Identifying Website Technologies

You can identify a website’s technologies using browser extensions, online tools, and command-line scanners. These tools work by analyzing HTTP headers, source code, and directory structures to detect the frameworks, servers, and analytics services a site uses.

Browser Extensions (The Easiest Method) 🌐

Browser extensions are the quickest and easiest way to see the technology stack of a website as you browse. They overlay information directly in your browser.

Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is the most popular tool in this category. It’s a browser extension that creates a list of technologies it detects on the current website, showing you everything from the web server and programming language to the advertising networks and analytics tools.

How it Works: It identifies technologies by detecting unique patterns in the website’s source code, cookies, and network responses.
Information Gained:
- CMS: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
- Frameworks: React, Angular, Vue.js
- Server Software: Nginx, Apache, IIS
- Analytics: Google Analytics, Hotjar
- Programming Language: PHP, Ruby, Java

BuiltWith

BuiltWith is another powerful extension that provides an extremely detailed list of a site’s technologies, often including the date it first detected a particular technology on the site.

Online Scanners 💻

If you don’t want to install an extension, several websites let you input a URL to get a detailed technology report.

Netcraft

Site Report by Netcraft is a classic tool that provides a deep dive into a website’s server-side information.

Objective: To get detailed information about a site’s hosting, SSL/TLS certificates, and network infrastructure.
Information Gained:
- Hosting Provider: Amazon Web Services, GoDaddy, etc.
- Netblock Owner: The organization that owns the IP address range.
- SSL/TLS Details: Certificate issuer, validity period, and configuration.
- Site History: Changes in IP address or operating system over time.

Command-Line Tools (For Automation and Deeper Scans) ⚙️

Command-line tools are essential for penetration testers as they can be scripted and often provide more detailed, low-level information.

WhatWeb

WhatWeb is a powerful, next-generation scanner included in Kali Linux. It uses over 1,800 plugins to identify a vast array of technologies.

Objective: To identify technologies with a high level of detail, including version numbers.
Example Usage:
Terminal window
```
whatweb example.com
```

Example Output:

[http://example.com](http://example.com) [200 OK]
Apache[2.4.29]
Country[UNITED STATES]
HTML5
HTTPServer[Ubuntu Linux][Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu)]
JQuery
PHP[7.2.24]
Script
Title[Example Domain]
X-Frame-Options[SAMEORIGIN]

This output tells you the web server (Apache 2.4.29), operating system (Ubuntu), and programming language (PHP 7.2.24) at a glance.

Manual Techniques (For When Tools Fail) 🕵️

Sometimes, tools can be blocked or misleading. Manually inspecting a website’s code and network traffic is a fundamental skill.

1. View Page Source (`Ctrl+U`)

The HTML source code is full of clues.

What to Look For:
- Comments: “
- Linked Files: Paths like /wp-content/ strongly indicate WordPress. Paths like /sites/default/files/ suggest Drupal.
- Script Tags: You can see which JavaScript libraries (like React or jQuery) are being loaded.

2. Check HTTP Headers

Headers sent from the server often explicitly state the technology being used. You can view these in your browser’s Developer Tools (F12) under the “Network” tab or with a command-line tool like curl.

Command:

curl -I [http://example.com](http://example.com)

What to Look For:
- Server: Server: nginx/1.18.0
- X-Powered-By: X-Powered-By: PHP/8.1.0 or X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
- Set-Cookie: Cookies like wp-settings- are a clear sign of WordPress.