Package Manifest Scraping

Package Manifest Scraping is a reconnaissance technique where attackers analyze application dependency files (like package.json, requirements.txt, pom.xml, Gemfile, or composer.json) to identify software components, their versions, and potential vulnerabilities. During the Application Dependencies Mapping phase of reconnaissance, attackers extract these manifests from accessible repositories, websites, or exposed configuration files to build a comprehensive understanding of the target application's technology stack. By examining these files, adversaries can pinpoint outdated libraries with known security vulnerabilities (CVEs), determine framework versions that may contain exploitable flaws, and identify dependencies that could be targeted for supply chain attacks. This intelligence gathering technique requires minimal interaction with the target system and often leverages publicly available information, making it difficult to detect while providing attackers with valuable insights for planning subsequent phases of their attack campaign.