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Nuclei is used to send requests across targets based on a template, leading to zero false positives and providing fast scanning on a large number of hosts. Nuclei offers scanning for a variety of protocols, including TCP, DNS, HTTP, SSL, File, Whois, Websocket, Headless, Code etc. With powerful and flexible templating, Nuclei can be used to model all kinds of security checks.
We have a dedicated repository that houses various type of vulnerability templates contributed by more than 300 security researchers and engineers.
| ❗ Disclaimer |
|---|
| This project is in active development. Expect breaking changes with releases. Review the release changelog before updating. |
| This project was primarily built to be used as a standalone CLI tool. Running nuclei as a service may pose security risks. It's recommended to use with caution and additional security measures. |
Nuclei requires go1.21 to install successfully. Run the following command to install the latest version -
go install -v github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei/v3/cmd/nuclei@latestBrew
brew install nucleiDocker
docker pull projectdiscovery/nuclei:latestMore installation methods can be found here.
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Nuclei has built-in support for automatic template download/update as default since version v2.5.2. Nuclei-Templates project provides a community-contributed list of ready-to-use templates that is constantly updated. You may still use the The YAML DSL reference syntax is available here. |
nuclei -hThis will display help for the tool. Here are all the switches it supports.
Nuclei is a fast, template based vulnerability scanner focusing
on extensive configurability, massive extensibility and ease of use.
Usage:
./nuclei [flags]
Flags:
TARGET:
-u, -target string[] target URLs/hosts to scan
-l, -list string path to file containing a list of target URLs/hosts to scan (one per line)
-eh, -exclude-hosts string[] hosts to exclude to scan from the input list (ip, cidr, hostname)
-resume string resume scan using resume.cfg (clustering will be disabled)
-sa, -scan-all-ips scan all the IP's associated with dns record
-iv, -ip-version string[] IP version to scan of hostname (4,6) - (default 4)
TARGET-FORMAT:
-im, -input-mode string mode of input file (list, burp, jsonl, yaml, openapi, swagger) (default "list")
-ro, -required-only use only required fields in input format when generating requests
-sfv, -skip-format-validation skip format validation (like missing vars) when parsing input file
TEMPLATES:
-nt, -new-templates run only new templates added in latest nuclei-templates release
-ntv, -new-templates-version string[] run new templates added in specific version
-as, -automatic-scan automatic web scan using wappalyzer technology detection to tags mapping
-t, -templates string[] list of template or template directory to run (comma-separated, file)
-turl, -template-url string[] template url or list containing template urls to run (comma-separated, file)
-w, -workflows string[] list of workflow or workflow directory to run (comma-separated, file)
-wurl, -workflow-url string[] workflow url or list containing workflow urls to run (comma-separated, file)
-validate validate the passed templates to nuclei
-nss, -no-strict-syntax disable strict syntax check on templates
-td, -template-display displays the templates content
-tl list all available templates
-tgl list all available tags
-sign signs the templates with the private key defined in NUCLEI_SIGNATURE_PRIVATE_KEY env variable
-code enable loading code protocol-based templates
-dut, -disable-unsigned-templates disable running unsigned templates or templates with mismatched signature
FILTERING:
-a, -author string[] templates to run based on authors (comma-separated, file)
-tags string[] templates to run based on tags (comma-separated, file)
-etags, -exclude-tags string[] templates to exclude based on tags (comma-separated, file)
-itags, -include-tags string[] tags to be executed even if they are excluded either by default or configuration
-id, -template-id string[] templates to run based on template ids (comma-separated, file, allow-wildcard)
-eid, -exclude-id string[] templates to exclude based on template ids (comma-separated, file)
-it, -include-templates string[] path to template file or directory to be executed even if they are excluded either by default or configuration
-et, -exclude-templates string[] path to template file or directory to exclude (comma-separated, file)
-em, -exclude-matchers string[] template matchers to exclude in result
-s, -severity value[] templates to run based on severity. Possible values: info, low, medium, high, critical, unknown
-es, -exclude-severity value[] templates to exclude based on severity. Possible values: info, low, medium, high, critical, unknown
-pt, -type value[] templates to run based on protocol type. Possible values: dns, file, http, headless, tcp, workflow, ssl, websocket, whois, code, javascript
-ept, -exclude-type value[] templates to exclude based on protocol type. Possible values: dns, file, http, headless, tcp, workflow, ssl, websocket, whois, code, javascript
-tc, -template-condition string[] templates to run based on expression condition
OUTPUT:
-o, -output string output file to write found issues/vulnerabilities
-sresp, -store-resp store all request/response passed through nuclei to output directory
-srd, -store-resp-dir string store all request/response passed through nuclei to custom directory (default "output")
-silent display findings only
-nc, -no-color disable output content coloring (ANSI escape codes)
-j, -jsonl write output in JSONL(ines) format
-irr, -include-rr -omit-raw include request/response pairs in the JSON, JSONL, and Markdown outputs (for findings only) [DEPRECATED use -omit-raw] (default true)
-or, -omit-raw omit request/response pairs in the JSON, JSONL, and Markdown outputs (for findings only)
-ot, -omit-template omit encoded template in the JSON, JSONL output
-nm, -no-meta disable printing result metadata in cli output
-ts, -timestamp enables printing timestamp in cli output
-rdb, -report-db string nuclei reporting database (always use this to persist report data)
-ms, -matcher-status display match failure status
-me, -markdown-export string directory to export results in markdown format
-se, -sarif-export string file to export results in SARIF format
-je, -json-export string file to export results in JSON format
-jle, -jsonl-export string file to export results in JSONL(ine) format
CONFIGURATIONS:
-config string path to the nuclei configuration file
-tp, -profile string template profile config file to run
-tpl, -profile-list list community template profiles
-fr, -follow-redirects enable following redirects for http templates
-fhr, -follow-host-redirects follow redirects on the same host
-mr, -max-redirects int max number of redirects to follow for http templates (default 10)
-dr, -disable-redirects disable redirects for http templates
-rc, -report-config string nuclei reporting module configuration file
-H, -header string[] custom header/cookie to include in all http request in header:value format (cli, file)
-V, -var value custom vars in key=value format
-r, -resolvers string file containing resolver list for nuclei
-sr, -system-resolvers use system DNS resolving as error fallback
-dc, -disable-clustering disable clustering of requests
-passive enable passive HTTP response processing mode
-fh2, -force-http2 force http2 connection on requests
-ev, -env-vars enable environment variables to be used in template
-cc, -client-cert string client certificate file (PEM-encoded) used for authenticating against scanned hosts
-ck, -client-key string client key file (PEM-encoded) used for authenticating against scanned hosts
-ca, -client-ca string client certificate authority file (PEM-encoded) used for authenticating against scanned hosts
-sml, -show-match-line show match lines for file templates, works with extractors only
-ztls use ztls library with autofallback to standard one for tls13 [Deprecated] autofallback to ztls is enabled by default
-sni string tls sni hostname to use (default: input domain name)
-dka, -dialer-keep-alive value keep-alive duration for network requests.
-lfa, -allow-local-file-access allows file (payload) access anywhere on the system
-lna, -restrict-local-network-access blocks connections to the local / private network
-i, -interface string network interface to use for network scan
-at, -attack-type string type of payload combinations to perform (batteringram,pitchfork,clusterbomb)
-sip, -source-ip string source ip address to use for network scan
-rsr, -response-size-read int max response size to read in bytes
-rss, -response-size-save int max response size to read in bytes (default 1048576)
-reset reset removes all nuclei configuration and data files (including nuclei-templates)
-tlsi, -tls-impersonate enable experimental client hello (ja3) tls randomization
-hae, -http-api-endpoint string experimental http api endpoint
INTERACTSH:
-iserver, -interactsh-server string interactsh server url for self-hosted instance (default: oast.pro,oast.live,oast.site,oast.online,oast.fun,oast.me)
-itoken, -interactsh-token string authentication token for self-hosted interactsh server
-interactions-cache-size int number of requests to keep in the interactions cache (default 5000)
-interactions-eviction int number of seconds to wait before evicting requests from cache (default 60)
-interactions-poll-duration int number of seconds to wait before each interaction poll request (default 5)
-interactions-cooldown-period int extra time for interaction polling before exiting (default 5)
-ni, -no-interactsh disable interactsh server for OAST testing, exclude OAST based templates
FUZZING:
-ft, -fuzzing-type string overrides fuzzing type set in template (replace, prefix, postfix, infix)
-fm, -fuzzing-mode string overrides fuzzing mode set in template (multiple, single)
-fuzz enable loading fuzzing templates (Deprecated: use -dast instead)
-dast enable / run dast (fuzz) nuclei templates
-dfp, -display-fuzz-points display fuzz points in the output for debugging
-fuzz-param-frequency int frequency of uninteresting parameters for fuzzing before skipping (default 10)
-fa, -fuzz-aggression string fuzzing aggression level controls payload count for fuzz (low, medium, high) (default "low")
UNCOVER:
-uc, -uncover enable uncover engine
-uq, -uncover-query string[] uncover search query
-ue, -uncover-engine string[] uncover search engine (shodan,censys,fofa,shodan-idb,quake,hunter,zoomeye,netlas,criminalip,publicwww,hunterhow,google) (default shodan)
-uf, -uncover-field string uncover fields to return (ip,port,host) (default "ip:port")
-ul, -uncover-limit int uncover results to return (default 100)
-ur, -uncover-ratelimit int override ratelimit of engines with unknown ratelimit (default 60 req/min) (default 60)
RATE-LIMIT:
-rl, -rate-limit int maximum number of requests to send per second (default 150)
-rld, -rate-limit-duration value maximum number of requests to send per second (default 1s)
-rlm, -rate-limit-minute int maximum number of requests to send per minute (DEPRECATED)
-bs, -bulk-size int maximum number of hosts to be analyzed in parallel per template (default 25)
-c, -concurrency int maximum number of templates to be executed in parallel (default 25)
-hbs, -headless-bulk-size int maximum number of headless hosts to be analyzed in parallel per template (default 10)
-headc, -headless-concurrency int maximum number of headless templates to be executed in parallel (default 10)
-jsc, -js-concurrency int maximum number of javascript runtimes to be executed in parallel (default 120)
-pc, -payload-concurrency int max payload concurrency for each template (default 25)
-prc, -probe-concurrency int http probe concurrency with httpx (default 50)
OPTIMIZATIONS:
-timeout int time to wait in seconds before timeout (default 10)
-retries int number of times to retry a failed request (default 1)
-ldp, -leave-default-ports leave default HTTP/HTTPS ports (eg. host:80,host:443)
-mhe, -max-host-error int max errors for a host before skipping from scan (default 30)
-te, -track-error string[] adds given error to max-host-error watchlist (standard, file)
-nmhe, -no-mhe disable skipping host from scan based on errors
-project use a project folder to avoid sending same request multiple times
-project-path string set a specific project path (default "/tmp")
-spm, -stop-at-first-match stop processing HTTP requests after the first match (may break template/workflow logic)
-stream stream mode - start elaborating without sorting the input
-ss, -scan-strategy value strategy to use while scanning(auto/host-spray/template-spray) (default auto)
-irt, -input-read-timeout value timeout on input read (default 3m0s)
-nh, -no-httpx disable httpx probing for non-url input
-no-stdin disable stdin processing
HEADLESS:
-headless enable templates that require headless browser support (root user on Linux will disable sandbox)
-page-timeout int seconds to wait for each page in headless mode (default 20)
-sb, -show-browser show the browser on the screen when running templates with headless mode
-ho, -headless-options string[] start headless chrome with additional options
-sc, -system-chrome use local installed Chrome browser instead of nuclei installed
-lha, -list-headless-action list available headless actions
DEBUG:
-debug show all requests and responses
-dreq, -debug-req show all sent requests
-dresp, -debug-resp show all received responses
-p, -proxy string[] list of http/socks5 proxy to use (comma separated or file input)
-pi, -proxy-internal proxy all internal requests
-ldf, -list-dsl-function list all supported DSL function signatures
-tlog, -trace-log string file to write sent requests trace log
-elog, -error-log string file to write sent requests error log
-version show nuclei version
-hm, -hang-monitor enable nuclei hang monitoring
-v, -verbose show verbose output
-profile-mem string optional nuclei memory profile dump file
-vv display templates loaded for scan
-svd, -show-var-dump show variables dump for debugging
-ep, -enable-pprof enable pprof debugging server
-tv, -templates-version shows the version of the installed nuclei-templates
-hc, -health-check run diagnostic check up
UPDATE:
-up, -update update nuclei engine to the latest released version
-ut, -update-templates update nuclei-templates to latest released version
-ud, -update-template-dir string custom directory to install / update nuclei-templates
-duc, -disable-update-check disable automatic nuclei/templates update check
STATISTICS:
-stats display statistics about the running scan
-sj, -stats-json display statistics in JSONL(ines) format
-si, -stats-interval int number of seconds to wait between showing a statistics update (default 5)
-mp, -metrics-port int port to expose nuclei metrics on (default 9092)
CLOUD:
-auth configure projectdiscovery cloud (pdcp) api key (default true)
-cup, -cloud-upload upload scan results to pdcp dashboard
-sid, -scan-id string upload scan results to existing scan id (optional)
-sname, -scan-name string scan name to set (optional)
AUTHENTICATION:
-sf, -secret-file string[] path to config file containing secrets for nuclei authenticated scan
-ps, -prefetch-secrets prefetch secrets from the secrets file
EXAMPLES:
Run nuclei on single host:
$ nuclei -target example.com
Run nuclei with specific template directories:
$ nuclei -target example.com -t http/cves/ -t ssl
Run nuclei against a list of hosts:
$ nuclei -list hosts.txt
Run nuclei with a JSON output:
$ nuclei -target example.com -json-export output.json
Run nuclei with sorted Markdown outputs (with environment variables):
$ MARKDOWN_EXPORT_SORT_MODE=template nuclei -target example.com -markdown-export nuclei_report/
Additional documentation is available at: https://docs.nuclei.sh/getting-started/runningSee https://docs.projectdiscovery.io/tools/nuclei/running for details on running Nuclei
Complete guide of using Nuclei as Library/SDK is available at godoc
You can access the main documentation for Nuclei at https://docs.projectdiscovery.io/tools/nuclei/, and learn more about Nuclei in the cloud with ProjectDiscovery Cloud Platform
See https://docs.projectdiscovery.io/tools/nuclei/resources for more resources and videos about Nuclei!
Thanks to all the amazing community contributors for sending PRs and keeping this project updated. ❤️
If you have an idea or some kind of improvement, you are welcome to contribute and participate in the Project, feel free to send your PR.
Do also check out the below similar open-source projects that may fit in your workflow:
FFuF, Qsfuzz, Inception, Snallygaster, Gofingerprint, Sn1per, Google tsunami, Jaeles, ChopChop
Nuclei is distributed under MIT License
