Enabling logging for scans

This document applies to Acunetix On-Premises

If you need to troubleshoot the scanning done on a specific target, you can enable debug logging for the target. The Acunetix scanner will log the progress of the scan and any problems that are encountered during the scan.

This document explains how to enable debug logging for a scan in Acunetix On-Premises and where to find the logs. It also includes information about enabling debug logging for all targets.

Logs for Acunetix Online are only available through our support team.

How to enable logging in Acunetix On-Premises

  1. Select Targets from the left-side menu.
  2. Click the address of the target that you want to enable logging for. This opens the Target Settings page.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the Target Settings page and click Advanced to expand the section.

  1. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the checkbox next to Debug scans for this target to enable logging for scans.

  1. Click Save at the top of the page.

Logs will now be created when you scan this target.

The debug logs are stored in:

  • Windows: C:\ProgramData\Acunetix\shared\scans
  • Linux: /home/acunetix/.acunetix/data/scans/

How to enable logging for all targets

If you need to set ALL your targets to generate debug logs, you can use a system-wide setting that will override the per-target configuration. You will need to manually edit the following text file with administrative rights:

  • Windows: C:\ProgramData\Acunetix\settings.ini
  • Linux: /home/acunetix/.acunetix/data/wvs.ini

  1. Edit the file to add the following line to the end of the file:

wvs.debug_mode=1

  1. Restart services using the following terminal commands:

WINDOWS: Use a Command window with "Run as administrator"

net stop "Acunetix"

net stop "Acunetix Database"

net start "Acunetix Database"

net start "Acunetix"

LINUX:

sudo systemctl restart acunetix

All newly created scans will now be executed with debug mode enabled.

« Back to the Acunetix Support Page