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I was wondering if there is a tool for listing files under a URL to a directory on a web/HTTP server? For example, is it possible to list files under a directory?

  1. Does running WebDav on a HTTP server provide services to enumerate resources on the HTTP server?

  2. Why can my browser list files under a directory?

  3. When using Google search, is it possible to search for something among all Google-accessible files under a URL for a directory, using some Google query? For example, can Google query "Appendix site:cs.helsinki.fi/group/nodes/kurssit/kj/" find all the Google-crawled files under the directory containing the word "Appendix"?

Thanks.

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This is an answer to your question #2.

URLs are simply pointers to resources, which sometimes can be files or directories. It all depends on the actual web server configuration what response is returned to URLs.

If we are restrict discussion to web servers which only serve files from filesystem, then it depends on the webserver configuration if they allow listing directory contents or not.

In nginx webserver, it is the ngx_http_autoindex_module that creates directory listing for visitors. Apache2 has a similar setting.

In general, directory indexes should be disabled, because they provide no value to the application and are a security risk.

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  • In terms of listing files, what difference is between en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV and web server's configuration?
    – Tim
    Nov 6, 2020 at 2:13
  • In case my previous comment was unclear, I was wondering if the web server's configuration for allowing listing files in a directory is implemented in terms of WebDAV? If these two are independent of each other, based on what the web server's configuation is implemented?
    – Tim
    Nov 6, 2020 at 12:27
  • Security risk is that in normal web server application use, there is no point in listing directory contents, and it might be used to reveal vulnerabilities etc. WebDAV is a separate protocol implemented on top of HTTP(S). So, web server has to be separately configured to act as a WebDAV server. And no, web server configuration of allowing directory listing is not related to WebDAV anyway. Web server configuration is entered into the configuration file. Nov 6, 2020 at 22:53

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