Editing the Acunetix settings.xml file
The most common Acunetix settings can be configured from the Acunetix user interface, usually from within the settings of each target. In Acunetix On-Premises, the more advanced settings are found in the settings.xml file. This document explains how to locate and edit the settings.xml file and how you can introduce your own settings by creating a custom settings.xml file.
Advanced settings that you can find in the settings.xml file include:
- File extensions that should not be processed by Acunetix (e.g. avi)
- HTTP headers to be manipulated by the scanner
- Parameters that should be excluded
- Ad blocker settings
- Session timeout
- HTTP cache
- Various scanning thresholds
- Default values for HTTP form inputs
NOTE: Although you can edit the settings.xml file directly, you should avoid it since it will be overwritten when Acunetix is updated. On the other hand, the custom_settings.xml file is retained when updating. |
How to edit the Acunetix settings.xml
- Open the settings.xml file from the relevant location:
- Windows: C:\ProgramData\Acunetix\shared\general\settings.xml
- Linux: /home/acunetix/.acunetix/data/general/settings.xml
- Make your changes.
- For the changes to take effect, restart Acunetix.
Example: Adding FormInput parameters for another language
If you were planning to scan a website in Spanish, you could enhance the accuracy of the Acunetix scanner by editing the settings.xml file to add FormInput parameters to match Form field labels in Spanish. To do this, you would add the following lines to the <Settings><ScanSettings><HTMLForms><FormURL> section:
<FormInput enabled="1" name="*nombre*" value="${alpharand}" length="-1"></FormInput> <FormInput enabled="1" name="*apellido*" value="${alpharand}" length="-1"></FormInput> |
This example would allow the Acunetix scanner to match Form fields for name and surname (in Spanish).
How to create a custom settings.xml file
If you need to introduce your own settings, an alternative to editing the settings.xml file is to create a file called custom_settings.xml and add your custom settings to this new file. To do this, you need to:
- Replicate the XML structure of the original settings.xml file.
- Place the custom_settings.xml file in one of the following locations:
- Windows: C:\ProgramData\Acunetix\shared\general\custom_settings.xml
- Linux: /home/acunetix/.acunetix/data/general/custom_settings.xml
- For the changes to take effect, restart Acunetix.