Nikto is a Perl based, open source vulnerability tool which performs wide range of tests against web servers for thousands of vulnerabilities
, outdated versions and other known issues. Since Nikto is Perl based, it can run on all operating systems with Perl installed. In this tutorial we will show you how to install and use Nikto on an Ubuntu VPS. Its installation is very easy and fast.
Nikto comes with many useful features, such as:
- Checks for outdated server components
- Save reports in plain text, XML, HTML, NBE or CSV
- Scan multiple ports or multiple servers
- Identifies installed software via headers, favicons and files
- Scan tuning to include or exclude entire classes of vulnerability
- checks
- Save full request/response for positive tests
- And many more…
First of all log in to your Ubuntu VPS as user root
ssh root@IP_ADDRESS
and make sure that all installed packages are up to date
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
Install some prerequisites
apt-get install wget unzip libnet-ssleay-perl libwhisker2-perl openssl
Go to Nikto’s official website and download the latest release to your server
cd /opt wget https://cirt.net/nikto/nikto-2.1.5.tar.gz
Unpack the downloaded tarball archive
tar xvfz nikto-2.1.5.tar.gz
This will create a new ‘nikto-2.1.5’ directory. We will rename this directory
mv nikto-2.1.5/ nikto
Change the current working directory and make the Perl script executable
cd nikto/ chmod +x nikto.pl
Update Nikto’s database and plugins
perl nikto.pl -update + Retrieving 'nikto_cookies.plugin' + Retrieving 'db_parked_strings' + Retrieving 'nikto_headers.plugin' + Retrieving 'nikto_report_csv.plugin' + Retrieving 'db_tests' + Retrieving 'CHANGES.txt' + CIRT.net message: Please submit Nikto bugs to https://github.com/sullo/nikto
For a simple test scan of your website you can run
perl nikto.pl -h yourwebsite.com
If your web server listens on different port than the default one, you can use the -p switch to specify the port.
The output of this simple scan will give you very useful information such as XSS vulnerabilities, outdated and vulnerable web applications, and many more. You can save the output to a file using the -o switch and specify the format of the output. For example, the following command will scan your website and save the outup to a html file.
perl nikto.pl -h yourwebsite.com -o scan.htm
You can check all options supported by Nikto using the -h switch
perl nikto.pl -h -config+ Use this config file -Display+ Turn on/off display outputs -dbcheck check database and other key files for syntax errors -Format+ save file (-o) format -Help Extended help information -host+ target host -id+ Host authentication to use, format is id:pass or id:pass:realm -list-plugins List all available plugins -output+ Write output to this file -nossl Disables using SSL -no404 Disables 404 checks -Plugins+ List of plugins to run (default: ALL) -port+ Port to use (default 80) -root+ Prepend root value to all requests, format is /directory -ssl Force ssl mode on port -Tuning+ Scan tuning -timeout+ Timeout for requests (default 10 seconds) -update Update databases and plugins from CIRT.net -Version Print plugin and database versions -vhost+ Virtual host (for Host header)
Further information about Nikto can be found in their official documentation.
Of course you don’t have to do any of this if you use one of our Managed VPS Hosting services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to install Nikto for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.
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