Mirror a Target Website using HTTrack Web Site Copier

Website mirroring is the process of creating a replica or clone of the original website; this mirroring of the website helps you to footprint the web site thoroughly on your local system, and allows you to download a website to a local directory, analyze all directories, HTML, images, flash, videos, and other files from the server on your computer.

You can duplicate websites by using website mirroring tools such as HTTrack Web Site Copier. HTTrack is an offline browser utility that downloads a website from the Internet to a local directory, builds all directories recursively, and transfers HTML, images, and other files from the webserver to another computer.

The WinHTTrack Website Copier window appears. Click OK in the pop-up window, and then click Next > to create a New Project.

Enter the name of the project (here, Test Project) in the New project name: field. Select the Base path: to store the copied files; click Next >.

Enter a target URL (here, www.certifiedhacker.com) in the Web Addresses: (URL) field and click Set options….

WinHTTrack window appears, click the Scan Rules tab and select the checkboxes for the file types as shown in the following screenshot; click OK.

Click the Next > button.

By default, the radio button will be selected for Please adjust connection parameters if necessary, then press FINISH to launch the mirroring operation. Check Disconnect when finished and click Finish to start mirroring the website.

Site mirroring progress will be displayed, as shown in the screenshot.

Once the site mirroring is completed, WinHTTrack displays the message Mirroring operation complete; click on Browse Mirrored Website.

If the How do you want to open this file? pop up appears, select any web browser and click OK.

The mirrored website for www.certifiedhacker.com launches. The URL displayed in the address bar indicates that the website’s image is stored on the local machine.

Analyze all directories, HTML, images, flash, videos, and other files available on the mirrored target website. You can also check for possible exploits and vulnerabilities. The site will work like a live hosted website.

• If the webpage does not open, navigate to the directory where you mirrored the website and open index.html with any browser.

Once done with your analysis, close the browser window and click Finish on the WinHTTrack window to complete the process.

Some websites are very large, and it might take a long time to mirror the complete site.

This concludes the demonstration of mirroring a target website using HTTrack Web Site Copier.