---
title: "WEB-EXP-005 Directory Listing Enabled"
canonical: https://openvapt.com/checks/WEB-EXP-005.html
html: https://openvapt.com/checks/WEB-EXP-005.html
site: OpenVAPT, https://openvapt.com/
license: OpenVAPT Source-Available Licence 1.3, https://openvapt.com/legal/licence-text.html
modified: 2026-10-14
version: 0.1.0-alpha.6
---

# WEB-EXP-005 Directory Listing Enabled

Checks whether the web server lists folder contents when there is no index page.

- Domain: Web Apps
- Severity: Medium
- Control category: Information Exposure
- Fix effort: low
- CVSS v3.1 vector: `CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`
- CIS Controls v8: 16.7
- NIST CSF 2.0: PR.PS-01
- CWE: CWE-548
- OWASP Top 10 2021: A01:2021, A05:2021
- OWASP ASVS 4.0.3: 4.3.2
- OWASP WSTG v4.2: WSTG-CONF-04
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: CM-7, AC-3

## Why It Matters

Directory listings reveal every file in a folder, including backups, uploads and scripts never meant to be linked.

## How It Detects

Requests /, /uploads/, /images/, /files/, /backup/ and /wp-content/uploads/ and looks for the auto-index page markers of Apache ('Index of /'), nginx and LiteSpeed.

## How to Fix

Apache: Options -Indexes . nginx: autoindex off; (the default). Add an empty index.html to folders that must stay browsable-free.

## How to Verify

```
curl -s https://<site>/uploads/ | grep -i 'index of'  should print nothing.
```

## Learn the Theory

- [P6 Information Exposure and Misconfiguration](https://openvapt.com/academy/p6.md)

## References

- [Apache HTTP Server, Options directive](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options)

## Source Code

https://github.com/OpenVAPT/openvapt/blob/574f7f3333c44b75a3c649e2d93a76d507f75adf/internal/checks/web/exposure.go

Run it: `openvapt scan --only WEB-EXP-005`. Read it offline: `openvapt explain WEB-EXP-005`.

---

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