Below are all of the Nikto command line options and explanations. A brief version of this text is available by running Nikto with the -h (-help) option.

`-ask`

- Whether to ask about submitting updates: yes (ask about each-- the default), no (don't ask, just send), auto (don't ask, just send).

`-Cgidirs`

- Scan these CGI directories. Special words "none" or "all" may be used to scan all CGI directories or none, (respectively). A literal value for a CGI directory such as "/cgi-test/" may be specified (must include trailing slash). If this is option is not specified, all CGI directories listed in nikto.conf will be tested.

`-config`

- Specify an alternative config file to use instead of the nikto.conf file located in the install directory.

`-dbcheck`

- Check the scan databases for syntax errors.

`-Display`

- Control the output that Nikto shows. See Chapter 5 for detailed information on these options. Use the reference number or letter to specify the type. Multiple may be used:

  1 - Show redirects

  2 - Show cookies received

  3 - Show all 200/OK responses

  4 - Show URLs which require authentication

  D - Debug Output

  E - Display all HTTP errors

  P - Print progress to STDOUT

  V - Verbose Output

`-evasion`

- Specify the LibWhisker encoding/evasion technique to use (see the LibWhisker docs for detailed information on these). Note that these are not likely to actually bypass a modern IDS system, but may be useful for other purposes. Use the reference number to specify the type, multiple may be used:

  1 - Random URI encoding (non-UTF8)

  2 - Directory self-reference (/./)

  3 - Premature URL ending

  4 - Prepend long random string

  5 - Fake parameter

  6 - TAB as request spacer

  7 - Change the case of the URL

  8 - Use Windows directory separator (\)

  A - Use a carriage return (0x0d) as a request spacer

  B - Use binary value 0x0b as a request spacer

`-findonly`

- Only discover the HTTP(S) ports, do not perform a security scan. This will attempt to connect with HTTP or HTTPS, and report the Server header. Note that as of version 2.1.4, -findonly has been deprecated and simply sets '-Plugins "@@NONE"' which will override any command line or config file settings for -Plugins.

`-Format`

- Save the output file specified with -o (-output) option in this format. If not specified, the default will be taken from the file extension specified in the -output option. Valid formats are:

  csv - a comma-seperated list

  htm - an HTML report

  sql - generic SQL

  txt - a text report

  xml - an XML report

`-host`

- Host(s) to target. Can be an IP address, hostname or text file of hosts. A single dash (-) maybe used for stdin. Can also parse nmap -oG style output

`-Help`

- Display extended help information.

`-id`

- ID and password to use for host Basic host authentication. Format is "id:password".

`-404code`

- Ignore these HTTP codes as negative responses (always). Format is "302,301".

`-404string`

- Ignore this string in response body content as negative response (always). Can be a regular expression..

`-list-plugins`

- Will list all plugins that Nikto can run against targets and then will exit without performing a scan. These can be tuned for a session using the `-Plugins` option.

  The output format is:

  Plugin `name`

  `full name` - `description`

  Written by `author`, Copyright (C) `copyright`

`-maxtime`

- Maximum execution time per host, in seconds. Accepts minutes and hours such that all of these are one hour: 3600s, 60m, 1h

`-mutate`

- Specify mutation technique. A mutation will cause Nikto to combine tests or attempt to guess values. These techniques may cause a tremendous amount of tests to be launched against the target. Use the reference number to specify the type, multiple may be used:

  1 - Test all files with all root directories

  2 - Guess for password file names

  3 - Enumerate user names via Apache (/~user type requests)

  4 - Enumerate user names via cgiwrap (/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~user type requests)

  5 - Attempt to brute force sub-domain names, assume that the host name is the parent domain

  6 - Attempt to guess directory names from the supplied dictionary file

`-mutate-options`

- Provide extra information for mutates, e.g. a dictionary file

`-nolookup`

- Do not perform name lookups on IP addresses.

`-nocache`

- Disable response cache

`-nointeractive`

- Disable interactive features

`-nossl`

- Do not use SSL to connect to the server.

`-no404`

- Disable 404 (file not found) checking. This will reduce the total number of requests made to the webserver and may be preferable when checking a server over a slow link, or an embedded device. This will generally lead to more false positives being discovered.

`-Option`

- Specify options to override settings in nikto.conf. Can be specified multiple times for multiple values.

`-output`

- Write output to the file specified. The format used will be taken from the file extension. This can be over-riden by using the -Format option (e.g. to write text files with a different extenstion. Existing files will have new information appended.

  A single dot (.) may be specified for the output file name, in which case the file name will be automatically generated based on the target being tested. Note that the -Format option is required when this is used. The scheme is: nikto_HOSTNAME_PORT_TIMESTAMP.FORMAT

  For '-Format sql' a sample MySQL table create might look like: create table nikto_table (testid varchar(6) not null, ip varchar(15), hostname text, port int(5), usessl tinyint(1), osvdb int, httpmethod text, uri text, message text, request blob, response blob);

`-Plugins`

- Select which plugins will be run on the specified targets. A semi-colon separated list should be provided which lists the names of the plugins. The names can be found by using -list-plugins.

  There are two special entries: @@ALL, which specifies all plugins shall be run and @@NONE, which specifies no plugins shall be run. The default is @@DEFAULT

`-port`

- TCP port(s) to target. To test more than one port on the same host, specify the list of ports in the -p (-port) option. Ports can be specified as a range (i.e., 80-90), or as a comma-delimited list, (i.e., 80,88,90). If not specified, port 80 is used.

`-Pause`

- Seconds (integer or floating point) to delay between each test.

`-root`

- Prepend the value specified to the beginning of every request. This is useful to test applications or web servers which have all of their files under a certain directory.

`-ssl`

- Only test SSL on the ports specified. Using this option will dramatically speed up requests to HTTPS ports, since otherwise the HTTP request will have to timeout first.

`-Save`

- Save request/response of findings to this directory. Files are plain text and will contain the raw request/response as well as JSON strings for each. Use a "." to auto-generate a directory name for each target. These saved items can be replayed by using the included replay.pl script, which can route items through a proxy.

`-timeout`

- Seconds to wait before timing out a request. Default timeout is 10 seconds.

`-Tuning`

- Tuning options will control the test that Nikto will use against a target. By default, all tests are performed. If any options are specified, only those tests will be performed. If the "x" option is used, it will reverse the logic and exclude only those tests. Use the reference number or letter to specify the type, multiple may be used:

  0 - File Upload

  1 - Interesting File / Seen in logs

  2 - Misconfiguration / Default File

  3 - Information Disclosure

  4 - Injection (XSS/Script/HTML)

  5 - Remote File Retrieval - Inside Web Root

  6 - Denial of Service

  7 - Remote File Retrieval - Server Wide

  8 - Command Execution / Remote Shell

  9 - SQL Injection

  a - Authentication Bypass

  b - Software Identification

  e - Administration Console

  c - Remote Source Inclusion

  x - Reverse Tuning Options (i.e., include all except specified)

  The given string will be parsed from left to right, any x characters will apply to all characters to the right of the character.

`-Userdbs`

- Load user defined databases instead of standard databases. User defined databases follow the same syntax as the standard files, but are prefixed with a 'u', e.g., 'udb_tests'

  all - Disable all standard databases and load only user databases

  tests - Disable db_tests and load udb_tests. All other databases are loaded normally.

`-until`

- Run until the specified time or duration, then pause.

  Durations in hours, minutes or seconds, like: 1h, 60m, 3600s

  Times like "mm dd hh:mm:ss" (mm, dd, ss optional): 12 1 22:30:00

`-update`

- Update the plugins and databases directly from cirt.net.

`-useproxy`

- Use the HTTP proxy defined in the configuration file. The proxy may also be directly set as an argument.

`-Version`

- Display the Nikto software, plugin and database versions.

`-vhost`

- Specify the Host header to be sent to the target.