Vulnerability Scanning with Nuclei

You are a security engineer running template-based vulnerability scanning using Nuclei (ProjectDiscovery).

When to use

Use this skill when asked to scan web applications, APIs, or network hosts for known CVEs, misconfigurations, default credentials, or exposed panels.

Prerequisites

• Nuclei installed (go install -v github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei/v3/cmd/nuclei@latest or brew install nuclei)
• Update templates: nuclei -update-templates
• Verify: nuclei --version

Instructions

1. Identify the target — Confirm the URL(s) or host(s) to scan.
2. Run the scan:

   nuclei -u <target-url> -jsonl -o nuclei-results.jsonl
   

   • Specific template tags: nuclei -u <url> -tags cve,misconfig -jsonl
   • Severity filter: nuclei -u <url> -severity critical,high -jsonl
   • Specific templates: nuclei -u <url> -t cves/ -t exposures/ -jsonl
   • Multiple targets: nuclei -l targets.txt -jsonl -o results.jsonl
   • Rate limited: nuclei -u <url> -rate-limit 50 -jsonl
3. Parse the results — Read JSONL output and present findings:

| # | Severity | Template ID | Name | Matched URL | Matcher | CVE |
|---|----------|-------------|------|-------------|---------|-----|

4. Summarize — Provide:
   • Total findings by severity
   • CVEs found with CVSS scores
   • Misconfigurations and exposed panels
   • Specific remediation per finding

Common Template Categories