Free Web application security testing tools you need to get to know
I’ve always touted the fact that you need good tools to get good security testing results. By and large, I’ve found that commercial products tend to provide better results than their freeware and open source counterparts. This seems to be especially important when testing Web applications.
That said, I know budget constraints and time-to-test are often a factor. This is where a handful of free and open source Web application security test tools prove to be useful. The following are tools that should be in your toolkit — or at least on your radar — especially if you’re not able to justify forking out the money required by commercial alternatives. It may be a little more time-consuming and painful, but in the end you’re still going to get good results.
I almost always get my Web application assessments started with a Web site mirroring tool. This type of tool allows you to quickly root out sensitive files on your site that shouldn’t be publicly accessible. I’ve found the HTTrack Website Copier as shown in Figure 1 to be fast and reliable.
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Figure 1: HTTrack Website Copier mirroring tool
