HeaderSentinel is a high-performance, professional HTTP security analyzer written in Go. It performs deep inspection of HTTP response headers and status behavior to identify security misconfigurations, calculate risk scores, and provide actionable remediation advice.
Modern web security relies heavily on correctly configured HTTP headers. HeaderSentinel empowers security engineers and developers to:
- Audit security headers (CSP, HSTS, XFO, etc.) against best practices.
- Trace redirect chains to detect insecure downgrades (HTTPS -> HTTP).
- Analyze information disclosure via
ServerandX-Powered-Byheaders. - Benchmark security posture with an automated scoring system.
- Integrate with CI/CD pipelines via JSON and SARIF exports.
- 🚀 Ultra-Fast: Built with Go for maximum concurrency and performance.
- 🔍 Deep Analysis: Smart logic to detect misconfigured values, not just missing headers.
- 🔁 Redirect Tracker: Complete visibility into redirect hops and security transitions.
- 📊 Security Scoring: Automated 0-100 score based on risk severity (Critical to Info).
- 🍪 Cookie Security: Analyze
Set-Cookieflags (HttpOnly,Secure,SameSite). - 🤖 CI/CD Mode: Automated failure via
-fail-thresholdfor pipeline integration. - 📁 Export Ready: Support for Table, JSON, and SARIF (Static Analysis Results Interchange Format) outputs.
- 🛠️ Bulk Processing: Scan thousands of URLs concurrently using simple input files.
- 📦 Zero Dependencies: Minimal footprint, easy to install and deploy.
Install HeaderSentinel directly using the Go toolchain. Using the -v flag is recommended to see the installation progress:
go install -v github.com/ismailtsdln/HeaderSentinel/cmd/headersentinel@latestThis will download, compile, and install the headersentinel binary into your $GOPATH/bin directory. Ensure that this directory is in your system's PATH to run the tool from anywhere.
Analyze a single target with default settings:
headersentinel -u https://example.comScan multiple targets from a file with high concurrency:
headersentinel -i targets.txt -c 50Generate machine-readable reports for automation:
headersentinel -u https://example.com -json report.json -sarif results.sarif| Flag | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
-u | Single URL to scan | "" |
-i | Path to bulk input file | "" |
-c | Concurrency level | 10 |
-t | Timeout in seconds | 10 |
-follow | Follow redirects | true |
-json | Path to save JSON report | "" |
-sarif | Path to save SARIF report | "" |
-fail-threshold | Exit with code 1 if score < threshold | 0 |
-silent | Suppress progress messages | false |
-fix | Show Nginx/Apache remediation snippets | false |
| Header | Risk if Missing/Bad | Description |
|---|---|---|
Content-Security-Policy | High | Prevents XSS and data injection attacks. |
Strict-Transport-Security | Medium | Enforces HTTPS communication. |
X-Frame-Options | Medium | Mitigates Clickjacking attacks. |
X-Content-Type-Options | Low | Prevents MIME-sniffing vulnerabilities. |
Referrer-Policy | Low | Controls information leakage in Referer headers. |
Permissions-Policy | Low | Restricts access to sensitive browser APIs. |
Cross-Origin-* | Low | Isolates documents and prevents side-channel attacks. |
Server / X-Powered-By | Low | Prevents information disclosure about the tech stack. |
HeaderSentinel assigns a security score based on the weighted severity of findings:
- Excellent (90-100): Strong security posture.
- Low Risk (70-89): Minor improvements possible.
- Medium Risk (50-69): Significant security configurations missing.
- High Risk (30-49): Critical gaps in header security.
- Critical (0-29): Highly vulnerable configuration.
The project follows a clean, modular structure for maintainability and performance:
cmd/headersentinel: Main CLI entry point.internal/scanner: Analysis logic for headers and redirects.internal/rules: Definitions of security standards and risk levels.internal/scoring: Mathematical calculation of the security score.internal/report: Multi-format reporting engine.
Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.
Developed with ❤️ by Ismail Tasdelen