Performing Directory Traversal Testing

When to Use

• During authorized penetration tests when the application handles file paths in URL parameters or request bodies
• When testing file download, file view, or file include functionality
• For assessing Local File Inclusion (LFI) and Remote File Inclusion (RFI) vulnerabilities
• When evaluating template engines, logging systems, or report generators that reference files
• During security assessments of APIs that accept file names or paths as parameters

Prerequisites

• Authorization: Written penetration testing agreement for the target
• Burp Suite Professional: For intercepting and modifying file path parameters
• ffuf: For fuzzing file path parameters with traversal payloads
• dotdotpwn: Automated directory traversal fuzzer (apt install dotdotpwn)
• SecLists: Traversal payload wordlists from Daniel Miessler's collection
• curl: For manual testing of traversal payloads