Installing Acunetix on Windows or Linux

This guide shows you how to install, activate, and update Acunetix on Windows and Linux.

Minimum system requirements

Supported operating systems

• Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 R2 or later
• Ubuntu Desktop/Server 20.04 LTS or higher
• Suse Linux Enterprise Server 15
• Kali Linux versions 2019.1 and later
• CentOS 8 and CentOS Stream Server and Workstation (with SELinux disabled)
• RedHat 8 and 9 (with SELinux disabled)
• Oracle Linux 8 (with SELinux disabled)
• We are actively testing other Linux distributions. Please let us know if you have requests for specific distros.

Hardware requirements

• CPU: 64-bit processor
• Dedicated memory: minimum of 2 GB RAM
• Storage: 1 GB of available hard disk space
  This does not include the storage required to save the scan results, which will depend on the level of usage of Acunetix.

Supported browsers

The Acunetix user interface is delivered through a web server. The supported browsers are:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Edge
• Safari

If you encounter browser-related issues, first ensure that you are running the latest version of one of the supported browsers before contacting support.

Access requirements

• The machine hosting Acunetix needs to have access to erp.acunetix.com.

Whitelisting requirements

• Whitelisting requirements for Acunetix On-Premises

How to install Acunetix on Windows

1. Download the latest Windows version of Acunetix from the download location provided when you purchased the license.
2. Double-click the installation file to launch the Acunetix installation wizard, then click Next when prompted.
3. Review and accept the License Agreement.
4. Provide credentials for the Administrative user account. These will be used to access and configure Acunetix.
5. Configure how the Acunetix Web UI is accessed and if remote UI access is allowed.
6. Review the installation tasks, then click Install to start the installation.
7. Setup will now copy all files and install the Acunetix services.
8. Click Finish when the installation is complete.

Installing Acunetix on Linux

Prerequisites

The following packages need to be installed prior to installing Acunetix on Linux:

• Ubuntu 24.04: sudo apt-get install libxdamage1 libgtk-3-0t64 libasound2t64 libnss3 libxss1 libx11-xcb1 libxcb-dri3-0 libgbm1 libdrm2 libxshmfence1 libxmlsec1t64-openssl bzip2
• Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libxdamage1 libgtk-3-0 libasound2 libnss3 libxss1 libx11-xcb1 libxcb-dri3-0 libgbm1 libdrm2 libxshmfence1 libxmlsec1-openssl bzip2
• Suse Linux Enterprise Server: sudo zypper install libXdamage1 libgtk-3-0 libasound2 mozilla-nss libX11-xcb1 libXss1 libxmlsec1-openssl1 libgbm.so.1
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or CentOS 8 or CentOS Stream: sudo yum install libX11 libX11-devel gtk3 nss libXScrnSaver alsa-lib bzip2 mesa-libgbm libxshmfence xmlsec1-openssl

SeLinux on CentOS 8, CentOS Stream, RedHat 8, or Oracle Linux

SeLinux needs to be disabled if you are installing Acunetix on CentOS, RedHat, or Oracle Linux.

To disable SeLinux temporarily, open a Terminal window and run the following:

• sudo setenforce 0

To disable SeLinux permanently:

1. Open a Terminal window.
2. Run the command "sudo nano /etc/selinux/config".
3. Find the line that sets the "SELINUX" parameter and change the line to read "SELINUX=disabled".
4. Save the amended "/etc/selinux/config" file.
5. Reboot the machine.

How to install Acunetix on Linux

1. Download the latest Linux version of Acunetix from the download location provided when you purchased the license.
2. Open a Terminal Window.
3. Use chmod to add the executable permissions on the installation file.
   E.g. chmod +x acunetix_13.0.200205121_x64.sh
4. Run the installation. E.g. sudo ./acunetix_13.0.200205121_x64.sh
5. Review and accept the License Agreement.
6. Configure the hostname which will be used to access the Acunetix UI.
7. Provide credentials for the Administrative user account. These will be used to access and configure Acunetix.
8. Proceed with the installation.

Activating and configuring your Acunetix installation

After installation, Acunetix needs to be activated using your license key. This section explains how to activate and configure some of the initial settings after installing Acunetix

How to activate Acunetix

1. Log in to Acunetix using the web UI, which by default is running on https://localhost:3443.
2. You will immediately be directed to the Subscription page, where you can insert your License key and proceed with product activation.

How to configure your Acunetix installation

• AcuSensor: For information about configuring settings for AcuSensor Bridge and the networking information that Acunetix will use for incoming AcuSensor data, refer to the AcuSensor Bridge documentation.
• Language: On the User Profile page, you can select from one of the available languages for the web interface.
• Timezone: If you wish Acunetix to present date information in a Time Zone that is different from that of your operating system, you can select the desired timezone from the User Profile page.
• AcuMonitor Service: You can also choose to register your installation with the AcuMonitor service. AcuMonitor is used to detect certain types of vulnerabilities, such as Blind XSS, SSRF, XXE, and other out-of-band vulnerabilities, which can only be detected using an intermediary service. For more information, refer to our AcuMonitor Technology info page, or for a full list of checks that involve AcuMonitor refer to our AcuMonitor Vulnerabilities page.

How to enable additional scanning technologies

You can enable additional scanning tools to achieve a more thorough evaluation of your Targets.

• Installing AcuSensor in your web application: If you need to scan a .NET, JAVA, or PHP web applications, you should install Acunetix AcuSensor on your web application in order to improve the detection of vulnerabilities, get the line in the source code where vulnerabilities are located, and decrease false positives.
• Installing Network Scanning (OpenVAS): Acunetix can be configured to use OpenVAS to perform network scans of the Targets configured in Acunetix.
• Installing Malware Scanning: Acunetix can work in conjunction with antivirus engines to check for malware on your site. The default engine used is the Windows Defender AntiVirus service, with ClamAV being a viable alternative.

Updating Acunetix

Acunetix is frequently updated with new security checks to ensure that all users can scan their websites for the latest threats to the security of their website applications. By default, Acunetix connects to the update server and checks for updates automatically. To manually update from a previous version of Acunetix, follow the relevant instructions below.

Updating Acunetix for Windows

1. Close all instances of Acunetix.
2. Optionally backup the Acunetix data folder, which includes the Acunetix database and other settings. These are all found in <C:\ProgramData\Acunetix>.
3. Follow the installation instructions in this article. You can run the latest Acunetix installation directly on the machine running the previous version of Acunetix. The installation will detect the older version and will proceed with updating it to the latest version. All your settings will be retained.

Updating Acunetix for Linux

1. Close all instances of Acunetix.
2. Optionally backup the Acunetix data folder, which includes the Acunetix database and other settings. These are all found in /home/acunetix/.acunetix.
3. Follow the installation instructions in this article. You can run the latest Acunetix installation directly on the machine running the previous version of Acunetix. The installation will detect the older version and will proceed with updating it to the latest version. All your settings will be retained.