The dark web, a subset of the deep web, is an encrypted portion of the internet not indexed by standard search engines. Dark web crawlers are specialized tools designed to navigate this hidden part of the internet, systematically scanning and indexing its contents. These crawlers enable researchers and security professionals to monitor illegal activities, gather intelligence, and identify emerging threats. Dark web crawlers function by accessing dark web URLs, often using the Tor network to maintain anonymity and security. They employ various techniques to circumvent challenges unique to the dark web, such as CAPTCHA, hidden services, and frequent site relocations. Crawlers extract data from forums, marketplaces, and other hidden services, providing valuable insights into the dark web's structure and content. The development and deployment of dark web crawlers face ethical and legal considerations. While these tools are essential for cybersecurity and law enforcement, they must be used responsibly to avoid privacy violations and unauthorized surveillance. Balancing the benefits of dark web monitoring with ethical guidelines remains a critical challenge for developers and users of dark web crawlers. This work provides more than just a review; it advances our knowledge of ACN-based web crawlers and provides a reliable model for digital forensics applications including the crawling and scraping of both clear and dark web domains. The study also emphasizes the important ramifications of retrieving and archiving content from the dark web, emphasizing how crucial it is for generating leads for investigations and offering crucial supporting evidence. To sum up, this study highlights how important it is to keep researching dark web crawling techniques and how they might be used to improve cybercrime investigations. It also highlights promising directions for future study in this quickly developing sector, highlighting how crucial it is to use cutting-edge technologies to effectively fight cybercrime in a digital environment that is becoming more complicated.
Keywords – Dark Web Crawler, Tor Network, Python Based