Provides web vulnerability testing methodology distilled from 88,636 real-world cases from the WooYun vulnerability database (2010-2016). Use when performing penetration testing, security audits, code reviews for security flaws, or vulnerability research. Covers SQL injection, XSS, command execution, file upload, path traversal, unauthorized access, information disclosure, and business logic flaws.
Scanned 6/8/2026
Install via CLI
Skills Directoryopenskills install vigolium/vigolium---
name: wooyun-legacy
description: >-
Provides web vulnerability testing methodology distilled from 88,636
real-world cases from the WooYun vulnerability database (2010-2016). Use when
performing penetration testing, security audits, code reviews for security
flaws, or vulnerability research. Covers SQL injection, XSS, command
execution, file upload, path traversal, unauthorized access, information
disclosure, and business logic flaws.
allowed-tools:
- Read
- Grep
- Glob
- Bash
---
# WooYun Vulnerability Analysis Knowledge Base
Methodology and testing patterns extracted from 88,636 real-world
vulnerability cases reported to the WooYun platform (2010-2016).
---
## When to Use
> All testing described here must be performed only against systems you
> have written authorization to test.
- Penetration testing web applications
- Security code review (server-side or client-side)
- Vulnerability research against web targets you have explicit authorization to test
- Building security test cases or checklists
- Assessing web application attack surface
- Reviewing remediation effectiveness
- Training or education in authorized security testing contexts
## When NOT to Use
- Network infrastructure testing (firewalls, routers, switches)
- Mobile application binary analysis
- Malware analysis or reverse engineering
- Compliance-only assessments (PCI-DSS, SOC2 checklists without testing)
- Physical security assessments
- Social engineering campaigns
- Cloud infrastructure misconfigurations (IAM, S3 buckets) — these
require cloud-specific tooling, not web vuln patterns
## Rationalizations to Reject
These shortcuts lead to missed findings. Reject them:
- "The WAF will catch it" — WAFs are bypass-able; test the application
logic, not the middleware
- "It's an internal app, so auth doesn't matter" — internal apps get
compromised via SSRF, lateral movement, and credential reuse
- "We already use parameterized queries everywhere" — check for ORM
misuse, stored procedures with dynamic SQL, and second-order injection
- "The framework handles XSS" — template engines have raw output modes,
JavaScript contexts bypass HTML encoding, and DOM XSS lives
entirely client-side
- "File uploads are safe because we check the extension" — extension
checks are bypassed via null bytes, double extensions, parser
discrepancies, and race conditions
- "We validate on the frontend" — client-side validation is a UX
feature, not a security control
- "Nobody would guess that URL" — security through obscurity fails
against directory bruteforcing, referrer leaks, and JS source analysis
- "Low severity, not worth reporting" — low-severity findings chain
into critical attack paths
---
## Core Mental Model
```
Vulnerability = Expected Behavior - Actual Behavior
= Developer Assumptions + Attacker Input -> Unexpected State
Analysis chain:
1. Where does data come from? (Input sources)
-> GET/POST/Cookie/Header/File/WebSocket
2. Where does data flow? (Data path)
-> Validation -> Processing -> Storage -> Output
3. Where is data trusted? (Trust boundaries)
-> Client / Server / Database / OS / External service
4. How is data processed? (Processing logic)
-> Filter / Escape / Validate / Execute
5. Where does data end up? (Output sinks)
-> HTML / SQL / Shell / Filesystem / Log / Email
```
---
## Attack Surface Mapping
```
+-------------------------------------------+
| Application Attack Surface |
+-------------------------------------------+
|
+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| | |
+----v----+ +-----v-----+ +-----v-----+
| Input | | Processing| | Output |
+---------+ +-----------+ +-----------+
| GET | | Input | | HTML page |
| POST | -> | validation| -> | JSON resp |
| Cookie | | Biz logic | | File DL |
| Headers | | DB query | | Error msg |
| File | | File op | | Log entry |
| Upload | | Sys call | | Email |
+---------+ +-----------+ +-----------+
```
---
## SQL Injection
**Cases:** 27,732 | **Reference:** [sql-injection.md]({baseDir}/references/sql-injection.md)
| **Checklist:** [sql-injection-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/sql-injection-checklist.md)
High-risk parameters: `id`, `sort_id`, `username`, `password`, `search`,
`keyword`, `page`, `order`, `cat_id`
Injection point detection:
- String terminators: `' " ) ') ") -- # /*`
- DB fingerprint: `@@version` (MSSQL), `version()` (MySQL),
`v$version` (Oracle)
Bypass techniques:
- Whitespace: `/**/ %09 %0a ()`
- Keywords: `SeLeCt sel%00ect /*!select*/`
- Equals: `LIKE REGEXP BETWEEN IN`
- Quotes: `0x` hex, `char()`, `concat()`
Core defense: parameterized queries (PreparedStatement / ORM binding).
---
## Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
**Cases:** 7,532 | **Reference:** [xss.md]({baseDir}/references/xss.md)
| **Checklist:** [xss-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/xss-checklist.md)
Output points: user profile fields (nickname, bio), search reflections,
file metadata (filename, alt text), email content (subject, body)
Bypass techniques:
- Tag mutation: `<ScRiPt> <script/x> <script\n>`
- Event handlers: `onerror onload onmouseover onfocus`
- Encoding: HTML entities, JS Unicode, URL encoding
- Protocol handlers: `javascript: data: vbscript:`
Core defense: context-aware output encoding + Content Security Policy.
---
## Command Execution
**Cases:** 6,826 | **Reference:** [command-execution.md]({baseDir}/references/command-execution.md)
| **Checklist:** [command-execution-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/command-execution-checklist.md)
Entry points: system command wrappers (ping, traceroute, nslookup),
file operations (compress, decompress, image processing), code eval
(`eval`, `assert`, `preg_replace(/e)`), framework vulnerabilities
(Struts2, WebLogic, JBoss)
Command chaining:
- Linux: `; | || && \` $()`
- Windows: `& | || &&`
Bypass techniques:
- Whitespace: `${IFS} $IFS$9 %09 < <>`
- Keywords: `ca\t ca''t c$@at /???/??t`
- Encoding: `$(printf "\x63\x61\x74")`,
`` `echo Y2F0|base64 -d` ``
Core defense: avoid shell invocation; use `execFile` over `exec`,
allowlist acceptable inputs.
---
## File Upload
**Cases:** 2,711 | **Reference:** [file-upload.md]({baseDir}/references/file-upload.md)
| **Checklist:** [file-upload-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/file-upload-checklist.md)
Bypass detection:
- Client-side validation: modify JS or send request directly
- Content-Type: `image/gif` header + PHP code body
- Extension: `.php5 .phtml .pht .php. .php::$DATA`
- Content inspection: `GIF89a` + `<?php` or image-based webshell
- Parser discrepancy: `/upload/1.asp;.jpg` (IIS 6.0)
Parser-specific vulnerabilities:
- IIS 6.0: `/test.asp/1.jpg`, `test.asp;.jpg`
- Apache: `.php.xxx` (unknown extension fallback)
- Nginx: `/1.jpg/1.php` (`cgi.fix_pathinfo`)
- Tomcat: `test.jsp%00.jpg`
Core defense: allowlist extensions, rename uploads, store outside
webroot, validate content type server-side.
---
## Path Traversal
**Cases:** 2,854 | **Reference:** [path-traversal.md]({baseDir}/references/path-traversal.md)
| **Checklist:** [path-traversal-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/path-traversal-checklist.md)
High-risk parameters: `file`, `path`, `filename`, `url`, `dir`,
`template`, `page`, `include`, `download`
Traversal payloads:
- Basic: `../../../etc/passwd`
- Encoded: `%2e%2e%2f`, `..%252f`, `%c0%ae%c0%ae/`
- Null byte: `../../../etc/passwd%00.jpg`
- Windows: `..\..\..\windows\win.ini`
Target files (Linux): `/etc/passwd`, `/etc/shadow`,
`/proc/self/environ`, `/var/log/apache2/access.log`
Core defense: resolve canonical paths, validate against allowlisted
directories, never use user input in file paths directly.
---
## Unauthorized Access
**Cases:** 14,377 | **Reference:** [unauthorized-access.md]({baseDir}/references/unauthorized-access.md)
| **Checklist:** [unauthorized-access-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/unauthorized-access-checklist.md)
Access types:
- Admin panel exposure: `/admin`, `/manager`, `/console`
- API without authentication: missing token validation, predictable
tokens
- Exposed services: Redis (6379), MongoDB (27017),
Elasticsearch (9200), Memcached (11211), Docker (2375)
- IDOR: horizontal privilege escalation via ID enumeration
Core defense: authentication + authorization on every endpoint,
session management, principle of least privilege.
---
## Information Disclosure
**Cases:** 7,337 | **Reference:** [info-disclosure.md]({baseDir}/references/info-disclosure.md)
| **Checklist:** [info-disclosure-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/info-disclosure-checklist.md)
Disclosure sources: error messages with stack traces, exposed `.git`
or `.svn` directories, backup files (`.bak`, `.sql`, `.tar.gz`),
configuration files, debug endpoints, directory listings
Core defense: custom error pages, disable directory listing, remove
debug endpoints in production, audit publicly accessible files.
---
## Business Logic Flaws
**Cases:** 8,292 | **Reference:** [logic-flaws.md]({baseDir}/references/logic-flaws.md)
| **Checklist:** [logic-flaws-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/logic-flaws-checklist.md)
Vulnerability patterns:
- Password reset: verification code in response body, step skipping,
controllable reset tokens
- Authorization bypass: horizontal (ID enumeration), vertical (role
escalation)
- Payment logic: amount tampering, quantity manipulation, coupon
stacking
- CAPTCHA: not refreshed, reusable, brute-forceable, client-side only
Testing approach:
1. Map the business flow -> draw state transition diagram
2. Identify critical checks -> which parameters determine outcomes
3. Attempt bypass -> modify parameters / skip steps / replay / race
4. Verify impact -> prove the scope of harm
Core defense: server-side validation of all business-critical logic.
---
## Additional Categories
These categories are derived from case data without full reference
documents. Each has a testing checklist extracted from real cases.
| Category | Checklist |
|----------|-----------|
| CSRF | [csrf-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/csrf-checklist.md) |
| SSRF | [ssrf-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/ssrf-checklist.md) |
| Weak Passwords | [weak-password-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/weak-password-checklist.md) |
| Misconfiguration | [misconfig-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/misconfig-checklist.md) |
| Remote Code Execution | [rce-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/rce-checklist.md) |
| XML External Entity (XXE) | [xxe-checklist.md]({baseDir}/references/checklists/xxe-checklist.md) |
> **Note:** The RCE checklist covers deserialization, OGNL injection, and
> framework-specific remote code execution — distinct from the OS command
> injection focus of the Command Execution reference above.
---
## Methodology Case Studies
Real-world penetration testing methodology examples (anonymized):
| Case Study | Description |
|------------|-------------|
| [bank-penetration.md]({baseDir}/references/bank-penetration.md) | Multi-stage attack chain against a financial institution |
| [telecom-penetration.md]({baseDir}/references/telecom-penetration.md) | Infrastructure penetration of a telecom carrier |
These demonstrate how individual vulnerabilities chain together into
full compromise scenarios.
---
## Testing Priority Framework
### High Priority (test first)
1. **SQL Injection** — direct data access, highest case count (27,732)
2. **Command Execution** — OS-level compromise
3. **File Upload** — arbitrary code execution via webshell
### Medium Priority
4. **Unauthorized Access** — second-highest case count (14,377)
5. **Business Logic Flaws** — application-specific, hard to automate
6. **XSS** — session hijacking, phishing
### Lower Priority (but still important)
7. **Path Traversal** — file read, sometimes write
8. **Information Disclosure** — reconnaissance value, enables chaining
9. **CSRF/SSRF/XXE** — context-dependent severity
---
## Defense Quick Reference
| Vulnerability | Core Defense | Implementation |
|---------------|-------------|----------------|
| SQL Injection | Parameterized queries | PreparedStatement / ORM |
| XSS | Output encoding | Context-aware escaping + CSP |
| Command Execution | Avoid shell | `execFile` not `exec`, allowlist |
| File Upload | Strict validation | Allowlist ext, rename, isolate |
| Path Traversal | Canonical paths | Resolve + validate against allowlist |
| Unauthorized Access | Access control | AuthN + AuthZ + session mgmt |
| Logic Flaws | Server-side checks | Validate all business logic server-side |
| Info Disclosure | Minimize exposure | Custom errors, no debug in prod |
---
## Key Insight
All 88,636 vulnerabilities in this database share a common root cause:
the gap between what developers assumed and what attackers actually
provided. Effective security testing means systematically challenging
every assumption at every trust boundary.
Four principles from the data:
1. **Boundary thinking** — all vulnerabilities occur at trust boundaries
2. **Data flow tracing** — follow data from input to output completely
3. **Assumption challenging** — question every "obvious" validation
4. **Chain composition** — individual low-severity findings combine
into critical attack paths
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