Resource for Recognizing Framework/CMS From URL or Other Clues?

Question

Hello,

I'm curious to know which web framework or content management system a website is using based upon clues from the URL, headers, content. Does anyone know of a resource on the web that would provide this? For example:

• .html -> maybe a flat-file
• .php -> something built using PHP, perhaps.
• .jsp -> something using Java Server Pages
• .asp -> Active Server Pages
• 0,2097,1-1-1928,00 -> Vignette CMS
• .do -> ??

Thanks.

Answer 1

You're on the right track with your list there. If all you want to know is the stack (LAMP, IIS, Java) then that's all you really need.

If querying the URL in question is an option, then you can usually pull the webserver make/version out of the HTTP response header as well.

Answer 2

If you're not restricted to just the query string then there are a few other options. For example to identify a rails app:

Script, stylesheet and image tags tend to have a 10 digits number appended (this allows you to cache, and still change the file):

<script src="/javascripts/all.js?1236037318" type="text/javascript"></script>

You can also sometimes tell from the cookies what the framework is. For example rails apps tend to have a session cookie called _appName_session, and often you can find a flash contained.