Burp Suite

Getting Started with Burp Suite: A Complete Guide for Penetration Testers

Burp Suite is a powerful and essential tool for anyone involved in penetration testing or security research. It provides a comprehensive set of features to intercept, analyze, and manipulate HTTP and HTTPS traffic, making it invaluable for web application security testing. In this guide, we’ll walk you through Burp Suite’s core functionality, setting it up, and configuring it for effective use.

What is Burp Suite?

Burp Suite is a suite of tools for web application security testing, designed to aid penetration testers and security researchers in identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in web applications. It offers a range of features that allow testers to interact with web traffic, manipulate requests and responses, and scan for security weaknesses.

Burp Suite has two primary editions:

  • Community Edition: Free version with limited functionality, useful for smaller, manual testing.
  • Professional Edition: Paid version with advanced tools like automated vulnerability scanning, enhanced reporting features, and more.

For this guide, we’ll focus on the features common across both editions, with some additional tips for professional users.

Setting Up Burp Suite

1. Downloading and Installing Burp Suite

To begin, you’ll need to download and install Burp Suite:

  1. Go to the official Burp Suite website and download the appropriate version for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux).
  2. Install Burp Suite following the on-screen instructions.
  3. Launch Burp Suite once the installation is complete.
2. Configuring Your Browser to Work with Burp Suite

Burp Suite works as an intercepting proxy, so you need to configure your browser to route its traffic through Burp Suite.

  1. Open Burp Suite and go to the Proxy tab.
  2. In the Options sub-tab, you’ll find the proxy listener settings. By default, Burp listens on 127.0.0.1:8080.
  3. In your browser (e.g., Firefox or Chrome), configure the proxy settings to point to 127.0.0.1 on port 8080.
  4. Optionally, install the Burp Suite SSL certificate on your browser to prevent SSL/TLS warnings when intercepting HTTPS traffic. You can export the certificate from the Proxy > Intercept > Options tab in Burp Suite.

Burp Suite’s Core Tabs

Burp Suite consists of several tabs, each with a specific function. Below is an overview of the core tabs that you’ll use during a penetration test:

1. Proxy Tab
  • Purpose: The Proxy tab is where you can intercept and modify HTTP/S traffic between your browser and the web application. This allows you to observe requests, analyze responses, and manipulate data.
  • Key Features:
    • Intercept: Allows you to hold and modify requests before they are sent to the server.
    • History: Logs all requests made through Burp Suite, useful for reviewing traffic.
    • Options: Configure Burp’s proxy listener settings and SSL certificate.
2. Target Tab
  • Purpose: The Target tab shows the scope of your testing. It helps you organize the web application you’re testing by mapping out the target site’s structure.
  • Key Features:
    • Site map: A hierarchical view of the URLs in the target site.
    • Filter: Customize which domains or paths Burp should monitor.
3. Scanner Tab
  • Purpose: This is an automated vulnerability scanning tool (available in the Professional edition). It identifies vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and others.
  • Key Features:
    • Scan: Initiate scans to automatically detect vulnerabilities.
    • Issues: List of detected vulnerabilities, with severity ratings.
4. Intruder Tab
  • Purpose: The Intruder tool allows you to perform automated attacks, such as brute-force and fuzzing attacks, against web application forms or HTTP requests.
  • Key Features:
    • Payload positions: Select the parameters you want to attack.
    • Payloads: Specify the values to be used in your attacks.
5. Repeater Tab
  • Purpose: The Repeater tab is used to manually modify and resend HTTP requests. It is an essential tool for testing how the server responds to different inputs.
  • Key Features:
    • Send Requests: Modify and resend individual requests.
    • Inspect Responses: Review the server’s response to your requests.
6. Decoder Tab
  • Purpose: This tab helps you decode or encode data such as base64-encoded payloads or URL-encoded data.
  • Key Features:
    • Decoding: Decode various encoded formats to read the data.
    • Encoding: Convert data into different encoding formats.
7. Comparer Tab
  • Purpose: The Comparer tool is useful for comparing two pieces of data (e.g., HTTP responses) to identify subtle differences.
  • Key Features:
    • Visualize Differences: Compare and highlight the differences between two sets of data.
8. Extender Tab
  • Purpose: Burp Suite supports third-party extensions that can be installed via the Extender tab to extend its functionality.
  • Key Features:
    • Burp Extensions: Add functionality like custom payloads, scanners, or other tools.

Burp Suite Configuration Tips

Now that you know how to use Burp Suite’s core functionality, here are some helpful configuration tips to optimize your experience:

1. Set Up Target Scope

Setting a target scope helps ensure that Burp only interacts with the site you’re testing, reducing noise from other traffic:

  • Go to the Target tab.
  • Right-click on the site or URL you want to test and select Add to Scope.
  • This will ensure that only traffic related to the target will be logged and scanned.
2. Configuring Intruder Payloads

In the Intruder tab, fine-tune your payload positions and payload types:

  • Set payload positions carefully to target vulnerable parts of the application, like form inputs or HTTP headers.
  • Use list-based payloads for brute-force attacks or intrusive payloads like fuzzing values to test input validation.
3. Using Repeater for Manual Testing

The Repeater tab allows you to resend and modify requests. Here’s a pro tip: Before attacking, manually inspect requests in the Repeater tab to understand how the application handles specific parameters. This helps identify blind spots in automated scans.

4. Use Burp Suite’s SSL Certificate for HTTPS

When testing HTTPS sites, you might encounter SSL/TLS issues. To resolve this, Burp Suite provides an SSL certificate that can be installed in your browser, allowing you to intercept HTTPS traffic without warnings.

  • Export the certificate from Proxy > Intercept > Options.
  • Add the certificate to your browser’s certificate store.
5. Using Proxy History Efficiently

In the Proxy > History tab, you can filter traffic based on the HTTP method, status code, or URL. This is particularly useful when analyzing large volumes of data and finding specific requests that may be of interest for testing.

6. Configure Burp Suite’s Extensions
  • Extend Burp Suite by installing useful extensions from the Extender tab.
  • Popular extensions include Burp Bounty for automated bug hunting, JSLink for analyzing JavaScript links, and SQLiPy for SQL injection testing.
7. Set Up Automated Scanning with the Scanner Tab

The Scanner tab can save you time by automating the detection of common vulnerabilities:

  • Set up your scan configuration by selecting specific types of tests you want to run (e.g., SQL injection, XSS).
  • Schedule scans or manually start them to catch issues early.
8. Enable Verbose Mode for Detailed Output

For more detailed information on requests and responses, use verbose mode. In the Proxy > Options tab, increase the verbosity to get more details on traffic analysis, headers, and other useful metadata.

9. Save Your Work with Project Files

You can save your Burp Suite session to a project file to preserve your work. This is particularly useful for long-term engagements or keeping a record of all findings:

  • Go to File > Save Project As to save the session.
  • This allows you to reload the project at any time and pick up where you left off.

Burp Suite is a comprehensive tool for web application security testing. By mastering the core features and configuration tips outlined in this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to efficiently find vulnerabilities and assess the security of web applications. Whether you’re a beginner just getting started or an experienced penetration tester looking to optimize your process, Burp Suite offers a range of tools and configurations that can help streamline your testing and improve your overall effectiveness.