Web Application Vulnerability Scanner

Web Application Vulnerability Scanner is a software or tool which scan a web application to find out a potential vulnerabilities and security structure flaws, Web Application Vulnerability Scanner is mainly used for Black-Box Testing because Penetration tester has no access of source code.

Currently almost every business needs a web application for their business with help of these web applications they manage their works more easily and it is used for business promotions over the internet so web applications is an easy target for attackers and hundreds of web apps compromised/hacked daily.

To protect web applications, Vulnerability Assessment is most common practice to find out loop holes and security breaches in their security architecture.

In this article I’m going to discuss about Top 5 Web Application Vulnerability Scanners with the help of these scanners we can find-out loopholes and vulnerability by which our web application being compromised and we hack ourself before we get hacked.

BurpSuite

Burp or Burp Suite is a graphical tool for testing Web application security. The tool is written in Java and developed by PortSwigger Security. The tool has two versions. A free version that can be downloaded free of charge (Free Edition) and a full version that can be purchased after a trial period (Professional Edition). The free version has significantly reduced functionality. It was developed to provide a comprehensive solution for web application security checks. In addition to basic functionality, such as proxy server, scanner and intruder, the tool also contains more advanced options such as a spider, a repeater, a decoder, a comparer, an extender and a sequencer.

Acunetix

Acunetix is the leading web vulnerability scanner used by serious Fortune 500 companies and widely acclaimed to include the most advanced SQL injection and XSS black box scanning technology. It automatically crawls your websites and performs black box AND grey box hacking techniques which finds dangerous vulnerabilities that can compromise your website and data.

Nikto

Nikto is an Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 6700 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, checks for outdated versions of over 1250 servers, and version specific problems on over 270 servers. It also checks for server configuration items such as the presence of multiple index files, HTTP server options, and will attempt to identify installed web servers and software. Scan items and plugins are frequently updated and can be automatically updated.

OWASP ZAP

OWASP ZAP (short for Zed Attack Proxy) is an open-source web application security scanner. It is intended to be used by both those new to application security as well as professional penetration testers. It is one of the most active OWASP projects and has been given Flagship status. It is also fully internationalized and is being translated into over 25 languages.When used as a proxy server it allows the user to manipulate all of the traffic that passes through it, including traffic using https. It can also run in a ‘daemon’ mode which is then controlled via a REST Application programming interface. This cross-platform tool is written in Java and is available in all of the popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Vega

Vega is a free and open source web security scanner and web security testing platform to test the security of web applications. Vega can help you find and validate SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), inadvertently disclosed sensitive information, and other vulnerabilities. It is written in Java, GUI based, and runs on Linux, OS X, and Windows. Vega can help you find vulnerabilities such as: reflected cross-site scripting, stored cross-site scripting, blind SQL injection, remote file include, shell injection, and others. Vega also probes for TLS / SSL security settings and identifies opportunities for improving the security of your TLS servers. Vega includes an automated scanner for quick tests and an intercepting proxy for tactical inspection. The Vega scanner finds XSS (cross-site scripting), SQL injection, and other vulnerabilities. Vega can be extended using a powerful API in the language of the web: Javascript.