OWASP Nettacker vs ShadowSecurityScanner
OWASP Nettacker
owasp.github.ioShadowSecurityScanner
shadowsecurityscanner.comSide by side
| Figure | OWASP Nettacker | ShadowSecurityScanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Vulnerability Scanning Software | 7.9 (#12) | 7.5 (#18) |
| Intended users | The project describes its intended users as cybersecurity professionals and ethical hackers conducting reconnaissance, vulnerability assessments, and network security audits. | The maker identifies security engineers, system administrators, red teams, and DevSecOps pipelines as intended users. |
| Purpose | Automates information gathering, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing, including discovery of open ports, services, misconfigurations, default credentials, and subdomains. | ShadowSecurityScanner is a free, open-source penetration testing tool and network vulnerability scanner. |
| Scanning | Its modular architecture supports prebuilt and customizable modules for different scanning tasks. | It combines automated port scanning, service and operating-system fingerprinting, and thousands of active network and web-application security checks. |
| Support | The security policy points users to GitHub Issues and the OWASP Slack #project-nettacker channel for general inquiries. | The maker invites questions, demos, or enterprise support inquiries and says it usually replies within a day. |
Plans
In their own words
OWASP Nettacker
OWASP Nettacker is free, open-source software for automating information gathering, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing. It discovers open ports, services, misconfigurations, default credentials, and subdomains across IPv4 addresses, ranges, CIDR blocks, domains, and HTTP or HTTPS URLs. Users can run it as a command-line utility, Docker container, API, or Web GUI. A modular architecture provides prebuilt and customizable scanning modules. Reports are generated in HTML, TXT, JSON, and CSV, with the latest release listing SARIF and DefectDojo-compatible output; Maltego transforms are supported. Nettacker is written entirely in Python and does not launch external tools. Installation options include Poetry from source, pip or pipx from PyPI, and Docker. Native support covers Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD; Docker serves other operating systems while native Windows support is in progress. The installation guide currently supports Python 3.11–3.12, with later compatibility underway. Security updates cover the latest stable release and current master branch, while older versions may not receive updates. The project directs vulnerability reports through a private GitHub Security Advisory.
ShadowSecurityScanner
ShadowSecurityScanner is a free, open-source desktop tool for penetration testing and network vulnerability scanning on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It scans network hosts, servers, web applications, and network appliances using port checks, service and operating-system fingerprinting, and thousands of active security tests. Findings receive FIRST.org EPSS scores and are checked against the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Scan comparisons identify findings that are new, regressed, or resolved. Reports can be exported as PDF, HTML, SARIF, XML, or CSV, with SARIF described as suitable for GitHub code scanning. A signed update feed refreshes the audit catalog with daily CISA KEV updates, Nuclei, and curated advisories. The application runs locally, stores its database in the user profile, and has no cloud component or telemetry. It is distributed as one self-contained app, without agents or a database server. Listed requirements include Windows 10/11, macOS 11 or later on Apple Silicon, and Linux x64 or ARM64. Use is limited to authorized testing; denial-of-service tests are excluded.