• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Darknet
  • Hacking Tools
  • Popular Posts
  • Darknet Archives
  • Contact Darknet
    • Advertise
    • Submit a Tool
Darknet – Hacking Tools, Hacker News & Cyber Security

Darknet - Hacking Tools, Hacker News & Cyber Security

Darknet is your best source for the latest hacking tools, hacker news, cyber security best practices, ethical hacking & pen-testing.

Flawfinder – Source Code Auditing Tool

September 16, 2009

Views: 44,461

Flawfinder is a source code auditing tool that reports possible security weaknesses (flaws) sorted by risk level. It’s very useful for quickly finding and removing at least some potential security problems before a program is widely released to the public. It’s a static analysis source code auditing tool.

Flawfinder - Source Code Auditing Tool

Using Flawfinder Source Code Auditing Tool

It is specifically designed to be easy to install and use. After installing it, at a command line just type:

1
flawfinder directory_with_source_code

Also it works on Unix-like systems today (it’s been tested on GNU/Linux), and it should be easy to port to Windows systems. It requires Python 1.5 or greater to run (Python 1.3 or earlier won’t work).

Flawfinder Speed

Flawfinder is written in Python, to simplify the task of writing and extending it. Python code is not as fast as C code, but for the task I believe it’s just fine. The earlier version 0.12 on a 400Mhz Pentium II system analyzed 51055 lines in 39.7 seconds, resulting in an average of 1285 analyzed lines/second. Flawfinder 1.20 and later will report their speed (in analyzed lines/second) if you’re curious.

How Flawfinder works

Flawfinder works by using a built-in database of C/C++ functions with well-known problems, such as buffer overflow risks (e.g., strcpy(), strcat(), gets(), sprintf(), and the scanf() family), format string problems ([v][f]printf(), [v]snprintf(), and syslog()), race conditions (such as access(), chown(), chgrp(), chmod(), tmpfile(), tmpnam(), tempnam(), and mktemp()), potential shell metacharacter dangers (most of the exec() family, system(), popen()), and poor random number acquisition (such as random()). The good thing is that you don’t have to create this database – it comes with the tool.

It then takes the source code text, and matches the source code text against those names, while ignoring text inside comments and strings (except for directives). It also knows about gettext (a common library for internationalized programs), and will treat constant strings passed through gettext as though they were constant strings; this reduces the number of false hits in internationalized programs.

You can download Flawfinder here:

flawfinder-2.0.4.tar.gz

Or read more here.

Share
Tweet
Share
Buffer
WhatsApp
Email
0 Shares

Filed Under: Secure Coding, Security Software Tagged With: code auditing tool, Python, source code auditing, source code auditing tool, static analysis



Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. d3m4s1@d0v1v0 says

    September 16, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Another interesting tool to put in the bag.
    Finding potential buffer overflows before the program gets into production is a very critical task, it’s a shame that the programmers not always are aware of this…

  2. Andrew says

    September 16, 2009 at 7:17 pm

    What language(s) does it scan? Can I throw any source files at it, or is it just for C/C++?

  3. Jannich Brendle says

    September 17, 2009 at 2:21 am

    Andrew: Yes, flawfinder will only find flaws in C and C++ at the moment.

Primary Sidebar

Search Darknet

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Advertise on Darknet

Latest Posts

Falco - Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers

Falco – Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers

Views: 330

Security visibility inside containers, Kubernetes, and cloud workloads remains among the hardest … ...More about Falco – Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers

Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance

Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance

Views: 627

As threat surfaces grow and attack sophistication increases, many security teams face the same … ...More about Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance

Best Open Source HIDS Tools for Linux in 2025 (Compared & Ranked)

Views: 572

With more businesses running Linux in production—whether in bare metal, VMs, or containers—the need … ...More about Best Open Source HIDS Tools for Linux in 2025 (Compared & Ranked)

SUDO_KILLER - Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths

SUDO_KILLER – Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths

Views: 608

sudo is a powerful utility in Unix-like systems that allows permitted users to execute commands with … ...More about SUDO_KILLER – Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths

Bantam - Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation

Bantam – Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation

Views: 463

Bantam is a lightweight post-exploitation utility written in C# that includes advanced payload … ...More about Bantam – Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation

AI-Powered Cybercrime in 2025 - The Dark Web’s New Arms Race

AI-Powered Cybercrime in 2025 – The Dark Web’s New Arms Race

Views: 692

In 2025, the dark web isn't just a marketplace for illicit goods—it's a development lab. … ...More about AI-Powered Cybercrime in 2025 – The Dark Web’s New Arms Race

Topics

  • Advertorial (28)
  • Apple (46)
  • Countermeasures (228)
  • Cryptography (82)
  • Database Hacking (89)
  • Events/Cons (7)
  • Exploits/Vulnerabilities (431)
  • Forensics (65)
  • GenAI (3)
  • Hacker Culture (8)
  • Hacking News (229)
  • Hacking Tools (684)
  • Hardware Hacking (82)
  • Legal Issues (179)
  • Linux Hacking (74)
  • Malware (238)
  • Networking Hacking Tools (352)
  • Password Cracking Tools (104)
  • Phishing (41)
  • Privacy (219)
  • Secure Coding (118)
  • Security Software (235)
  • Site News (51)
    • Authors (6)
  • Social Engineering (37)
  • Spammers & Scammers (76)
  • Stupid E-mails (6)
  • Telecomms Hacking (6)
  • UNIX Hacking (6)
  • Virology (6)
  • Web Hacking (384)
  • Windows Hacking (169)
  • Wireless Hacking (45)

Security Blogs

  • Dancho Danchev
  • F-Secure Weblog
  • Google Online Security
  • Graham Cluley
  • Internet Storm Center
  • Krebs on Security
  • Schneier on Security
  • TaoSecurity
  • Troy Hunt

Security Links

  • Exploits Database
  • Linux Security
  • Register – Security
  • SANS
  • Sec Lists
  • US CERT

Footer

Most Viewed Posts

  • Brutus Password Cracker – Download brutus-aet2.zip AET2 (2,298,153)
  • Darknet – Hacking Tools, Hacker News & Cyber Security (2,173,106)
  • Top 15 Security Utilities & Download Hacking Tools (2,096,640)
  • 10 Best Security Live CD Distros (Pen-Test, Forensics & Recovery) (1,199,691)
  • Password List Download Best Word List – Most Common Passwords (933,528)
  • wwwhack 1.9 – wwwhack19.zip Web Hacking Software Free Download (776,172)
  • Hack Tools/Exploits (673,301)
  • Wep0ff – Wireless WEP Key Cracker Tool (530,185)

Search

Recent Posts

  • Falco – Real-Time Threat Detection for Linux and Containers May 19, 2025
  • Wazuh – Open Source Security Platform for Threat Detection, Visibility & Compliance May 16, 2025
  • Best Open Source HIDS Tools for Linux in 2025 (Compared & Ranked) May 14, 2025
  • SUDO_KILLER – Auditing Sudo Configurations for Privilege Escalation Paths May 12, 2025
  • Bantam – Advanced PHP Backdoor Management Tool For Post Exploitation May 9, 2025
  • AI-Powered Cybercrime in 2025 – The Dark Web’s New Arms Race May 7, 2025

Tags

apple botnets computer-security darknet Database Hacking ddos dos exploits fuzzing google hacking-networks hacking-websites hacking-windows hacking tool Information-Security information gathering Legal Issues malware microsoft network-security Network Hacking Password Cracking pen-testing penetration-testing Phishing Privacy Python scammers Security Security Software spam spammers sql-injection trojan trojans virus viruses vulnerabilities web-application-security web-security windows windows-security Windows Hacking worms XSS

Copyright © 1999–2025 Darknet All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy