Install nikto with Homebrew, apk, apt, MacPorts, Nix, pacman

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• nikto
• replay.pl

Project history

The project history published in the Nikto wiki says Nikto 1.00 Beta was released on December 27, 2001, followed shortly by a 1.01 bug-fix release. The same history describes the 2.0 release in November 2007 as the result of several years of improvements, with development continuing on GitHub afterward. The wiki also records David Lodge joining and taking project leadership in 2008 while Chris Sullo stepped away, and Sullo rejoining in 2009.

The GitHub repository and cirt.net page show the modern project still centered on the same Perl scanner lineage. The repository lists Nikto 2.6.0 as a release on February 11, 2026, and the project page describes a scanner with updateable scan items/plugins, multiple output formats, false-positive reduction, TLS fingerprinting checks, proxy support, and database/reporting integrations.

Adoption history

Nikto became part of the standard open-source web assessment toolkit because it is easy to run, has a large body of checks, and is available through mainstream package managers. The project's own history says that within two years of the 2001 beta it had become the most popular freely available web vulnerability scanner; modern adoption is reflected by its GitHub repository visibility and Homebrew packaging.

On 2026-07-01, the Homebrew formula page listed Nikto 2.6.0 with 7,916 installs over 365 days. That is modest compared with language/build tools, but healthy for a focused security scanner that many users run only during audits or lab work.

How it is used

Package nerds usually treat Nikto as a quick web-server coverage pass: install it, run `nikto -h https://target.example`, add ports with `-p`, feed host lists, tune check classes, and export text, JSON, XML, HTML, CSV, SQL, or database-backed reports. The official basic testing docs emphasize host/port scans, URL input, SSL handling, multiple ports, and host files.

In practice it is often paired with nmap and proxy tooling: nmap finds HTTP services, Nikto checks them for common files and server issues, then the output is fed into manual verification or reporting. Its value is breadth and repeatability, not stealth or perfect signal.

Why package nerds care

Nikto is the archetypal packaged Perl web scanner: old, portable, easy to bottle, still useful, and familiar enough that security distributions and package managers keep it around. For av.db, its history matters because it is a source-backed example of a security CLI whose adoption comes from workflow habit and test coverage rather than a fast-moving ecosystem.

Timeline

• {'date': '2001-12-27', 'event': 'Nikto 1.00 Beta released.'}
• {'date': '2007-11', 'event': 'Nikto 2.0 released after several years of improvements.'}
• {'date': '2008', 'event': 'David Lodge joined and assumed project leadership.'}
• {'date': '2009', 'event': 'Chris Sullo rejoined the project.'}
• {'date': '2026-02-11', 'event': 'Nikto 2.6.0 listed as a GitHub release.'}

Sources

• https://cirt.net/nikto/
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/nikto
• https://github.com/sullo/nikto
• https://github.com/sullo/nikto/wiki/Basic-Testing
• https://github.com/sullo/nikto/wiki/History-%26-Trivia