Looking for Parameters with Katana

Katana

Identifying URL Parameters

Katana is a high-speed web crawler developed by ProjectDiscovery, designed for automation pipelines and capable of both headless and non-headless crawling. It excels at discovering endpoints and parameters within web applications, making it a valuable tool for security assessments and web analysis.

Installation

Katana requires Go 1.18 or later. To install:

CGO_ENABLED=1 go install github.com/projectdiscovery/katana/cmd/katana@latest

Alternatively, download the pre-compiled binary from the release page.

Basic Usage

To identify URL parameters using Katana, follow these steps:

1. Run Katana with the Query URL Filter: Use the -f qurl option to filter and display URLs containing query parameters.

   katana -u https://example.com -f qurl

   This command crawls https://example.com and outputs URLs that include query parameters.

2. Process Multiple URLs: To analyze multiple URLs, create a file (e.g., urls.txt) with each URL on a new line.

   katana -list urls.txt -f qurl

   This command processes each URL in urls.txt and extracts those with query parameters.

3. Integrate with Other Tools: Katana can be integrated into workflows with other tools. For instance, combining Katana with Nuclei allows for fuzzing of discovered endpoints.

   katana -u https://example.com -f qurl -o endpoints.txt
   nuclei -list endpoints.txt -t fuzzing-templates/

   This sequence discovers endpoints with parameters and then applies fuzzing templates to test for vulnerabilities.

Additional Options

Katana offers various options to customize its behavior:

• Depth Control: Use the -d option to set the maximum crawl depth.

  katana -u https://example.com -d 2 -f qurl

  This limits the crawl to two levels deep.

• Scope Control: The -cs (crawl scope) and -cos (crawl out scope) options allow you to define in-scope and out-of-scope URL patterns using regular expressions.

  katana -u https://example.com -cs "example.com" -cos "logout"

  This configuration includes URLs containing "example.com" and excludes those containing "logout".

• Headless Crawling: Enable headless mode with the -hl option to render JavaScript-heavy pages.

  katana -u https://example.com -hl -f qurl

  This approach is beneficial for applications that rely heavily on JavaScript.

For a comprehensive list of options and detailed usage instructions, refer to the Katana documentation.

By leveraging Katana's capabilities, you can efficiently identify and analyze URL parameters within web applications, enhancing your security assessments and web analysis processes.