Discovery
Map a site content tree with recursive path brute-force
feroxbuster is a recursive content discovery tool written in Rust that brute-forces hidden directories and files with auto-tuned wildcard handling, rich response filtering, and link extraction that feeds newly discovered paths back into the scan.
installapt install -y feroxbusterbrew install feroxbuster
Rust · MIT license
overview
What feroxbuster does
After an HTTP prober marks a host live, feed feroxbuster a url-list and --wordlist. It brute-forces paths and recurses into discoveries down to --depth (default 4), so one run maps a content tree instead of a single level.
--smart turns on link extraction, auto-tune, word collection, and backup detection together. --thorough adds directory-listing scans and extension collection. Filter by --status-codes, size, lines, words, or regex to cut soft-404 noise.
Prefer ffuf when you need FUZZ in parameters or Host headers. Prefer katana when the job is link crawling, not wordlist brute-force. Enable --json on the managed node for structured paths in a file and folder output.
use cases
Where feroxbuster fits
Map a site's full content tree
Brute-force from a wordlist and let recursion walk into every directory it finds, so one run surfaces the whole reachable structure, not only the top level.
Discover more with smart mode
Turn on --smart to extract links, auto-tune the rate, collect words, and find backups in one flag, widening coverage without hand-tuning options.
Keep wide scans stable
Use auto-tune and auto-bail so the scan lowers its rate or stops when a target starts erroring, instead of hammering a struggling server.
Filter responses to cut noise
Filter out responses by status, size, line, word count, or regex so the output holds real hits rather than uniform soft-404 pages.
reference
feroxbuster inputs and flags
| Name | Type | Flag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| url-list | FILE | · | List of target URLs to scan. |
| wordlist | FILE | --wordlist | Wordlist of paths and files to brute-force. |
| extensions | STRING | --extensions | File extension(s) to search for (ex: php pdf js). |
| depth | STRING | --depth | Maximum recursion depth; 0 is infinite (default 4). |
| smart | BOOLEAN | --smart | Enable extract-links, auto-tune, collect-words, and collect-backups. |
| threads | STRING | --threads | Number of concurrent threads (default 50). |
| status-codes | STRING | --status-codes | Status codes to include (default 200 204 301 302 307 308 401 403 405). |
| json | BOOLEAN | --json | Emit JSON logs instead of normal text. |
Showing key inputs. feroxbuster exposes 56 inputs in total.
Full flag reference (56 inputs)
| Name | Type | Flag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| data | FILE | --data | Request's Body - The file name starts with an `@` (ex: @post.bin) |
| json | BOOLEAN | --json | Emit JSON logs to output instead of normal text |
| depth | STRING | --depth | Maximum recursion depth, a depth of 0 is infinite recursion (default: 4) |
| proxy | STRING | --proxy | Proxy to use for requests (ex: http(s)://host:port, socks5(h)://host:port) |
| query | STRING | --query | Request's URL query parameters (ex: token=stuff) |
| quiet | BOOLEAN | --quiet | Hide progress bars and banner |
| smart | BOOLEAN | --smart | Set --extract-links, --auto-tune, --collect-words, and --collect-backups to true |
| silent | BOOLEAN | --silent | Only print URLs |
| cookies | STRING | --cookies | Specify HTTP cookies to be used in each request (ex: stuff=things) |
| headers | STRING | --headers | Specify HTTP headers to be used in each request (ex: Header:val) |
| methods | STRING | --methods | Which HTTP request method(s) should be sent (default: GET) |
| threads | STRING | --threads | Number of concurrent threads (default: 50) |
| timeout | STRING | --timeout | Number of seconds before a client's request times out (default: 7) |
| insecure | BOOLEAN | --insecure | Disables TLS certificate validation in the client |
| no-state | BOOLEAN | --no-state | Disable state output file (*.state) |
| parallel | STRING | --parallel | Run parallel feroxbuster instances |
| protocol | STRING | --protocol | Specify the protocol to use when targeting via --request-file or --url with domain only (default: https) |
| thorough | BOOLEAN | --thorough | Use the same settings as --smart and set --collect-extensions and --scan-dir-listings to true |
| url-list | FILE | · | List of target URLs |
| wordlist | FILE | --wordlist | Wordlist |
| add-slash | BOOLEAN | --add-slash | Append / to each request's URL |
| auto-bail | BOOLEAN | --auto-bail | Automatically stop scanning when an excessive amount of errors are encountered |
| auto-tune | BOOLEAN | --auto-tune | Automatically lower scan rate when an excessive amount of errors are encountered |
| dont-scan | STRING | --dont-scan | URL(s) or Regex Pattern(s) to exclude from recursion/scans |
| redirects | BOOLEAN | --redirects | Allow client to follow redirects |
| verbosity | STRING | · | Increase verbosity level (use -vv or more for greater effect. [CAUTION] 4 v's is probably too much) |
| client-key | FILE | --client-key | Add a PEM encoded private key for mutual authentication (mTLS) |
| extensions | STRING | --extensions | File extension(s) to search for (ex: php pdf js) |
| limit-bars | STRING | --limit-bars | Number of directory scan bars to show at any given time (default: no limit) |
| rate-limit | BOOLEAN | --rate-limit | Limit number of requests per second (per directory) (default: 0, i.e. no limit) |
| scan-limit | STRING | --scan-limit | Limit total number of concurrent scans (default: 0, i.e. no limit) |
| time-limit | STRING | --time-limit | Limit total run time of all scans (ex: --time-limit 10m) |
| user-agent | STRING | --user-agent | Sets the User-Agent (default: feroxbuster/2.7.1) |
| client-cert | FILE | --client-cert | Add a PEM encoded certificate for mutual authentication (mTLS) |
| dont-filter | BOOLEAN | --dont-filter | Don't auto-filter wildcard responses |
| filter-size | STRING | --filter-size | Filter out messages of a particular size (ex: 4927,1970) |
| resume-from | FILE | --resume-from | State file from which to resume a partially complete scan (ex. --resume-from ferox-1606586780.state) |
| dont-collect | STRING | --dont-collect | File extension(s) to Ignore while collecting extensions (only used with `collect-extensions`) |
| filter-lines | STRING | --filter-lines | Filter out messages of a particular line count (ex: 31,30) |
| filter-regex | STRING | --filter-regex | Filter out messages via regular expression matching on the response's body/headers (ex: -X '^ignore me$') |
| filter-words | STRING | --filter-words | Filter out messages of a particular word count (ex: 91,82) |
| no-recursion | BOOLEAN | --no-recursion | Do not scan recursively |
| random-agent | BOOLEAN | --random-agent | Use a random User-Agent |
| replay-codes | STRING | --replay-codes | Status Codes to send through a Replay Proxy when found (default: --status-codes value) |
| replay-proxy | STRING | --replay-proxy | Send only unfiltered requests through a Replay Proxy, instead of all requests |
| request-file | FILE | --request-file | Raw HTTP request file to use as a template for all requests |
| server-certs | FILE | --server-certs | Add custom root certificate(s) for servers with unknown certificates |
| status-codes | STRING | --status-codes | Status Codes to include (allow list) (default: 200 204 301 302 307 308 401 403 405) |
| collect-words | BOOLEAN | --collect-words | Automatically discover important words from within responses and add them to the wordlist |
| filter-status | STRING | --filter-status | Filter out status codes (deny list) (ex: 401) |
| collect-backups | STRING | --collect-backups | Automatically request likely backup extensions for "found" urls (default: ~, .bak, .bak2, .old, .1) |
| force-recursion | BOOLEAN | --force-recursion | Force recursion attempts on all 'found' endpoints (still respects recursion depth) |
| filter-similar-to | STRING | --filter-similar-to | Filter out pages that are similar to the given page (ex: http://site.xyz/soft404) |
| scan-dir-listings | BOOLEAN | --scan-dir-listings | Force scans to recurse into directory listings (default: false) |
| collect-extensions | BOOLEAN | --collect-extensions | Automatically discover extensions and add them to --extensions (unless they're in `dont-collect`) |
| dont-extract-links | BOOLEAN | --dont-extract-links | Don't extract links from response body (html, javascript, etc... |
example
Run feroxbuster
# feroxbuster against example.com (url-list input on Trickest)
feroxbuster --wordlist raft-small-directories.txt --smart --depth 3 --threads 50 --json200 GET 48l 210w 4820c https://example.com/admin/
301 GET 7l 32w 178c https://example.com/login -> /login/
200 GET 120l 890w 22140c https://example.com/api/
403 GET 10l 40w 564c https://example.com/backup/
200 GET 33l 150w 3102c https://example.com/static/
200 GET 15l 60w 1240c https://staging.example.com/config/
# feroxbuster found 6 paths under example.comguidance
Choosing feroxbuster
Use feroxbuster for recursive directory and file discovery on a live host, especially when --smart defaults help. For parameter or vhost fuzzing use ffuf; for link crawling use katana.
ffuf
General FUZZ engine for paths, parameters, and vhosts. feroxbuster is more opinionated and recurses by default.
gobuster
Simple directory brute-forcing. feroxbuster adds recursion, auto-tuning, and richer filtering.
dirsearch
Python content scanner with built-in wordlists. Same discovery step; feroxbuster is the Rust implementation with --smart defaults.
faq
feroxbuster questions
related
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fallparams
Crawl pages, harvest potential parameters, write a custom wordlist.
gau
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Run feroxbuster yourself
A target and a wordlist feed feroxbuster, which recursively brute-forces paths and writes the discovered content as a queryable output.
Facts on this page come from the live Trickest tool library.