What is Directory Scanning?
When you visit a website, you only see what the developer chose to show you in the navigation. But web servers often have hidden pages, backup files, admin panels, and configuration files that are not linked anywhere.
A directory scanner tries hundreds of common path names automatically and tells you which ones actually exist on the server.
The Tool: dirb
dirb is a simple command-line tool that does this automatically. It takes a wordlist of common paths and tries each one against your target.
Your Target
For this lesson your target is: http://15.204.80.238/
What the Scan Looks Like
When you run dirb against a site you will see output like this:
---- Scanning URL: http://15.204.80.238/ ----
- http://15.204.80.238/index.html (CODE:200|SIZE:42996)
The important parts:
- CODE:200 means the page exists and loaded successfully
- Paths that return 404 are NOT shown, only hits
The Flag
The scan finds one path that returns HTTP 200: /index.html
The flag for this lesson is: FLAG{recon_before_you_pounce}
Submit it below to complete the lesson and move on.