Argus: Open-source information gathering toolkit
Argus is an open-source toolkit that simplifies information gathering and reconnaissance. It features a user-friendly interface and a collection of powerful modules, enabling the exploration of networks, web applications, and security configurations.
Argus offers a collection of tools categorized into three main areas:
Network and infrastructure tools
These tools help you gather data about a network, uncovering vital details about servers, IP addresses, DNS records, and more:
- Associated Hosts: Discover domains associated with the target.
- DNS Over HTTPS: Resolve DNS securely via encrypted channels.
- DNS Records: Collect DNS records, including A, AAAA, MX, etc.
- DNSSEC Check: Verify if DNSSEC is properly configured.
- Domain Info: Gather information such as registrar details and expiry dates.
- Domain Reputation Check: Check domain trustworthiness using various reputation sources.
- IP Info: Retrieve geographic and ownership details of an IP address.
- Open Ports Scan: Scan the target for open ports and services.
- Server Info: Extract key server details using various techniques.
- Server Location: Identify the physical location of the server.
- SSL Chain Analysis: Analyze the SSL certificate chain for trustworthiness.
- SSL Expiry Alert: Check SSL certificates for upcoming expiry.
- TLS Cipher Suites: List the supported TLS ciphers on the server.
- TLS Handshake Simulation: Simulate a TLS handshake to check for security issues.
- Traceroute: Trace the path packets take to reach the target.
- TXT Records: Fetch TXT records, often used for verification purposes.
- WHOIS Lookup: Perform WHOIS queries to gather domain ownership details.
- Zone Transfer: Attempt to perform DNS zone transfers.
- HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 Support Checker: Check if the server supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3.
Web application analysis tools
These modules focus on understanding the structure and security of web applications:
- Archive history: View the target’s history using internet archives.
- Broken links detection: Find broken links that may lead to user frustration or security gaps.
- Carbon footprint: Evaluate the environmental impact of a website.
- CMS detection: Detect the type of CMS used, like WordPress, Joomla, etc.
- Cookies analyzer: Analyze cookies for secure attributes and potential privacy issues.
- Content discovery: Discover hidden directories, files, and endpoints.
- Crawler: Crawl the site to uncover data and map out its structure.
- Robots.txt analyzer: Analyze the robots.txt file for hidden resources.
- Directory finder: Look for directories that may not be indexed publicly.
- Email harvesting: Extract email addresses from the target domain.
- Performance monitoring: Monitor the website’s response time and load performance.
- Quality metrics: Assess the quality of the site’s content and user experience.
- Redirect chain: Follow redirects to analyze if they’re safe or malicious.
- Sitemap parsing: Extract URLs from the site’s sitemap.
- Social media presence scan: Analyze the social media profiles linked to the target.
- Technology stack detection: Identify the technologies and frameworks the site uses.
- Third-party integrations: Discover any third-party services integrated into the site.
Security and threat intelligence tools
The security modules in Argus are designed to assess the target’s defenses and gather threat intelligence:
- Censys reconnaissance: Use Censys for in-depth details about the target’s assets.
- Certificate authority Recon: Examine the certificate authority details.
- Data leak detection: Check for potential data leaks and sensitive data exposure.
- Exposed environment files checker: Identify publicly exposed .env files.
- Firewall detection: Identify whether a firewall or WAF is protecting the target.
- Global ranking: Look up the site’s global ranking to gauge its popularity.
- HTTP headers: Extract and evaluate HTTP response headers.
- HTTP security features: Check for secure HTTP headers such as HSTS and CSP.
- Malware and phishing check: Scan the site for signs of malware and phishing risks.
- Pastebin monitoring: Search paste sites for leaks associated with the target.
- Privacy compliance: Verify compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
- Security.txt check: Locate and analyze the security.txt file for vulnerability disclosure policies.
- Shodan reconnaissance: Use Shodan to discover open ports, services, and vulnerabilities.
- SSL Labs report: Get a detailed SSL/TLS assessment via SSL Labs.
- SSL pinning check: Check if SSL pinning is implemented on the site.
- Subdomain enumeration: Discover subdomains of the target domain.
- Subdomain takeover: Test whether subdomains are vulnerable to takeover.
- VirusTotal scan: Check the target’s reputation using VirusTotal.
Whether you’re conducting research, performing authorized security assessments, or exploring network infrastructures out of curiosity, Argus delivers a wealth of information.
Argus is available for free on GitHub.
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