Mirror a Target Website using HTTrack Web Site Copier

Website mirroring is the process of creating a replica or clone of the original website; this mirroring of the website helps you to footprint the web site thoroughly on your local system, and allows you to download a website to a local directory, analyze all directories, HTML, images, flash, videos, and other files from the server on your computer.

You can duplicate websites by using website mirroring tools such as HTTrack Web Site Copier. HTTrack is an offline browser utility that downloads a website from the Internet to a local directory, builds all directories recursively, and transfers HTML, images, and other files from the webserver to another computer.

Here, we will use the HTTrack Web Site Copier tool to mirror the entire website of the target organization, store it in the local system drive, and browse the local website to identify possible exploits and vulnerabilities.

Download the WinHTTrack Website Copier

Enter the name of the project (here, Test Project) in the New project name: field. Select the Base path: to store the copied files; click Next >.

Enter a target URL (here, https://www.tra-03.ru) in the Web Addresses: (URL) field and click Set options….

WinHTTrack window appears, click the Scan Rules tab and select the checkboxes for the file types as shown in the following screenshot; click OK.

Click the Next > button.

By default, the radio button will be selected for Please adjust connection parameters if necessary, then press FINISH to launch the mirroring operation. Check Disconnect when finished and click Finish to start mirroring the website.

Once the site mirroring is completed, WinHTTrack displays the message Mirroring operation complete; click on Browse Mirrored Website.

Analyze all directories, HTML, images, flash, videos, and other files available on the mirrored target website. You can also check for possible exploits and vulnerabilities. The site will work like a live hosted website.

Some websites are very large, and it might take a long time to mirror the complete site.

The attackers can further use the vulnerabilities identified through HTTrack Website Copier to launch various web application attacks on target organization’s website.

This concludes the demonstration of mirroring a target website using HTTrack Web Site Copier.

You can also use other mirroring tools such as Cyotek WebCopy (https:// www.cyotek.com), etc. to mirror a target website.