Agent skill · security · nousresearch
web-pentest
Authorized web pentest: recon, proof-based exploits, report.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a comprehensive pentesting workflow with specific methodologies and scripts for vulnerability testing that the AI cannot generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires curl, nmap, whatweb installed locally. About 7k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 226,679 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Web Application Penetration Testing A phased pentesting workflow for running web applications. Adapted from Shannon's pipeline (Keygraph, AGPL — concepts only, no code borrowed). Built around three rules: 1. No exploit, no report — every finding requires reproducible evidence. 2. Bounded scope — every active request goes against a target the operator pre-declared. Off-scope hosts are refused. 3. Bypass exhaustion before false-positive dismissal — a "blocked" payload is not a clean bill of health until you've tried the bypass set. --- ⚠️ Hard Guardrails — Read Before Every Engagement Violating any of these invalidates the engagement and may be illegal. 1. Authorization gate. Before the first active scan in a session, you MUST confirm with the user, in writing, that they own or have written authorization to test the target. Record the acknowledgement in engagement/authorization.md (see template). No acknowledgement → no active scanning. Reading public pages with curl is fine; sending payloads is not. 2. Scope allowlist. Maintain engagement/scope.txt — one hostname or CIDR per line. Every nmap, curl, whatweb, browser navigation, or payload-bearing request MUST be against an entry in scope. If a target redirects you off-scope (3xx to a different host, a link in HTML), STOP and confirm with the user before following. 3. No production systems without paper. If the user hasn't told you "yes, prod is in scope and I have written sign-off," assume not. Default targets are staging, local docker, dedicated test instances. 4. Cloud metadata is off by default. Do not probe 169.254.169.254, metadata.google.internal, 100.100.100.200, [fd00:ec2::254], or equivalent unless the engagement explicitly includes SSRF-to-metadata as a goal AND the target is one you control. The agent's browser tool can reach these from inside your own infrastructure — don't. 5. Destructive payloads need approval. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills nousresearch/web-pentest