Gobuster

💻 Introduction

A fast and flexible brute-forcing tool written in Go

Gobuster is a high-performance directory/file, DNS and virtual host brute-forcing tool written in Go. It's designed to be fast, reliable, and easy to use for security professionals and penetration testers.

✨ Features

• 🚀 High Performance: Multi-threaded scanning with configurable concurrency
• 🔍 Multiple Modes: Directory, DNS, virtual host, S3, GCS, TFTP, and fuzzing modes
• 🛡️ Security Focused: Built for penetration testing and security assessments
• 🐳 Docker Support: Available as a Docker container
• 🔧 Extensible: Pattern-based scanning and custom wordlists

🎯 What Can Gobuster Do?

• Web Directory/File Enumeration: Discover hidden directories and files on web servers
• DNS Subdomain Discovery: Find subdomains with wildcard support
• Virtual Host Detection: Identify virtual hosts on target web servers
• Cloud Storage Enumeration: Discover open Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage buckets
• TFTP File Discovery: Find files on TFTP servers
• Custom Fuzzing: Flexible fuzzing with customizable parameters

🚀 Quick Start

# Install gobuster
go install github.com/OJ/gobuster/v3@latest

# Basic directory enumeration
gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w /path/to/wordlist.txt

# DNS subdomain enumeration
gobuster dns -do example.com -w /path/to/wordlist.txt

# Virtual host discovery
gobuster vhost -u https://example.com -w /path/to/wordlist.txt

# S3 bucket enumeration
gobuster s3 -w /path/to/bucket-names.txt

📦 Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

go install github.com/OJ/gobuster/v3@latest

Requirements: Go 1.24 or higher

Alternative Installation Methods

Using Binary Releases

Download pre-compiled binaries from the releases page.

Using Docker

# Pull the latest image
docker pull ghcr.io/oj/gobuster:latest

# Run gobuster in Docker
docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/oj/gobuster:latest dir -u https://example.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/OJ/gobuster.git
cd gobuster
go mod tidy
go build

Troubleshooting Installation

If you encounter issues:

• Ensure Go version 1.24+ is installed: go version
• Check your $GOPATH and $GOBIN environment variables
• Verify $GOPATH/bin is in your $PATH

🎯 Usage

Gobuster uses a mode-based approach. Each mode is designed for specific enumeration tasks:

gobuster [mode] [options]

Getting Help

gobuster help                   # Show general help
gobuster help [mode]            # Show help for specific mode
gobuster [mode] --help          # Alternative help syntax

📊 Available Modes

🌐 Directory Mode (dir)

Enumerate directories and files on web servers.

Basic Usage:

gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w wordlist.txt

Advanced Options:

# With file extensions
gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w wordlist.txt -x php,html,js,txt

# With custom headers and cookies
gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w wordlist.txt -H "Authorization: Bearer token" -c "session=value"

# Show response length
gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w wordlist.txt -l

# Filter by status codes
gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w wordlist.txt -s 200,301,302

🔍 DNS Mode (dns)

Discover subdomains through DNS resolution.

Basic Usage:

gobuster dns -do example.com -w wordlist.txt

Advanced Options:

# Use custom DNS server
gobuster dns -do example.com -w wordlist.txt -r 8.8.8.8:53

# Increase threads for faster scanning
gobuster dns -do example.com -w wordlist.txt -t 50

🏠 Virtual Host Mode (vhost)

Discover virtual hosts on web servers.

Basic Usage:

gobuster vhost -u https://example.com --append-domain -w wordlist.txt

☁️ S3 Mode (s3)

Enumerate Amazon S3 buckets.

Basic Usage:

gobuster s3 -w bucket-names.txt

With Debug Output:

gobuster s3 -w bucket-names.txt --debug

🖥️ TFTP Mode (tftp)

Enumerate files on tftp servers.

Basic Usage:

gobuster tftp -s 10.0.0.1 -w wordlist.txt

☁️ GCS Mode (gcs)

Enumerate Google Cloud Storage Buckets.

Basic Usage:

gobuster gcs -w bucket-names.txt

With Debug Output:

gobuster gcs -w bucket-names.txt --debug

🔧 Fuzz Mode (fuzz)

Custom fuzzing with the FUZZ keyword.

Basic Usage:

gobuster fuzz -u https://example.com?FUZZ=test -w wordlist.txt

Advanced Examples:

# Fuzz URL parameters
gobuster fuzz -u https://example.com?param=FUZZ -w wordlist.txt

# Fuzz headers
gobuster fuzz -u https://example.com -H "X-Custom-Header: FUZZ" -w wordlist.txt

# Fuzz POST data
gobuster fuzz -u https://example.com -d "username=admin&password=FUZZ" -w passwords.txt

💰 Support

Love this tool? Back it!

If you're backing us already, you rock. If you're not, that's cool too! Want to back us? Become a backer!

All funds that are donated to this project will be donated to charity. A full log of charity donations will be available in this repository as they are processed.

💡 Common Use Cases

Web Application Security Testing

# Comprehensive directory enumeration
gobuster dir -u https://target.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirbuster/directory-list-2.3-medium.txt -x php,html,js,txt,asp,aspx,jsp

# API endpoint discovery
gobuster dir -u https://api.target.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt -x json

# Admin panel discovery
gobuster dir -u https://target.com -w admin-panels.txt -s 200,301,302,403

DNS Reconnaissance

# Comprehensive subdomain enumeration
gobuster dns -do target.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/dnsrecon/subdomains-top1mil-5000.txt -t 50

Cloud Storage Assessment

# S3 bucket enumeration with patterns
gobuster s3 -w company-names.txt -v

# GCS bucket enumeration
gobuster gcs -w company-names.txt -v

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Permission Denied" or "Access Denied"

• Try reducing thread count with -t flag
• Add delays between requests with --delay
• Use different user agent with -a flag

"Connection Timeout"

• Increase timeout with --timeout flag
• Reduce thread count for slower targets
• Check your internet connection

"No Results Found"

• Verify the target URL is accessible
• Try different wordlists
• Check status code filtering with -s flag

Performance Issues

Slow Scanning

• Increase thread count with -t flag (but be careful not to overwhelm the target)
• Use smaller, more targeted wordlists

🎯 Best Practices

Security Testing Guidelines