Detect Directory Listing
Detect Directory Listing
Section titled “Detect Directory Listing”Version 2.5.0 introduces the ability to detect when a server has directory listing enabled. When such a directory is found, feroxbuster will either report, or report and scan, depending on whether or not --extract-links was used.
Detection Methods
Section titled “Detection Methods”Standard Detection (v2.5.0+)
Section titled “Standard Detection (v2.5.0+)”feroxbuster can detect directory listings from common web servers by analyzing the page title:
- Apache/Python/Tomcat:
Index of /orDirectory Listing for / - ASP.NET:
Directory Listing -- /
Enhanced Heuristic Detection (v2.13.1+)
Section titled “Enhanced Heuristic Detection (v2.13.1+)”For custom or non-standard directory listings that don’t use recognizable titles, feroxbuster now employs advanced heuristics. It looks for multiple signals that indicate directory listing behavior:
- Parent Directory Links: Links with
href="../"orhref="..", or text containing “parent directory”, “to parent”, or “up to parent” - Directory Table Headers: Table headers indicating file listings, such as:
- Name-related: “File Name”, “Filename”, “Name”
- Size-related: “Size”, “File Size”
- Time-related: “Date”, “Last Modified”, “Modified”, “Last Mod”
- Sorting Query Parameters: Links containing auto-index sorting parameters like:
?C=N(sort by name)?C=S(sort by size)?C=M(sort by modified)?C=D(sort by date)
- High Link Density: Multiple links (≥3) pointing to files or directories
Detection Threshold: At least 2 of these 4 signals must be present to classify a page as a custom directory listing. This threshold helps avoid false positives on regular web pages while still catching non-standard directory listings.
This enhanced detection can identify directory listings from custom implementations, Content Management Systems, or web servers with non-standard configurations.
Examples
Section titled “Examples”Without --extract-links
Section titled “Without --extract-links”When --extract-links is not used, directory listing is simply reported. No further actions are taken.
feroxbuster -u https://some-example-site.com
With --extract-links
Section titled “With --extract-links”When --extract-links is used, each link in the response is extracted and requested.
feroxbuster -u https://some-example-site.com --extract-links