what is CeWL

CeWL(Custom Word List Generator)

is a tool developed by Robin Wood (aka "DigiNinja") that is designed for use in penetration testing and ethical hacking. It is a Ruby app that spiders a given URL to a specified depth, optionally following external links, and returns a list of words that can be used for password cracking or security testing purposes.

Here are some key features and functionalities of CeWL:

• Wordlist Creation: It scrapes a website and extracts all words, creating a wordlist that can be used for password guessing and cracking purposes.

• Depth Control: It allows for specifying the depth of the crawl, so you can control how far into a site's structure the tool goes to collect words.

• Minimum Word Length: You can set a minimum word length, helping to eliminate unhelpfully short words that are unlikely to be used as passwords.

• Email Harvesting: CeWL can be configured to collect email addresses found on the site, which might provide insight into potential usernames or account IDs.

• Custom Authentication: It supports custom authentication with a website when needed, allowing the crawling of pages that require a login.

The typical use of CeWL is to create custom wordlists from content found on a target organization's website, as these words are more likely to be used as passwords by someone affiliated with the organization. For instance, if a company has specific jargon or product names on their site, those terms might be used in passwords by the company's employees.
The use of CeWL, like any penetration testing tool, should always be legal, ethical, and conducted within the bounds of authorized testing. Unauthorized use of CeWL to create wordlists for malicious purposes is illegal and unethical.