Shodan Reconnaissance and Pentesting

Purpose

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.

Inputs / Prerequisites

Shodan Account

Free or paid account at shodan.io

API Key

Obtained from Shodan account dashboard

Target Information

IP addresses, domains, or network ranges to investigate

Shodan CLI

Python-based command-line tool installed

Authorization

Written permission for reconnaissance on target networks

Outputs / Deliverables

Asset Inventory

List of discovered hosts, ports, and services

Vulnerability Report

Identified CVEs and exposed vulnerable services

Banner Data

Service banners revealing software versions

Network Mapping

Geographic and organizational distribution of assets

Screenshot Gallery

Visual reconnaissance of exposed interfaces

Exported Data

JSON/CSV files for further analysis Core Workflow 1. Setup and Configuration Install Shodan CLI

Using pip

pip install shodan

Or easy_install

easy_install shodan

On BlackArch/Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S python-shodan Initialize API Key

Set your API key

shodan init YOUR_API_KEY

Verify setup

shodan info

Output: Query credits available: 100

Scan credits available: 100

Check Account Status

View credits and plan info

shodan info

Check your external IP

shodan myip

Check CLI version

shodan version 2. Basic Host Reconnaissance Query Single Host

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

Check if Host is Honeypot

Get honeypot probability score

shodan honeyscore 192.168 .1.100

Output: Not a honeypot

Score: 0.3

1. Search Queries Basic Search (Free)

Simple keyword search (no credits consumed)

shodan search apache

Specify output fields

shodan search --fields ip_str,port,os smb Filtered Search (1 Credit)

Product-specific search

shodan search product:mongodb

Search with multiple filters

shodan search product:nginx country:US city: "New York" Count Results

Get result count without consuming credits

shodan count openssh

Output: 23128

shodan count openssh 7

Output: 219

Download Results

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" Parse Downloaded Data

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 4. Search Filters Reference Network Filters 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 Geographic Filters 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 Organization Filters org:"Google" # Organization name isp:"Comcast" # ISP name Service/Product Filters 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 Vulnerability Filters vuln:CVE-2019-0708 # Specific CVE has_vuln:true # Has any vulnerability Screenshot Filters has_screenshot:true # Has screenshot available screenshot.label:webcam # Screenshot type 5. On-Demand Scanning Submit Scan

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 Monitor Scan Status

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 Available Scan Protocols

List available protocols/modules

shodan scan protocols 6. Statistics and Analysis Get Search Statistics

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 7. Network Monitoring Setup Alerts (Web Interface) 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 8. REST API Usage Direct API Calls

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 Python Library 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" ] } ' ) Quick Reference Essential CLI Commands 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 Common Search Queries 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 Useful Filter Combinations 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 Credit System 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 Constraints and Limitations Operational Boundaries Rate limited to 1 request per second Scan results not immediate (asynchronous) Cannot re-scan same IP within 24 hours (non-Enterprise) Free accounts have limited credits Some data requires paid subscription Data Freshness Shodan crawls continuously but data may be days/weeks old On-demand scans provide current data but cost credits Historical data available with paid plans Legal Requirements Only perform reconnaissance on authorized targets Passive reconnaissance generally legal but verify jurisdiction Active scanning (scan submit) requires authorization Document all reconnaissance activities Examples Example 1: Organization Reconnaissance

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 Example 2: Vulnerable Service Discovery

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' Example 3: IoT Device Discovery

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' Example 4: SSL/TLS Certificate Analysis

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' Example 5: Python Automation Script

!/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" ) Example 6: Network Range Assessment

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' Troubleshooting 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