Ghostwriter vs w3af
Ghostwriter
github.comw3af
w3af.orgSide by side
| Figure | Ghostwriter | w3af |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Penetration Testing Software | 7.7 (#18) | 8.2 (#11) |
| Deployment | Ghostwriter is a Django web app with installation and setup instructions in its documentation. | The installation guide documents running w3af in Docker and provides installation instructions for Mac OS X. |
| Integrations | Ghostwriter can automatically log activity from Mythic C2 and Cobalt Strike. | The documentation describes Metasploit integration and suggests sending vulnerabilities to an internal issue tracker through its REST API. |
| Purpose | Ghostwriter is an open-source platform for offensive security teams to manage assessments, clients, projects, assets, and reporting. | w3af is an open-source web application security scanner for developers and penetration testers to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. |
| Support | The project README directs users to the BloodHound Slack Team’s #ghostwriter channel and GitHub issues for help. | For installation issues, the guide directs users to create a ticket and include their Linux distribution, dependency-install script, pip freeze output, and Python version. |
Plans
In their own words
Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
w3af
w3af is a free, open-source web application security scanner for vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. It can identify more than 200 vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and OS command injection. Its workflow starts with crawler plugins that find URLs and injection points, continues with audit plugins that check for vulnerabilities, and can use attack plugins to exploit findings. Other plugin types cover infrastructure detection, request and response analysis, output, brute force, request modification, and evasion.
Users can scan and analyze results in a GTK graphical interface or a console. Web application payloads can interact with Metasploit when an exploit provides exec() capability. Developers can use the REST API from development languages and run it in Docker; scripts and the API also support automation. The project documents Linux and macOS installation, including running in Docker without installing w3af dependencies. It is available for Linux, macOS, web, API, and self-hosted deployment. REST API traffic over HTTP is unencrypted, so the documentation recommends added protection such as an SSL proxy for publicly reachable deployments.