Is there an easy way to exclude paths from being scanned?

You can exclude paths from being scanned by configuring the path as an Excluded Path for the Target. This can be done from the Target’s settings > Crawl tab > Excluded Paths. The Excluded paths will need to be configured as a regular expression.

Since regular expressions may be be quite tedious, an easier way would be to crawl the Target, and exclude paths from the Site Structure identified by the Crawl. Proceed as follows:

1. From the Acunetix UI > Targets, select the Target to Crawl.
2. Click the Scan button
3. In the Scan Options, change the the Scan Type to Crawl Only.
   
4. Click Create Scan.
5. Wait for the Crawl to finish.
6. From the Scan details, change to the Site Structure tab.
7. Browse the Site Structure tree. Click on the Exclude link which appears when you hover the mouse over the paths. This will automatically create the regular expression for the specific path to be excluded, and store it in the Target’s settings.
   

THE AUTHOR

Nicholas Sciberras
Principal Program Manager
LinkedIn

As the Principal Program Manager, Nicholas is passionate about IT security and technology at large. Prior to joining Acunetix in 2012, Nicholas spent 12 years at GFI Software, where he managed the email security and anti-spam product lines, led multiple customer service teams, and provided technical training.