Alexis Kestler
Hi there! Are you worried that your website may contain security flaws that could be exploited by hackers? As a fellow technology geek, I totally get it!
According to statistics from WhiteHat Security, 75% of websites have at least one serious vulnerability. These security holes leave your business exposed to cyber attacks that could lead to stolen data, financial fraud, system outages, and massive reputational damage.
The average cost of a data breach has now risen to a staggering $4.35 million according to IBM’s 2022 report. But here’s the kicker – most websites have vulnerabilities at any given point in time. An analysis by Detectify found:
- 63% of websites contained an XSS vulnerability
- 55% were vulnerable to SQL injection attacks
- 37% had sensitive information disclosure issues
So how do savvy geeks like us identify and fix these security gaps before the bad guys exploit them? This is where automated web vulnerability scanners come to the rescue!
In this guide, I’ll walk you through using one of my favorite tools called Detectify to analyze your website for flaws from a hacker‘s perspective.
Why Detectify is the Weapon of Choice for Many Geeks
Detectify is a cloud-based vulnerability scanner I’ve used extensively over the years. I’m excited to show you how it works!
It crawls and probes your website using techniques similar to an ethical hacker and generates detailed reports identifying risks. You can then quickly fix these bugs before going live.
Here are some stellar features that make Detectify a go-to for enhancer geeks worldwide:
🦾 Over 500 vulnerability checks – Goes far beyond just OWASP Top 10 and detects everything from SQLi, XSS, XXE to SSRF, CORS misconfig, path traversal, and more!
🔬 Intelligent crawling – Maps your site structure and optimizes checks based on technologies detected on each page.
📊 Useful reports – Get results nicely organized by severity, OWASP categories, affected URLs – and export PDFs.
⚙️ Customization – Fine tune scans with custom headers, cookies, request rates, user agents, and excluded paths.
🤖 Frequent updates – New vulnerability checks added regularly ensuring you can detect emerging threats.
📱 Mobile scanning – Identify flaws only exposed on mobile interfaces by mimicking phones.
🔒 Authenticated scanning – Crawl and test pages behind logins by providing credentials.
👨💻 CMS templates – Specialized checks for popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal.
See why I’m such a fan? Now let me walk you through getting started…
Setting Up Your Detectify Account
The good folks at Detectify offer a free 14-day trial so you can test it out.
Just head over to their website and sign up with your email address. No credit card needed!
Once you verify your email, you‘ll get access to the Detectify dashboard. This is where you can add your target website for scanning.
Under Scopes & Targets, you can manually enter your site‘s URL or automatically import it from Google Analytics – your choice!
That‘s it – your site is now added to Detectify! Let‘s move on to running a scan.
Scanning Your Website for Flaws
Here comes the fun part! To run a scan:
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From the Detectify dashboard, click on your target site.
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Hit the "Start Scan" button at the bottom right.
You‘ll see the scan go through these steps:
- Information Gathering
- Site Crawling
- Fingerprinting Technologies
- Vulnerability Analysis
- Exploitation Checks
- Report Generation
For a medium size site, a full scan typically takes 3 to 4 hours. Not too shabby!
Once completed, you can explore the results to see what vulnerabilities were detected. Time to break out the coffee and dig in!
Making Sense of Your Site‘s Security Report
The Detectify report provides awesome insights you can use to start fixing flaws:
On the overview dashboard, you‘ll see high-level details like scan date, a summary of findings, and your overall security score.
- 🚨 Red = Critical severity holes
- ⚠️ Orange = Medium severity
- 🔵 Blue = Low severity
Pro tip: Always tackle critical and high severity items first!
To see detailed results, click on "View Full Report". Here‘s what you‘ll find:
📃 Vulnerabilities – Each finding explained with affected URLs/inputs, proof of exploitation, and remediation guidance.
🔝 OWASP Top 10 – Summary of detected vulnerabilities mapped to OWASP categories.
📥 Exports – PDF exports for reports and JSON for raw findings.
With clear descriptions and expert remediation advice for each finding, you‘ll have the insights needed to start strengthening your web security!
Closing Thoughts
I hope this guide gives you a good overview of how Detectify can help fellow geeks like us analyze websites for vulnerabilities just like an ethical hacker would!
By finding and fixing security flaws in your web apps early in the development cycle, you can significantly improve your security posture.
Sign up for a free Detectify trial today and start hacking your website for bugs before the bad guys do! Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy website security hunting!
