Pentographer vs w3af

Pentographer is an open-source platform for managing security assessments, from findings and evidence through client reports. Findings can carry CVSS scores, risk and status tracking, evidence attachments, version history, and playbook links. Users can build reusable checklists mapped to OWASP, PTES, or their own framework; OWASP Top 10 (2021) is built in. Claude can draft finding descriptions and remediation from tester notes, evidence images, and playbook context, with review required before saving and an Anthropic API key required. Pentographer creates branded reports with customizable templates and executive summaries, exporting to Word and PDF. Team workspaces provide owner, admin, member, and viewer roles, including read-only viewers. A GraphQL API handles projects, findings, and playbooks, while an MCP server supports Claude Desktop, Cursor, and compatible clients. Free cloud and MIT-licensed self-hosted plans are listed; self-hosting requires Node.js 20+ and PostgreSQL.

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.