This skill should be used when the user asks to "search for exposed devices on the internet," "perform Shodan reconnaissance," "find vulnerable services using Shodan," "scan IP ranges with Shodan," or "discover IoT devices and open ports." It provides comprehensive guidance for using Shodan's search engine, CLI, and API for penetration testing reconnaissance.
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Provide systematic methodologies for leveraging Shodan as a reconnaissance tool during penetration testing engagements. This skill covers the Shodan web interface, command-line interface (CLI), REST API, search filters, on-demand scanning, and network monitoring capabilities for discovering exposed services, vulnerable systems, and IoT devices.
# Using pip pip install shodan # Or easy_install easy_install shodan # On BlackArch/Arch Linux sudo pacman -S python-shodan
# Set your API key shodan init YOUR_API_KEY # Verify setup shodan info # Output: Query credits available: 100 # Scan credits available: 100
# View credits and plan info shodan info # Check your external IP shodan myip # Check CLI version shodan version
# Get all information about an IP shodan host 1.1.1.1 # Example output: # 1.1.1.1 # Hostnames: one.one.one.one # Country: Australia # Organization: Mountain View Communications # Number of open ports: 3 # Ports: # 53/udp # 80/tcp # 443/tcp
# Get honeypot probability score shodan honeyscore 192.168.1.100 # Output: Not a honeypot # Score: 0.3
# Simple keyword search (no credits consumed) shodan search apache # Specify output fields shodan search --fields ip_str,port,os smb
# Product-specific search shodan search product:mongodb # Search with multiple filters shodan search product:nginx country:US city:"New York"
# Get result count without consuming credits shodan count openssh # Output: 23128 shodan count openssh 7 # Output: 219
# Download 1000 results (default) shodan download results.json.gz "apache country:US" # Download specific number of results shodan download --limit 5000 results.json.gz "nginx" # Download all available results shodan download --limit -1 all_results.json.gz "query"
# Extract specific fields from downloaded data shodan parse --fields ip_str,port,hostnames results.json.gz # Filter by specific criteria shodan parse --fields location.country_code3,ip_str -f port:22 results.json.gz # Export to CSV format shodan parse --fields ip_str,port,org --separator , results.json.gz > results.csv
ip:1.2.3.4 # Specific IP address net:192.168.0.0/24 # Network range (CIDR) hostname:example.com # Hostname contains port:22 # Specific port asn:AS15169 # Autonomous System Number
country:US # Two-letter country code country:"United States" # Full country name city:"San Francisco" # City name state:CA # State/region postal:94102 # Postal/ZIP code geo:37.7,-122.4 # Lat/long coordinates
org:"Google" # Organization name isp:"Comcast" # ISP name
product:nginx # Software product version:1.14.0 # Software version os:"Windows Server 2019" # Operating system http.title:"Dashboard" # HTTP page title http.html:"login" # HTML content http.status:200 # HTTP status code ssl.cert.subject.cn:*.example.com # SSL certificate ssl:true # Has SSL enabled
vuln:CVE-2019-0708 # Specific CVE has_vuln:true # Has any vulnerability
has_screenshot:true # Has screenshot available screenshot.label:webcam # Screenshot type
# Scan single IP (1 credit per IP) shodan scan submit 192.168.1.100 # Scan with verbose output (shows scan ID) shodan scan submit --verbose 192.168.1.100 # Scan and save results shodan scan submit --filename scan_results.json.gz 192.168.1.100
# List recent scans shodan scan list # Check specific scan status shodan scan status SCAN_ID # Download scan results later shodan download --limit -1 results.json.gz scan:SCAN_ID
# List available protocols/modules shodan scan protocols
# Default statistics (top 10 countries, orgs) shodan stats nginx # Custom facets shodan stats --facets domain,port,asn --limit 5 nginx # Save to CSV shodan stats --facets country,org -O stats.csv apache
1. Navigate to Monitor Dashboard 2. Add IP, range, or domain to monitor 3. Configure notification service (email, Slack, webhook) 4. Select trigger events (new service, vulnerability, etc.) 5. View dashboard for exposed services
# Get API info curl -s "https://api.shodan.io/api-info?key=YOUR_KEY" | jq # Host lookup curl -s "https://api.shodan.io/shodan/host/1.1.1.1?key=YOUR_KEY" | jq # Search query curl -s "https://api.shodan.io/shodan/host/search?key=YOUR_KEY&query=apache" | jq
import shodan
api = shodan.Shodan('YOUR_API_KEY')
# Search
results = api.search('apache')
print(f'Results found: {results["total"]}')
for result in results['matches']:
print(f'IP: {result["ip_str"]}')
# Host lookup
host = api.host('1.1.1.1')
print(f'IP: {host["ip_str"]}')
print(f'Organization: {host.get("org", "n/a")}')
for item in host['data']:
print(f'Port: {item["port"]}')| Command | Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|
shodan init KEY | Initialize API key | 0 |
shodan info | Show account info | 0 |
shodan myip | Show your IP | 0 |
shodan host IP | Host details | 0 |
shodan count QUERY | Result count | 0 |
shodan search QUERY | Basic search | 0* |
shodan download FILE QUERY | Save results | 1/100 results |
shodan parse FILE | Extract data | 0 |
shodan stats QUERY | Statistics | 1 |
shodan scan submit IP | On-demand scan | 1/IP |
shodan honeyscore IP | Honeypot check | 0 |
*Filters consume 1 credit per query
| Purpose | Query |
|---|---|
| Find webcams | webcam has_screenshot:true |
| MongoDB databases | product:mongodb |
| Redis servers | product:redis |
| Elasticsearch | product:elastic port:9200 |
| Default passwords | "default password" |
| Vulnerable RDP | port:3389 vuln:CVE-2019-0708 |
| Industrial systems | port:502 modbus |
| Cisco devices | product:cisco |
| Open VNC | port:5900 authentication disabled |
| Exposed FTP | port:21 anonymous |
| WordPress sites | http.component:wordpress |
| Printers | "HP-ChaiSOE" port:80 |
| Cameras (RTSP) | port:554 has_screenshot:true |
| Jenkins servers | X-Jenkins port:8080 |
| Docker APIs | port:2375 product:docker |
| Scenario | Query |
|---|---|
| Target org recon | org:"Company Name" |
| Domain enumeration | hostname:example.com |
| Network range scan | net:192.168.0.0/24 |
| SSL cert search | ssl.cert.subject.cn:*.target.com |
| Vulnerable servers | vuln:CVE-2021-44228 country:US |
| Exposed admin panels | http.title:"admin" port:443 |
| Database exposure | port:3306,5432,27017,6379 |
| Action | Credit Type | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Basic search | Query | 0 (no filters) |
| Filtered search | Query | 1 |
| Download 100 results | Query | 1 |
| Generate report | Query | 1 |
| Scan 1 IP | Scan | 1 |
| Network monitoring | Monitored IPs | Depends on plan |
# Find all hosts belonging to target organization shodan search 'org:"Target Company"' # Get statistics on their infrastructure shodan stats --facets port,product,country 'org:"Target Company"' # Download detailed data shodan download target_data.json.gz 'org:"Target Company"' # Parse for specific info shodan parse --fields ip_str,port,product target_data.json.gz
# Find hosts vulnerable to BlueKeep (RDP CVE) shodan search 'vuln:CVE-2019-0708 country:US' # Find exposed Elasticsearch with no auth shodan search 'product:elastic port:9200 -authentication' # Find Log4j vulnerable systems shodan search 'vuln:CVE-2021-44228'
# Find exposed webcams shodan search 'webcam has_screenshot:true country:US' # Find industrial control systems shodan search 'port:502 product:modbus' # Find exposed printers shodan search '"HP-ChaiSOE" port:80' # Find smart home devices shodan search 'product:nest'
# Find hosts with specific SSL cert shodan search 'ssl.cert.subject.cn:*.example.com' # Find expired certificates shodan search 'ssl.cert.expired:true org:"Company"' # Find self-signed certificates shodan search 'ssl.cert.issuer.cn:self-signed'
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import shodan
import json
API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
api = shodan.Shodan(API_KEY)
def recon_organization(org_name):
"""Perform reconnaissance on an organization"""
try:
# Search for organization
query = f'org:"{org_name}"'
results = api.search(query)
print(f"[*] Found {results['total']} hosts for {org_name}")
# Collect unique IPs and ports
hosts = {}
for result in results['matches']:
ip = result['ip_str']
port = result['port']
product = result.get('product', 'unknown')
if ip not in hosts:
hosts[ip] = []
hosts[ip].append({'port': port, 'product': product})
# Output findings
for ip, services in hosts.items():
print(f"\n[+] {ip}")
for svc in services:
print(f" - {svc['port']}/tcp ({svc['product']})")
return hosts
except shodan.APIError as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
return None
if __name__ == '__main__':
recon_organization("Target Company")# Scan a /24 network range shodan search 'net:192.168.1.0/24' # Get port distribution shodan stats --facets port 'net:192.168.1.0/24' # Find specific vulnerabilities in range shodan search 'net:192.168.1.0/24 vuln:CVE-2021-44228' # Export all data for range shodan download network_scan.json.gz 'net:192.168.1.0/24'
| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| No API Key Configured | Key not initialized | Run shodan init YOUR_API_KEY then verify with shodan info |
| Query Credits Exhausted | Monthly credits consumed | Use credit-free queries (no filters), wait for reset, or upgrade |
| Host Recently Crawled | Cannot re-scan IP within 24h | Use shodan host IP for existing data, or wait 24 hours |
| Rate Limit Exceeded | >1 request/second | Add time.sleep(1) between API requests |
| Empty Search Results | Too specific or syntax error | Use quotes for phrases: 'org:"Company Name"'; broaden criteria |
| Downloaded File Won't Parse | Corrupted or wrong format | Verify with gunzip -t file.gz, re-download with --limit |
# Step 1: Initialize skill agent setup
npx skills add Shodan Reconnaissance --install-production
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
codex plugin install Shodan Reconnaissance@latest
export API_KEY=secret_token_key_here
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