Stop/Resume Scans

Stop and Resume Scans

Version 1.9.0 adds a few features that allow for completely stopping a scan, and resuming that same scan from a file on disk.

Stop the scan

A simple Ctrl+C during a scan will create a file that contains information about the scan that was cancelled.

// example snippet of state file

{
  "scans": [
    {
      "id": "ca21821164b44b3d8eaa76550577246c",
      "url": "https://localhost.com/",
      "normalized_url": "https://localhost.com/",
      "scan_type": "Directory",
      "status": "Running",
      "num_requests": 4714,
      "requests_made_so_far": 3468
    },
    {
      "id": "d65b59601117415abf9ce6c0aa69edc7",
      "url": "https://localhost.com/api/",
      "normalized_url": "https://localhost.com/api/",
      "scan_type": "Directory",
      "status": "Running",
      "num_requests": 4714,
      "requests_made_so_far": 2774
    }
  ],
  "config": {
    "wordlist": "/wordlists/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/common.txt",
    "...": "..."
  },
  "responses": [
    {
      "type": "response",
      "url": "https://localhost.com/Login",
      "path": "/Login",
      "wildcard": false,
      "status": 302,
      "content_length": 0,
      "line_count": 0,
      "word_count": 0,
      "headers": {
        "content-length": "0",
        "server": "nginx/1.16.1"
      }
    }
  ]
},

Resume the scan

Based on the example image above, the same scan can be resumed by using feroxbuster --resume-from ferox-http_localhost-1606947491.state. Directories that were already complete are not rescanned.

(updated behavior for 2.8.0) Partially complete scans are started from roughly where they left off. More specifically, 10% less than the number of requests that were made already (requests_made_so_far) becomes the starting offset into the wordlist. This is to help ensure that no responses were lost mid-flight when cancelling/resuming.

formula in pseudocode

wordlist_offset = requests_made_so_far - (requests_made_so_far * 0.10)

Opt-out of saving state

In order to prevent state file creation when Ctrl+C is pressed, you can simply add the entry below to your ferox-config.toml.

ferox-config.toml

save_state = false

Configure name of the state file

To override the naming convention with something custom, pass the environment variable STATE_FILENAME with its value having the name you want to use for the state file. You can even define a path where the state file will be saved instead of the same directory.

Windows example

set STATE_FILENAME=C:\path_to_save_location\test.state && C:\path_to_feroxbuster\feroxbuster.exe -u ...

Linux example

STATE_FILENAME=/some/path/to/a/file feroxbuster -u ...