Website Recon
About this tool
This tool allows you to discover the technologies used by a target web application - server-side and client-side. It can also scan multiple virtual hosts on the same IP.
Reconnaissance is the first phase of a penetration test, in which the pentester finds as much information as possible about the target website.
The backend and frontend technologies used by the website can lead to constructing dedicated attack vectors in which the penetration tester exploits specific vulnerabilities of the identified software type and version.
For instance, if the Website Recon tool finds the following information about the target website:
CMS: WordPress 4.1
Server: Apache 2.2
Operating system: Linuxthe next step would be to investigate if the specific version of the software is affected by known vulnerabilities (ex. version 4.1 of WordPress). If such vulnerability is found, the penetration tester can proceed to exploit the vulnerability. The operating system and the server information are also important to select the appropriate exploit to successfully compromise the system.
Parameters
Target URL: Is the address of the website which will be searched for known technologies. Must start with http:// or https://
How it works
Website Recon uses Wappalyzer as a scanning engine. It has a consistent database of web application signatures which allows it to correctly identify over 900 web technologies from more than 50 categories.
The tool looks at multiple website elements to determine its technologies:
Server HTTP response headers
HTML Meta Generator tags
Embedded JavaScript files
HTML specific content
HTML specific comments
Website's favicon