# nikto Cheatsheet - Cheatsheets - Launch Pad

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# nikto Cheatsheet

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Nikto is an open source web server scanner that performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 6700 potentially dangerous files/programs, outdated versions, and version-specific problems.

## Basic Usage

- nikto -h <host> - Basic scan

- nikto -h http://example.com - Scan with protocol

- nikto -h 192.168.1.1 -p 8080 - Scan specific port

## Target Options

- -h, -host - Target host

- -p, -port - Target port (default 80)

- -ssl - Force SSL mode

- -nossl - Disable SSL

- -vhost - Virtual host

- -root - Prepend path to all requests

## Scan Options

- -Tuning <x> - Scan tuning (see below)

- -Plugins <plugins> - Select plugins

- -list-plugins - List available plugins

- -update - Update databases and plugins

- -dbcheck - Check database syntax

## Tuning Options

Use with -Tuning flag:

- 0 - File upload
- 1 - Interesting file/log
- 2 - Misconfiguration/default file
- 3 - Information disclosure
- 4 - Injection (XSS/Script/HTML)
- 5 - Remote file retrieval (inside root)
- 6 - Denial of service
- 7 - Remote file retrieval (server wide)
- 8 - Command execution/remote shell
- 9 - SQL injection
- a - Authentication bypass
- b - Software identification
- c - Remote source inclusion
- x - Reverse tuning (exclude)

## Output Options

- -o, -output - Output file

- -Format <format> - Output format (csv, htm, txt, xml, json)

- -Display <option> - Display options

- -nointeractive - Disable interactive features

### Display Options

- 1 - Show redirects
- 2 - Show cookies
- 3 - Show 200/OK responses
- 4 - Show URLs requiring auth
- D - Debug output
- E - HTTP errors
- P - Print progress
- V - Verbose

## Authentication

- -id user:pass - HTTP basic auth

- -id user:pass:realm - Auth with realm

## Evasion Techniques

- -evasion <technique> - IDS evasion

### Evasion Options

- 1 - Random URI encoding
- 2 - Directory self-reference (/./)
- 3 - Premature URL ending
- 4 - Long random string
- 5 - Fake parameter
- 6 - TAB as request spacer
- 7 - Random case sensitivity
- 8 - Windows directory separator (\)
- A - Use carriage return
- B - Use binary value 0x0b

## Proxy Options

- -useproxy - Use proxy from config

- -useproxy http://proxy:port - Use specific proxy

## Performance

- -timeout - Request timeout (default 10)

- -Pause - Pause between tests

- -maxtime - Max scan time per host

- -until - Run until specific time

## Common Examples

### Basic Scan

    nikto -h example.com

Standard vulnerability scan.

### SSL Scan

    nikto -h example.com -ssl

Scan HTTPS site.

### Multiple Ports

    nikto -h example.com -p 80,443,8080

Scan multiple ports.

### Save Report

    nikto -h example.com -o report.html -Format htm

Generate HTML report.

### Specific Tests

    nikto -h example.com -Tuning 9

SQL injection tests only.

### Exclude Tests

    nikto -h example.com -Tuning x6

Skip DoS tests.

### With Authentication

    nikto -h example.com -id admin:password

Scan with HTTP basic auth.

### Evasion Mode

    nikto -h example.com -evasion 1,2,7

Use evasion techniques.

### Full Verbose Scan

    nikto -h example.com -Display V -o full_scan.txt

Verbose output with log.

## Configuration

### Config File

- /etc/nikto.conf - System config
- nikto.conf - Local config

### Update Databases

    nikto -update

## Tips

- Run -update regularly for latest tests

- Use -Tuning to focus on specific vulnerability types

- Nikto is noisy - it will be detected by IDS

- Use -evasion for basic IDS evasion

- Combine with other tools like nmap and dirb

- HTML reports are good for documentation

- Some tests can be harmful - use -Tuning x6 to skip DoS

- Always get authorization before scanning

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