ghost-probe

A simple Python 3 script to probe a given URL (HTTP or HTTPS, even on non-standard ports) and print the response headers and body, similar to curl -i.

Unlike curl, this tool will automatically try to detect whether a port is serving HTTPS or plain HTTP. If a TLS handshake fails (e.g. because the service is not actually using TLS on that port), it will gracefully fall back to plain HTTP and still show you the response.

⚠️ Important Notice
This tool is provided for educational and defensive purposes only.
Use it only against systems you own or are explicitly authorized to test (e.g. in a controlled lab, training environment, or with written permission).
Do not use it for unauthorized scanning or exploitation.

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✨ Features

• Accepts a full URL (http/https, any port, custom paths).
• Tries HTTPS first and auto-falls back to HTTP if the TLS handshake fails.
• Option to disable certificate validation (-k/--insecure).
• Option to disable SNI in TLS handshakes (--no-sni).
• Option to follow redirects up to 5 hops (-L).
• Prints status line, headers, and body preview to the terminal.
• No dependencies beyond the Python standard library (socket, ssl, urllib).

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🛠️ Installation

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ghost-probe.git
cd ghost-probe
chmod +x ghost_probe.py

Requires Python 3.7+.

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🚀 Usage

Basic fetch:

./ghost_probe.py http://127.0.0.1:8080/

HTTPS with certificate checks disabled:

./ghost_probe.py https://192.168.1.1:443/ -k

Non-standard port:

./ghost_probe.py https://myserver.local:8443/status

Follow redirects like curl -L:

./ghost_probe.py http://test.local/ -L

Verbose debugging:

./ghost_probe.py https://example.com --debug

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🔒 Responsible Use

This project is intended for learning, troubleshooting, and defensive security validation. Do not run this against systems without permission. The author(s) take no responsibility for misuse of this tool.

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📜 License

MIT (see LICENSE)