projectdiscovery/nuclei
projectdiscovery/nuclei is a Security project on GitHub, written primarily in Go. It has 30.3k stars. Nuclei is a fast, customizable vulnerability scanner powered by the global security community and built on a simple YAML-based DSL, enabling collaboration to tackle trending vulnerabilities on the internet. It helps you find vulnerabilities in your applications, APIs, networks, DNS, and cloud configurations.
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Nuclei is a modern, high-performance vulnerability scanner that leverages simple YAML-based templates. It empowers you to design custom vulnerability detection scenarios that mimic real-world conditions, leading to zero false positives.
- Simple YAML format for creating and customizing vulnerability templates.
- Contributed by thousands of security professionals to tackle trending vulnerabilities.
- Reduce false positives by simulating real-world steps to verify a vulnerability.
- Ultra-fast parallel scan processing and request clustering.
- Integrate into CI/CD pipelines for vulnerability detection and regression testing.
- Supports multiple protocols like TCP, DNS, HTTP, SSL, WHOIS, JavaScript, Code and more.
- Integrate with Jira, Splunk, GitHub, Elastic, GitLab.
Table of Contents
Get Started1. Nuclei CLI2. Pro and Enterprise Editions
DocumentationCommand Line FlagsSingle target scanScanning multiple targetsNetwork scanScanning with your custom templateConnect Nuclei to ProjectDiscovery_
Nuclei Templates, Community and Rewards💎Our MissionContributors❤License
Get Started
1. Nuclei CLI
Install Nuclei on your machine. Get started by following the installation guide here. Additionally, We provide a free cloud tier and comes with a generous monthly free limits:
- Store and visualize your vulnerability findings
- Write and manage your nuclei templates
- Access latest nuclei templates
- Discover and store your targets
[!Important]
This project is in active development. Expect breaking changes with releases. Review the release changelog before updating. This project is 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.
2. Pro and Enterprise Editions
For security teams and enterprises, we provide a cloud-hosted service built on top of Nuclei OSS, fine-tuned to help you continuously run vulnerability scans at scale with your team and existing workflows:
- 50x faster scans
- Large scale scanning with high accuracy
- Integrations with cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare, Fastly, Terraform, Kubernetes)
- Jira, Slack, Linear, APIs and Webhooks
- Executive and compliance reporting
- Plus: Real-time scanning, SAML SSO, SOC 2 compliant platform (with EU and US hosting options), shared team workspaces, and more
- We're constantly
adding new features! - Ideal for: Pentesters, security teams, and enterprises
Sign up to Pro or Talk to our team if you have large organization and complex requirements.
Documentation
Browse the full Nuclei documentation here. If you’re new to Nuclei, check out our foundational YouTube series.
Installation
nuclei requires go >= 1.24.2 to install successfully. Run the following command to get the repo:
go install -v github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei/v3/cmd/nuclei@latest
To learn more about installing nuclei, see https://docs.projectdiscovery.io/tools/nuclei/install.
Command Line Flags
To display all the flags for the tool:
nuclei -h
Expand full help flags
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)
-targets-inline string inline multiline target list (for use in template profiles)
-eh, -exclude-hosts string[] hosts to exclude to scan from the input list (ip, cidr, hostname)
-resume string resume scan from and save to specified file (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
-vtt, -vars-text-templating enable text templating for vars in input file (only for yaml input mode)
-vfp, -var-file-paths string[] list of yaml file contained vars to inject into yaml input
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)
-ai, -prompt string generate and run template using ai prompt
-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 templates matching current filters
-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
-esc, -enable-self-contained enable loading self-contained templates
-egm, -enable-global-matchers enable loading global matchers templates
-file enable loading file templates
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
-pe, -pdf-export string file to export results in PDF format
-rd, -redact string[] redact given list of keys from query parameter, request header and body
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
-dts, -dast-server enable dast server mode (live fuzzing)
-dtr, -dast-report write dast scan report to file
-dtst, -dast-server-token string dast server token (optional)
-dtsa, -dast-server-address string dast server address (default "localhost:9055")
-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")
-cs, -fuzz-scope string[] in scope url regex to be followed by fuzzer
-cos, -fuzz-out-scope string[] out of scope url regex to be excluded by fuzzer
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)
-per-host-rate-limit enable per-host rate limiting (global rate limit becomes unlimited when enabled)
-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)
-tlc, -template-loading-concurrency int maximum number of concurrent template loading operations (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
-preflight-portscan run preflight resolve + TCP portscan and filter targets before scanning (disabled by default)
-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
-cdpe, -cdp-endpoint string use remote browser via Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) endpoint
-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 generate memory (heap) profile & trace files
-vv display templates loaded for scan
-svd, -show-var-dump show variables dump for debugging
-vdl, -var-dump-limit int limit the number of characters displayed in var dump (default 255)
-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
HONEYPOT:
-hpd, -honeypot-detect detect potential honeypot hosts based on match concentration
-hpt, -honeypot-threshold int number of distinct template IDs required to flag a honeypot host (default 15)
-shp, -suppress-honeypot suppress output for flagged honeypot hosts
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)
-hps, -http-stats enable http status capturing (experimental)
CLOUD:
-auth configure projectdiscovery cloud (pdcp) api key (default true)
-tid, -team-id string upload scan results to given team id (optional) (default "none")
-cup, -cloud-upload upload scan results to pdcp dashboard [DEPRECATED use -dashboard]
-sid, -scan-id string upload scan results to existing scan id (optional)
-sname, -scan-name string scan name to set (optional)
-pd, -dashboard upload / view nuclei results in projectdiscovery cloud (pdcp) UI dashboard
-pdu, -dashboard-upload string upload / view nuclei results file (jsonl) in projectdiscovery cloud (pdcp) UI dashboard
AUTHENTICATION:
-sf, -secret-file string[] path to config file containing secrets for nuclei authenticated scan
-ps, -prefetch-secrets prefetch secrets from the secrets file
# NOTE: Headers in secrets files preserve exact casing (useful for case-sensitive APIs)
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.projectdiscovery.io/getting-started/running
Additional documentation is available at: docs.projectdiscovery.io/getting-started/running
Single target scan
To perform a quick scan on web-application:
nuclei -target https://example.com
Scanning multiple targets
Nuclei can handle bulk scanning by providing a list of targets. You can use a file containing multiple URLs.
nuclei -list urls.txt
Network scan
This will scan the entire subnet for network-related issues, such as open ports or misconfigured services.
nuclei -target 192.168.1.0/24
Scanning with your custom template
To write and use your own template, create a .yaml file with specific rules, then use it as follows.
nuclei -u https://example.com -t /path/to/your-template.yaml
Connect Nuclei to ProjectDiscovery
You can run the scans on your machine and upload the results to the cloud platform for further analysis and remediation.
nuclei -target https://example.com -dashboard
[!NOTE] This feature is absolutely free and does not require any subscription. For a detailed guide, refer to the
documentation.
Nuclei Templates, Community and Rewards 💎
Nuclei templates are based on the concepts of YAML based template files that define how the requests will be sent and processed. This allows easy extensibility capabilities to nuclei. The templates are written in YAML which specifies a simple human-readable format to quickly define the execution process.
Try it online with our free AI powered Nuclei Templates Editor by clicking here.
Nuclei Templates offer a streamlined way to identify and communicate vulnerabilities, combining essential details like severity ratings and detection methods. This open-source, community-developed tool accelerates threat response and is widely recognized in the cybersecurity world. Nuclei templates are actively contributed by thousands of security researchers globally. We run two programs for our contributors: Pioneers and 💎 bounties.
Examples
Visit our documentation for use cases and ideas.
| Use case | Nuclei template |
|---|---|
| Detect known CVEs | CVE-2021-44228 (Log4Shell) |
| Identify Out-of-Band vulnerabilities | Blind SQL Injection via OOB |
| SQL Injection detection | Generic SQL Injection |
| Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) | Reflected XSS Detection |
| Default or weak passwords | Default Credentials Check |
| Secret files or data exposure | Sensitive File Disclosure |
| Identify open redirects | Open Redirect Detection |
| Detect subdomain takeovers | Subdomain Takeover Templates |
| Security misconfigurations | Unprotected Jenkins Console |
| Weak SSL/TLS configurations | SSL Certificate Expiry |
| Misconfigured cloud services | Open S3 Bucket Detection |
| Remote code execution vulnerabilities | RCE Detection Templates |
| Directory traversal attacks | Path Traversal Detection |
| File inclusion vulnerabilities | Local/Remote File Inclusion |
Our Mission
Traditional vulnerability scanners were built decades ago. They are closed-source, incredibly slow, and vendor-driven. Today's attackers are mass exploiting newly released CVEs across the internet within days, unlike the years it used to take. This shift requires a completely different approach to tackling trending exploits on the internet.
We built Nuclei to solve this challenge. We made the entire scanning engine framework open and customizable—allowing the global security community to collaborate and tackle the trending attack vectors and vulnerabilities on the internet. Nuclei is now used and contributed by Fortune 500 enterprises, government agencies, universities.
You can participate by contributing to our code, templates library, or joining our team.
Contributors :heart:
Thanks to all the amazing community contributors for sending PRs and keeping this project updated. :heart:
nuclei is distributed under MIT License
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Quick answers
How does projectdiscovery/nuclei compare to other Security projects?
projectdiscovery/nuclei is tracked by TopGit in the Security category, with 30.3k GitHub stars and written in Go. Browse the Security topic page on TopGit to compare it against similar projects by stars and activity.
Is projectdiscovery/nuclei open source?
Yes — projectdiscovery/nuclei ships under the MIT license, which makes its source code freely readable (and, depending on license terms, forkable and reusable). Source: github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei.
What else is in the Security space?
projectdiscovery/nuclei is tracked by TopGit under the Security category, alongside 11 GitHub-tagged topics. Trending and Topics pages list peer repositories of comparable stars and language.
What is projectdiscovery/nuclei?
projectdiscovery/nuclei (projectdiscovery/nuclei) is a Go project on GitHub. From the project's own README: Nuclei is a fast, customizable vulnerability scanner powered by the global security community and built on a simple YAML-based DSL, enabling collaboration to tackle trending vulnerabilities on the internet. It helps you find vulnerabilities in your applications, APIs, networks, DNS, and cloud configurations.
Where do I read more about projectdiscovery/nuclei?
This TopGit page is a snapshot — the READ ME tab shows the project's own README content (links stripped, images preserved). The GitHub repository at github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei is the definitive source.
Why is projectdiscovery/nuclei categorized under Security?
TopGit places projectdiscovery/nuclei in the Security category based on its GitHub topics and description (tagged: "attack-surface", "cve-scanner", "dast"). Categories are assigned from real repository metadata, not editorial guesswork.
Read full README in the tab above.