A high-accuracy, behavioral cache poisoning scanner for modern Web APIs

🌟 Why CacheX?

Most cache poisoning scanners only check:

• whether a response changes with certain headers
• or whether cache-related headers exist

This produces tons of false positives and rarely confirms a real exploit.

CacheX is different.

It performs behavioral diffing, multi-threaded poisoning, and persistence verification, confirming only real, weaponizable cache poisoning.

If CacheX says [vuln] - it's legit.

🔥 Features

• ⚡ High-speed multi-threaded scanning
• 🎯 Zero-FP design with behavioral diffing
• 🔁 Real-time cache poisoning attempts
• 🧪 Persistence confirmation for true vulnerabilities
• 🔍 Single and multi-header scan modes
• 🧩 YAML-based payload configuration
• 📤 JSON or pretty output formats
• 📁 Optional file-based export
• 🏷 Tentative vs confirmed vuln tagging

🔧 Installation

go install github.com/ayuxdev/cachex/cmd/cachex@latest

Or build manually:

git clone https://github.com/ayuxdev/cachex
cd cachex
go build -o cachex "cmd/cachex/main.go"
./cachex -h

🚀 Usage

▶️ Scan a single URL

cachex -u https://example.com

▶️ Scan multiple targets

cachex -l urls.txt

▶️ Scan URLs via pipeline

echo "https://example.com" | cachex

or:

cat urls.txt | cachex

---

📌 All CLI Flags

Category	Flag	Description
Input	-u, --url	URL to scan
	-l, --list	File with list of URLs
Concurrency	-t, --threads	Number of scanning threads
	-m, --scan-mode	single or multi
HTTP Client	--timeout	Total request timeout
	--proxy	Proxy URL
Persistence Check	--no-chk-prst	Disable persistence checker
	--prst-requests	Poisoning requests
	--prst-threads	Threads for poisoning
Output	-o, --output	Output file
	-j, --json	JSON output
Payloads	--pcf	Custom payload config file

💡 Example

cachex -l targets.txt -t 50 --pcf payloads.yaml --json -o results.json

⚙️ Configuration

CacheX automatically loads:

~/.config/cachex/config.yaml
~/.config/cachex/payloads.yaml

You can configure:

• Payload headers
• Default request headers
• Timeouts & concurrency
• Logging mode
• Proxy settings
• Persistence checker behavior

📝 Output Formats

Pretty Output

[vuln] [https://target.com] [Location Poisoning] [header: X-Forwarded-Host: evil.com] [poc: https://target.com?cache=XYZ]

JSON Output

{
  "URL": "https://target.com/",
  "IsVulnerable": true,
  "IsResponseManipulable": true,
  "ManipulationType": "ChangedBody",
  "RequestHeaders": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"
  },
  "PayloadHeaders": {
    "X-Forwarded-Host": "evil.com"
  },
  "OriginalResponse": {
    "StatusCode": 200,
    "Headers": {
      "...": "..."
    },
    "Body": "...",
    "Location": ""
  },
  "ModifiedResponse": {
    "StatusCode": 200,
    "Headers": {
      "...": "..."
    },
    "Body": "...",
    "Location": ""
  },
  "PersistenceCheckResult": {
    "IsPersistent": true,
    "PoCLink": "https://target.example.com/?cache=XYZ",
    "FinalResponse": {
      "StatusCode": 200,
      "Headers": {
        "...": "..."
      },
      "Body": "...",
      "Location": ""
    }
  }
}

🎛 Scan Modes

• single: precise, tests each header independently
• multi: fast, tests all payload headers together

🧩 Payload Headers

Defined in:

~/.config/cachex/payloads.yaml

Example:

payload_headers:
    X-Forwarded-Host: evil.com
    X-Forwarded-For: 127.0.0.1
    X-Original-URL: /evilpath
    X-Client-IP: 127.0.0.1

📁 Configuration File Example (config.yaml)

scan_mode: single
threads: 25

request_headers:
  Accept: '*/*'
  User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (...)

client:
  dial_timeout: 5
  handshake_timeout: 5
  response_timeout: 10
  proxy_url: ""

persistence_checker:
  enabled: true
  num_requests_to_send: 10
  threads: 5

logger:
  log_error: false
  log_mode: pretty
  debug: false
  output_file: ""
  skip_tentative: true

🧠 How CacheX Works

1. Fetches baseline response
2. Injects payload headers
3. Detects response manipulation (body, code, redirect)
4. If changed → launches concurrent poisoning attempts
5. Fetches clean requests
6. If poisoned response persists → confirmed vulnerability
7. Outputs PoC link

📁 Project Structure

cachex/
├── cmd/
│   └── cachex/
│       └── main.go                # CLI entrypoint
│
├── internal/
│   ├── app/
│   │   └── cachex/
│   │       └── cmd/
│   │           ├── banner.go      # ASCII banner
│   │           ├── flags.go       # CLI flags + config binding
│   │           ├── helper.go      # Help message builder
│           ├── root.go        # Main CLI logic & runner
│           └── utils.go           # File helpers
│
│   ├── pkg/
│   │   ├── client/
│   │   │   ├── client.go          # Custom HTTP client & transport
│   │   │   └── request.go         # Fetch + send raw requests
│   │   ├── config/
│   │   │   └── config.go          # Legacy internal config
│   │   └── logger/
│   │       ├── colors.go          # Color themes
│   │       └── logger.go          # Pretty logger (info/warn/debug/vuln)
│
│   └── scanner/
│       ├── core.go                # Core poisoning test logic
│       ├── detector.go            # Behavioral response diffing
│       ├── logger.go              # Pretty + JSON output formatter
│       ├── output.go              # JSON serialization helpers
│       ├── persistchk.go          # Persistence checker (real-time poisoning)
│       ├── scanner.go             # Scan controller (single/multi mode)
│       ├── types.go               # All scanner structs & enums
│       └── utils.go               # Cache buster, merging maps, helpers
│
├── pkg/
│   └── cachex/
│       ├── scanner.go             # Public API wrapper for internal scanner
│       ├── utils.go               # Config mappers (log mode, scan mode)
│       └── validate.go            # Config validation
│
│   └── config/
│       ├── config.go              # YAML config schema
│       ├── default.go             # Default paths + default config
│       └── payloads.go            # Default payload headers
│
├── .github/workflows/
│   └── release.yml                # Automated builds via GoReleaser
│
├── images/
│   ├── cachex-logo.png            # Logo
│   └── cachex-demo.gif            # Showcase GIF
│
├── .goreleaser.yaml               # Multi-platform binary releases
├── .gitignore
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── LICENSE
└── Makefile                       # Build / install helpers

🤝 Contribute

Sure, PRs are welcome!

📜 License

MIT © @ayuxdev