Nikto is a simple and useful web server scanner for checking websites and servers. It can find common security issues, outdated software, misconfigurations, and interesting files. Nikto is easy to use from the command line and provides different options for scanning and saving results. You can use Nikto to perform basic web server scans from the command line.
Features of Nitko:
- Scan web servers for common security issues.
- Check for outdated server software.
- Find potentially interesting files and directories.
- Check for common misconfigurations.
- Check HTTP headers and cookies.
- Follow HTTP redirects.
- Scan specific ports.
Note: Only scan websites and servers that you own or have permission to test.
Nikto Installation Commands
Follow the commands below to install Nikto and set it up for use, run each command one by one.
Update Termux packages.
apt update && apt upgrade -y
Install the required packages.
apt install git perl clang make wget openssl-tool openssl -y
Clone the Nikto repository.
git clone https://github.com/sullo/nikto.git
Go to the Nikto program directory.
cd nikto/program
Install the required Perl modules.
cpan JSON XML::Writer Net::SSLeay
Add Nikto to the Termux PATH.
ln -s "$(pwd)/nikto.pl" $PREFIX/bin/nikto
Give Nikto execute permission.
chmod +x $PREFIX/bin/nikto
Nikto is now installed and ready to use.
Nikto Usage Commands
After installing Nikto, you can use the following basic commands to scan and check a web server.
Run a basic Nikto scan.
nikto -h https://example.com
Replace
https://example.comwith the website or web server you are authorized to test.
Show the Nikto help menu.
nikto -Help
Check the Nikto version.
nikto -Version
Scan a specific port.
nikto -h https://example.com -port 443
Follow website redirects.
nikto -h https://example.com -followredirects
Save the scan results to a file.
nikto -h https://example.com -output report.txt
Save the results in JSON format.
nikto -h https://example.com -output report.json -Format json
Use a custom User-Agent.
nikto -h https://example.com -useragent "Mozilla/5.0"
Set a request timeout.
nikto -h https://example.com -timeout 10
List available Nikto plugins.
nikto -list-plugins
These basic commands are enough to get started with Nikto and you can use the help command to explore more options when needed.
Nikto Overview
Nikto is a simple web server scanner that you can use from the terminal. It provides useful options for checking common server issues, viewing basic information, and saving scan results. It is a useful tool for learning about web server security and performing authorized security testing.



