new in v1.9.0)
Version 1.9.0 adds a few features that allow for completely stopping a scan, and resuming that same scan from a file on disk.
A simple Ctrl+C during a scan will create a file that contains information about the scan that was cancelled.
// example snippet of state file
{
"scans": [
{
"id": "057016a14769414aac9a7a62707598cb",
"url": "https://localhost.com",
"scan_type": "Directory",
"complete": true
},
{
"id": "400b2323a16f43468a04ffcbbeba34c6",
"url": "https://localhost.com/css",
"scan_type": "Directory",
"complete": false
}
],
"config": {
"wordlist": "/wordlists/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/common.txt",
"...": "..."
},
"responses": [
{
"type": "response",
"url": "https://localhost.com/Login",
"path": "/Login",
"wildcard": false,
"status": 302,
"content_length": 0,
"line_count": 0,
"word_count": 0,
"headers": {
"content-length": "0",
"server": "nginx/1.16.1"
}
}
]
},Based on the example image above, the same scan can be resumed by using feroxbuster --resume-from ferox-http_localhost-1606947491.state. Directories that were already complete are not rescanned, however partially complete scans are started from the beginning.
Enforce a Time Limit on Your Scan (new in v1.10.0)
Version 1.10.0 adds the ability to set a maximum runtime, or time limit, on your scan. The usage is pretty simple: a number followed directly by a single character representing seconds, minutes, hours, or days. feroxbuster refers to this combination as a time_spec.
Examples of possible time_specs:
30s– 30 seconds20m– 20 minutes1h– 1 hour1d– 1 day (why??)
A valid time_spec can be passed to --time-limit in order to force a shutdown after the given time has elapsed.
Extract Links from robots.txt (New in v1.10.2)
In addition to extracting links from the response body, using --extract-links makes a request to /robots.txt and examines all Allow and Disallow entries. Directory entries are added to the scan queue, while file entries are requested and then reported if appropriate.
Comparison w/ Similar Tools
There are quite a few similar tools for forced browsing/content discovery. Burp Suite Pro, Dirb, Dirbuster, etc… However, in my opinion, there are two that set the standard: gobuster and ffuf. Both are mature, feature-rich, and all-around incredible tools to use.
So, why would you ever want to use feroxbuster over ffuf/gobuster? In most cases, you probably won’t. ffuf in particular can do the vast majority of things that feroxbuster can, while still offering boatloads more functionality. Here are a few of the use-cases in which feroxbuster may be a better fit:
- You want a simple tool usage experience
- You want to be able to run your content discovery as part of some crazy 12 command unix pipeline extravaganza
- You want to scan through a SOCKS proxy
- You want auto-filtering of Wildcard responses by default
- You want an integrated link extractor/robots.txt parser to increase discovered endpoints
- You want recursion along with some other thing mentioned above (ffuf also does recursion)
- You want a configuration file option for overriding built-in default values for your scans
| ✔ | ✔ | ||
extracts links from response body to increase scan coverage (v1.1.0) | ✔ | ||
limit number of concurrent recursive scans (v1.2.0) | ✔ | ||
filter out responses by status code (v1.3.0) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
interactive pause and resume of active scan (v1.4.0) | ✔ | ||
replay only matched requests to a proxy (v1.5.0) | ✔ | ✔ | |
filter out responses by line & word count (v1.6.0) | ✔ | ✔ | |
json output (ffuf supports other formats as well) (v1.7.0) | ✔ | ✔ | |
filter out responses by regular expression (v1.8.0) | ✔ | ✔ | |
save scan’s state to disk (can pick up where it left off) (v1.9.0) | ✔ | ||
maximum run time limit (v1.10.0) | ✔ | ✔ | |
use robots.txt to increase scan coverage (v1.10.2) | ✔ | ||
use example page’s response to fuzzily filter similar pages (v1.11.0) | ✔ | ||
cancel a recursive scan interactively (v1.12.0) | ✔ | ||
| huge number of other options | ✔ |
Of note, there’s another written-in-rust content discovery tool, rustbuster. I came across rustbuster when I was naming my tool (😢). I don’t have any experience using it, but it appears to be able to do POST requests with an HTTP body, has SOCKS support, and has an 8.3 shortname scanner (in addition to vhost dns, directory, etc…). In short, it definitely looks interesting and may be what you’re looking for as it has some capability I haven’t seen in similar tools.
In the event you see an error similar to
error trying to connect: error:1416F086:SSL routines:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed:ssl/statem/statem_clnt.c:1913: (self signed certificate)
You just need to add the -k|--insecure flag to your command.
feroxbuster rejects self-signed certs and other “insecure” certificates/site configurations by default. You can choose to scan these services anyway by telling feroxbuster to ignore insecure server certs.
feroxbuster (this link opens in a new window) by epi052 (this link opens in a new window)
A fast, simple, recursive content discovery tool written in Rust.