How to Compress and Archive Files Using the tar Command in Linux
June 19, 2025How to Install Nuclei on Kali Linux
June 20, 2025
What Is Nuclei and Why Bug Hunters Love It
🛡️ Important: Nuclei should only be used for ethical purposes, such as authorized security testing, bug bounty programs, or educational research. Never run recon tools like Nuclei against systems you don’t own or have explicit permission to test. This guide assumes you’re using Nuclei responsibly and legally.
Nuclei is a fast, customizable vulnerability scanner used by bug bounty hunters, penetration testers, and red teamers to find misconfigurations, exposed files, known CVEs, and more across large numbers of URLs. It runs template-based scans using YAML files that define what to look for, how to test it, and what severity to assign to a match.
The best part? Nuclei is scriptable, automatable, and ridiculously fast. You can feed it thousands of URLs and let it rip through them with targeted checks, alerting you when something matches — from an exposed admin panel to a juicy .env file with AWS keys.
Why Bug Hunters Love Nuclei
- Speed: It scans hundreds of URLs per second with low resource usage.
- Templates: You get 5000+ community-made checks, from CVEs to login pages to tech fingerprinting.
- Customizable: Write your own YAMLs to detect custom bugs or specific weaknesses.
- Great for recon chains: Works perfectly with tools like subfinder, httpx, and waybackurl pipelines.
- Automation-friendly: Logs, alerts, Discord webhooks — it fits easily into your workflow.
What Nuclei Can Find
With the right templates, Nuclei can detect:
- Known CVEs (e.g. Log4Shell, Struts2 RCE, Jenkins exploits)
- Misconfigurations (e.g. exposed Kibana, open FTP, missing headers)
- Exposed files (.git, .env, .DS_Store, backups)
- Open redirects and weak login panels
- Technologies used by targets (WordPress, Nginx, etc.)
Who Made It?
Nuclei is developed by ProjectDiscovery, the same team behind subfinder, httpx, naabu, and other tools that dominate the bug bounty toolkit scene. It’s free, open source, and actively maintained by a passionate community.
Where to Next?
In the next part, we’ll walk through how to install Nuclei on Kali Linux in under 60 seconds and get your first scan running.
Continue to: How to Install Nuclei on Kali Linux
Ready for a reliable, high-performance VPS at an unbeatable price? We host our own Kali labs on Hostinger: 4 vCPU, NVMe storage, 16 GB RAM and 16 TB bandwidth, backed by 24/7 support and a 30-day money-back guarantee. You’ll save up to 20% when you lock in a 24-month plan. Grab a Hostinger VPS using this referral link and support our content.
👉 Claim your Hostinger VPS (from only US$ 9.99/mo)
