security enabled verified medium v1.0.0

cewl

Custom wordlist generator that spiders websites to gather unique words for crafting targeted password lists.

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cewl {url} -w {output}
🌍 url → 🌍 output → wordlist.txt 
cewl {url} -w {output}

Sandbox: execFile · Timeout: 600s

Capabilities

security.wordlist.generate
security.crack.password
web.spider.content

Parameters

Name Type Required Default Description Aliases
url string Yes - Target URL to spider (positional argument)
flag-w string No - Write wordlist to output file -w, --write
flag-d integer No - Spider depth (default 2) -d, --depth
flag-m integer No - Minimum word length (default 3) -m, --min-word-length
flag-x integer No - Maximum word length -x, --max-word-length
flag-n boolean No - Do not include word count in output -n, --no-count
flag-o boolean No - Allow offsite spidering -o, --offsite
with-numbers boolean No - Include words containing numbers --with-numbers
lowercase boolean No - Convert all words to lowercase --lowercase
convert-umlauts boolean No - Convert umlauts to ASCII equivalents --convert-umlauts
flag-a boolean No - Extract metadata from documents -a, --meta
flag-e boolean No - Extract email addresses -e, --email
email_file string No - Write discovered emails to file --email_file
flag-c boolean No - Include word count in output -c, --count
flag-u string No - Custom user agent string -u, --user-agent
flag-v boolean No - Verbose output -v, --verbose
debug boolean No - Debug mode with extra output --debug
auth_pass boolean No - PASS Authentication password --auth_pass
auth_type boolean No - TYPE Authentication type (basic, digest, ntlm) --auth_type
auth_user boolean No - USER Authentication username --auth_user
cookie boolean No - COOKIE Cookie string for session --cookie
cookies boolean No - FILE File containing cookies --cookies
h boolean No - Show this help message -h, --help
k boolean No - Keep the downloaded file -k, --keep
max_retries boolean No - NUM Maximum retries (default: 3) --max_retries
no_check_certificate boolean No - Don't check SSL certificate validity --no_check_certificate
proxy boolean No - HOST:PORT Use proxy --proxy
proxy_auth boolean No - CREDS Proxy authentication credentials --proxy-auth
proxy_protocol boolean No - PROTO Proxy protocol (http/socks) --proxy-protocol
quiet boolean No - Quiet mode (no banner) --quiet

Artifacts

TypeDescriptionMIMESchemaTrust
security.wordlist.txtGenerated wordlist filetext/plain-verified
security.emails.txtDiscovered email addressestext/plain-verified

Contract

Inputs

network.target.url

Target URL to spider for word generation

web.spider.depth

Maximum link depth to spider

Outputs

security.wordlist

Generated wordlist file

security.email.list

Discovered email addresses

web.metadata

Extracted metadata from documents

Side effects: network_trafficnetwork_traffic

Workflow Edges

Produces

security.wordlistsecurity.email.listweb.metadata

Consumes

network.target.urlweb.spider.depth

Resource Profile

ResourceValue
CPUlow
Memory256 MB
Networkmedium
Disk I/Olow

Examples

Generate wordlist from website

cewl https://example.com -w wordlist.txt

Spider deeper with custom depth

cewl https://example.com -d 3 -w wordlist.txt

Minimum 6 character words

cewl https://example.com -m 6 -w wordlist.txt

Extract emails from website

cewl https://example.com -e --email_file emails.txt

Extract document metadata

cewl https://example.com -a -w wordlist.txt

Lowercase with numbers allowed

cewl https://example.com --lowercase --with-numbers -w wordlist.txt

Verbose output with custom user agent

cewl https://example.com -v -u "Mozilla/5.0" -w wordlist.txt

Include word count and offsite links

cewl https://example.com -c -o -w wordlist.txt

Documentation

CeWL — Custom Wordlist Generator

CeWL (Custom Word List) is a Ruby application that spiders a given website to a specified depth, returning a list of unique words found on the site. These words are ideal for crafting targeted password lists in penetration tests.

Key Features

  • Web spidering: Crawls sites up to configurable depth
  • Metadata extraction: Pulls metadata from Office documents
  • Email harvesting: Extracts email addresses found on pages
  • Custom filtering: Min/max word length, numbers, case control

Usage Patterns

Operation Command Description
Basic cewl https://target.com -w words.txt Simple wordlist generation
Deep cewl https://target.com -d 5 -m 5 -w words.txt Deep crawl, min 5 chars
Metadata cewl https://target.com -a -w words.txt Extract document metadata
Emails cewl https://target.com -e --email_file emails.txt Harvest email addresses

Wordlist Enhancement

Combine CeWL output with other tools:

  • crunch — generate permutations based on CeWL words
  • rsmangler — apply common mangling rules
  • cupp — generate smart entries from personal info

Related Tools

crunchcupprsmangler

References