Nuclei

Description

Nuclei is a fast, open-source vulnerability scanner from ProjectDiscovery that uses a simple YAML-based template language to detect security issues across applications, APIs, networks, DNS, and cloud configurations. A large community template library keeps it current with newly disclosed vulnerabilities.

Features

• YAML Templates: Defines scan logic declaratively instead of writing custom scanner code.
• 8,000+ Community Templates: Ships a constantly updated library covering CVEs and misconfigurations.
• Multi-Protocol Scanning: Scans HTTP, DNS, TCP, and cloud configurations from one tool.
• High-Speed Scanning: Scans thousands of hosts concurrently with built-in rate limiting.
• CI/CD Integration: Runs as part of pipelines to catch regressions before deployment.
• Custom Template Authoring: Lets security teams write and share their own detection templates.

Technology Stack

Written in Go for fast, concurrent network scanning. Integrates with ProjectDiscovery's broader toolkit (httpx, subfinder) and supports output in JSON for pipeline integration.

Requirements

Linux, macOS, or Windows; Go runtime for building from source (binaries provided for most platforms); network access to scan targets; minimal RAM for typical scans.