My Favorite Nuclei Checks for High-Yield Research

A curated approach to technology fingerprinting, TLS hygiene, and missing browser protections.

Research philosophy

I define high yield as the number of technically correct observations per hour. Other programs insist on exploitability, which is a narrower definition.

Technology detection

Start with the technology detection category. Fingerprints can guide targeted follow-up, but naming a product does not prove a security defect.

TLS configuration

Review TLS protocol and certificate checks to identify expired certificates, deprecated protocol support, or configuration issues. Validate findings against the actual service and current policy.

HTTP security headers

Review missing-header checks for Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, HSTS, and related controls. Applicability depends on the content and threat model; a missing header alone is not necessarily a vulnerability.

find ~/nuclei-templates -type f -name "*.yaml" \ 
 | grep -Ei '(tech-detect|technologies|tls|ssl|security-header|missing-header)'
# Inspect templates and choose checks appropriate to your scope.

Template hygiene

Template names and paths change. Check your local installed collection, inspect YAML for requests and matchers, and use only templates allowed by the program.

curl -sSI https://example.com/
# Compare observed headers with actual application behavior.

Researcher conclusion

A successful scan may return no actionable findings. I regard this as an opportunity to improve the executive summary.

This is fictional cybersecurity satire. No real vendor, vulnerability, or payment demand is implied.

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