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Sunday, July 10, 2016

Web Application Security Scanner, w3af for Slackware

So what is w3af?  It is an open source security scanner that has a long list of features.  If you have never heard of it, take a tour on the w3af website.  I've used this valuable software in the past to secure web applications of all types.  I would like to make it available for Slackware users everywhere.

w3af is extremely out of date on SlackBuilds.org.  I have been working on updating w3af to version 1.6.49 from 1.0.  I had hoped for the update to occur for Slackware 14.2.  Unfortunately w3af will remain at version 1.0 due to a regression in a dependency that is shipped in official Slackware.  This is a minor set back that will probably result in a positive outcome.  Slackware is known for including only the most stable software available for Linux.

What should be expected next?  I plan to reorganize my w3af-sbo repository and begin preparing for the next stable Slackware.  I will be focusing on preparing w3af for Slackware-current and Slackware64-current.  I will heavily use slackrepo to build, rebuild, and install w3af and all of its dependencies.  After that I plan to make binary packages available for download on a Slackware mirror dedicated to this project.

I haven't decided on a timeline or a specific road map yet. Please contact me if you have suggestions about improvements, or if you wish to lend a hand.

Thanks for reading!