Import Files - Preseeding the Acunetix crawler
The Acunetix crawler can be preseeded with data to give a head start when scanning a target, while also ensuring that the requests already captured using other tools are not missed by the Acunetix crawler. When there are parts of a site that are not linked to the main target, preseeding the scan will ensure that those pages and directories are scanned.
How to preseed the Acunetix crawler
Preseed files are applied to individual targets. A target can have multiple preseed files.
Follow the steps below to import a preseed file to a particular target:
- Prepare the output file(s) that you wish to use for preseeding the crawler.
- Log in to Acunetix and go to the Targets page.
- Click the target address that you wish to preseed. The Target Settings page will open.
- Scroll down to the Import Files / API Definitions section.
- Click the upload icon in the Choose File field.
- Locate and select the file that you wish to import.
- Your file uploads automatically and is now listed in the Import Files /API Definitions section of the Target Settings. To remove a preseed file from a target, click the trash icon next to the file that you have imported.
- Click Save for your settings to take effect.
Accepted file formats
An Acunetix crawl can be preseeded using output from the following tools:
- Selenium IDE: Scripts used to automatically test web applications (.html and .side)
- Telerik Fiddler: Session archives (.saz)
- Burp: Saved items (.xml) and state files
- HTTP Archives: Can be exported from various tools, including developer tools included with major browsers (.har)
- Swagger 2.0 / 3.0: Used to describe RESTful APIs (.json, .yaml, and .yml files)
- WSDL: Used to describe SOAP web services (.wsdl)
- WADL: Used to describe restful APIs (.wadl)
- ASP.NET Web Forms project files (.csproj and .vbproj)
- Paros log files (.session.data)
- Postman collections v2 (.json)
- GraphQL files (.graphql and .json)
- Text files with lists of URLs (.txt)