HTTrack (www.httrack.com) allows us to view an entire website offline. It does this by creating a clone copy of an online website and storing it locally on our computer. To use HTTrack, simply open a new Terminal window and perform the following steps:
- Execute the httrack command to invoke the interactive wizard.
- Enter a name for the project.
- Set the destination path to store the offline copy of the target website. Hitting Enter will use the defaults in the brackets.
- Specify the URL.
- Choose an appropriate action.
- Confirm the details and launch HTTrack to mirror the website.
The following is a screenshot indicating the steps that we have just outlined:
Cloning a website can be very useful as you'll be able to discover and access hidden resources and files that weren't accessible via the online version. As a penetration tester, you can explore each offline directory thoroughly; normally, webmasters tend not to always perform any cleanup of old data and files, so there'll be lots to explore.
Having completed this section, you have the knowledge required to copy a target website onto your Kali Linux machine. In the next section, we will attempt to retrieve subdomains for a target domain.