Step 1: Ask AI
Question
what are some best cli based vulnerability testing tools right now?
Kimi 2.6 Thinking Answer
Here are some of the best CLI-based vulnerability testing tools widely used right now, organized by use case:
Network & Infrastructure Scanning
- Nmap + NSE scripts — The classic network mapper with a powerful scripting engine for vulnerability detection, service enumeration, and exploitation checks.
- OpenVAS/GVM (Greenbone CLI) — Open-source vulnerability scanner with an extensive CVE database; the CLI (
gvm-cli) is great for automated scans. - Nuclei — Fast, community-driven vulnerability scanner using YAML-based templates. Excellent for continuous scanning and large-scale recon.
- Masscan — Ultra-fast TCP port scanner, useful for quickly mapping attack surfaces before deeper scanning.
Web Application Security
- SQLMap — The gold standard for automated SQL injection detection and exploitation.
- Nikto — Web server scanner that checks for dangerous files, outdated software, and misconfigurations.
- WPScan — Specialized for WordPress sites; checks for vulnerable plugins, themes, and core files.
- DalFox — Modern, fast XSS scanner and parameter analyzer.
- Gobuster / Feroxbuster — Directory and file brute-forcing tools for discovering hidden endpoints.
Container & Cloud Security
- Trivy — Comprehensive scanner for container images, filesystems, Git repos, and Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation). Very fast and low false positives.
- Grype — CLI vulnerability scanner for container images and filesystems from Anchore.
- Snyk CLI — Scans dependencies, containers, and IaC for known vulnerabilities (free tier available).
- Checkov — Static analysis tool for IaC (Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes) to find misconfigurations.
Static & Dynamic Analysis (SAST/DAST)
- Semgrep — Lightweight static analysis that supports many languages; great for finding security bugs and enforcing code patterns.
- Bandit — Python-specific security linter.
- Brakeman — Ruby on Rails security scanner.
- OWASP ZAP (zap-cli) — Popular web app DAST tool with a command-line interface for automation.
Exploitation & Penetration Testing
- Metasploit Framework (msfconsole) — Massive exploit database and penetration testing framework.
- Netcat / Ncat — Swiss army knife for networking, useful for manual testing and reverse shells.
General Recon & Enumeration
- Amass — In-depth DNS enumeration and attack surface mapping.
- Subfinder / Assetfinder — Fast subdomain discovery tools.
- HTTPX — Fast, multi-purpose HTTP prober for verifying live hosts and capturing response data.
Quick recommendation: If you’re building a modern CI/CD pipeline, Trivy + Semgrep + Nuclei is a powerful, lightweight combination. For general penetration testing, you can’t go wrong with Nmap, SQLMap, and Metasploit.