Shodan

Shodan

Shodan is a search engine for Internet-connected devices. It allows users to find specific types of devices based on filters like location, ports, banners, and more. Shodan provides visibility into Internet-facing devices and services that are often overlooked or forgotten.
Shodan image
search-engine device-scanner vulnerability-assessment cybersecurity

Shodan: Search Engine for Internet-Connected Devices

Discover internet-connected devices with Shodan, a powerful search engine that filters by location, ports, banners and more, providing visibility into Internet-facing devices and services.

What is Shodan?

Shodan is a search engine for finding Internet-connected devices and services. Unlike traditional search engines that index the content of web pages, Shodan specifically targets hardware and software that is connected to the Internet, ranging from home routers and webcams to industrial control systems and SCADA devices.

Some key features and capabilities of Shodan include:

  • Search Internet-connected devices by country, city, IP address, port, banners, and more
  • Identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in Internet-facing systems
  • Gather intelligence on competitors' Internet assets and exposure
  • Monitor Internet-connected systems for signs of compromise
  • Research specific embedded devices, software platforms, and protocols
  • Uncover hidden industrial control systems and SCADA networks
  • Analyze Internet usage statistics and adoption trends over time

Shodan helps security professionals, researchers, and businesses understand their attack surface and monitor Internet-connected assets. However, it also aids adversaries in discovering Internet-accessible systems to target for cyber attacks. Users must carefully evaluate the risks and implications of certain search queries. Implementing security best practices is critical to prevent Shodan mapping from inadvertently exposing critical infrastructure or sensitive systems.

Shodan Features

Features

  1. Search engine for Internet-connected devices
  2. Find devices based on filters like location, ports, banners, etc
  3. Provides visibility into Internet-facing devices and services

Pricing

  • Freemium
  • Subscription-Based

Pros

Easy to discover Internet-connected devices

Powerful search and filtering capabilities

Helps identify vulnerabilities and insecure configurations

Cons

Requires paid subscription for full access

Some consider scanning without permission unethical

Exposes sensitive information about devices


The Best Shodan Alternatives

Top Security & Privacy and Network Security and other similar apps like Shodan


Censys icon

Censys

Censys is an internet search engine designed specifically for information on Internet-connected servers, websites, and devices. It allows cybersecurity researchers, businesses, and other users to view real-time data on the networks and systems that are exposed to the public internet.Some of the information Censys provides includes:Open ports and services running...
Censys image
FOFA icon

FOFA

FOFA is a powerful cyber threat intelligence search engine developed by Bit4WOOD in China. It allows users to search for a wide range of internet assets including websites, IP addresses, domains, network infrastructure, open ports, certificates, and data leaks.Some key features of FOFA include:Comprehensive coverage of internet assets across the...
FOFA image
Criminal IP icon

Criminal IP

Criminal IP is an investigative software designed specifically for cybersecurity professionals and law enforcement agencies to trace IP addresses and gather actionable intelligence on cybercriminals. It integrates seamlessly with other security solutions to accelerate investigations.Key features of Criminal IP include:IP address tracking - Identify location, ISP, hosting provider, and other...
Criminal IP image
ZoomEye icon

ZoomEye

ZoomEye is a search engine and data mining tool for cyberspace that facilitates the discovery and analysis of devices exposed to the public internet. It functions like a search engine for cyberspace, allowing users to easily search for information on IPs, websites, and other devices.Some key features of ZoomEye include:Search...
ZoomEye image
Reposify icon

Reposify

Reposify is an open source management platform designed to help organizations gain visibility and control over the open source components used in their software applications. It acts as a central inventory that automatically tracks open source usage across an organization's entire codebase, including public and private repositories.Key features of Reposify...
Reposify image
Websecurify icon

Websecurify

Websecurify is a powerful website security and malware detection tool. It provides automated vulnerability scanning and malware detection for websites. Key features include:Automatic discovery and scanning of entire website assets including pages, scripts, images, etc.Detection of common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, weak passwords, etc.Detection of malware, viruses, trojans, backdoors,...
Websecurify image
Netlas.io icon

Netlas.io

Netlas.io is a visual analytics platform designed to help businesses monitor, analyze, and optimize their website performance and user experience. It provides an easy-to-use interface to track and visualize website traffic, user behavior flows, conversion funnels, and other key web metrics.Some of the key features of Netlas.io include:Interactive flow maps...
Netlas.io image
Thingful icon

Thingful

Thingful is an open data search engine launched in 2014 that aims to make open data more discoverable and usable. It allows users to easily search over 1,500 open datasets from around the world in one place instead of needing to visit different open data portals.Thingful provides a clean, intuitive...
Nexpose icon

Nexpose

Nexpose is a comprehensive vulnerability management and penetration testing software developed and maintained by Rapid7. It enables organizations to identify security weaknesses across their networks, systems, web applications, databases, and endpoints.Key features of Nexpose include:Asset discovery - Automatically discovers devices, ports, services, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations on the network.Risk-based vulnerability management...
Nexpose image
BinaryEdge icon

BinaryEdge

BinaryEdge is an automated asset discovery and attack surface management platform. It performs internet-wide scans to identify exposed systems, applications, network devices, misconfigurations, and vulnerabilities across an organization's digital footprint.Key features include:Internet-wide asset discovery - Continuous scanning of IPv4 space, domains, ports, services, technologies, and more.Attack surface monitoring - Ongoing...
BinaryEdge image
Spyse icon

Spyse

Spyse is a cyber threat intelligence and attack surface management platform that allows organizations to discover and monitor their entire external digital footprint across the open, deep, and dark web. It provides actionable intelligence about Internet-exposed assets like domains, IP addresses, ports, technologies used, and subdomains.Key features of Spyse include:Comprehensive...
Skipfish icon

Skipfish

Skipfish is an open source, active web application security reconnaissance tool. It was created by Michal Zalewski for Google as an automated security testing tool.Here are some key features of Skipfish:It carries out recursive crawl and dictionary-based probes on web applications to prepare an interactive sitemap.It has over 3,400 built-in...
Skipfish image
Arachni icon

Arachni

Arachni is an feature-full, modular, high-performance Ruby framework aimed towards helping penetration testers and administrators evaluate the security of web applications. It is smart, optimized, stable, and portable making it a reliable tool for web application security assessments.Some key features of Arachni include:High performance web crawling capable of analyzing hundreds...
Arachni image
Intruder icon

Intruder

Intruder is a comprehensive web application security testing tool used to identify vulnerabilities in web apps. It is designed to automate vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to help developers build more secure software.Key features of Intruder include:Automated vulnerability scanning - Intruder can crawl web applications and automatically scan for security...
Intruder image
Wapiti icon

Wapiti

Wapiti is an open-source web application vulnerability scanner that is designed to audit the security of web applications and web services. It works by crawling a target website and scanning for vulnerabilities such as XSS, SQL injection, file inclusion, command execution, CRLF injection, and more.Some key features of Wapiti include:Detects...
Wapiti image
Grabber Web Application Scanner icon

Grabber Web Application Scanner

Grabber is a comprehensive web application security scanner designed to automatically crawl, audit, and exploit vulnerabilities in web applications and APIs. It provides a user-friendly interface and powerful scanning engine to identify security flaws such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, remote file inclusion, command execution, CRLF injection, XXE injection, and...
Grabber Web Application Scanner image
Vulners API icon

Vulners API

Vulners API is a comprehensive vulnerability database and cyber threat intelligence feed. It contains information on over 160,000 known software vulnerabilities collected from a variety of sources including the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), security advisories, bug trackers, exploit databases, malware signatures, and open source intelligence.The key capabilities provided by Vulners...
Vulners API image
Purplepee.co icon

Purplepee.co

Purplepee.co is a website that provides AI-powered alternatives and substitutions for various software products. Users can enter the name of a piece of software they currently use, and purplepee.co will suggest free, open source, or paid alternatives that offer similar features and functionality.The website has an intuitive interface where users...
SearchDiggity icon

SearchDiggity

SearchDiggity is a privacy-focused search engine that does not track or profile its users. It was created as an alternative to Google and other large search engines that collect user data for advertising purposes.Unlike Google, SearchDiggity does not store IP addresses, build user profiles, or retain search history. It also...
SearchDiggity image
WebScarab icon

WebScarab

WebScarab is an open source web application security testing tool developed by OWASP. It provides an interactive environment to intercept, inspect, modify and replay HTTP and HTTPS requests and responses between a browser and web server. WebScarab allows security testers and developers to identify and exploit security vulnerabilities in web...
WebScarab image
Apptalk.ninja icon

Apptalk.ninja

apptalk.ninja is a comprehensive suite of communication and collaboration tools designed to help teams work better together. At its core, it provides messaging, video conferencing, and file sharing capabilities to facilitate real-time discussion and content sharing.Beyond basic communication features, apptalk.ninja includes more advanced capabilities for task and project management. Teams...
ONYPHE icon

ONYPHE

ONYPHE is an online threat intelligence platform used by cybersecurity professionals to gather information on cyber threats. It aggregates large amounts of threat data from open sources across the internet and structures it to enable effective searching and analysis.Some key capabilities and features of ONYPHE include:Search by IP address, domain...
ONYPHE image
PunkSPIDER icon

PunkSPIDER

PunkSPIDER is an automated web application security scanner used to identify vulnerabilities in web applications and APIs. It provides continuous scanning to detect new issues and vulnerabilities as they are introduced.Key features of PunkSPIDER include:Detection of common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, insecure redirects, etc.Crawling of websites and APIs...
HTTPCS Security icon

HTTPCS Security

HTTPCS Security is an open-source web application firewall (WAF) designed to protect websites and web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities. It works by filtering, monitoring, and blocking potentially malicious HTTP traffic before it reaches the web application.Some key features of HTTPCS Security include:Protection against SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS),...
HTTPCS Security image
IronWASP icon

IronWASP

IronWASP is an open-source web application penetration testing tool written in Python. It is designed for testing the security of web applications by simulating real-world attacks.Some key features of IronWASP include:Automated detection of common security vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and moreExtensible architecture allowing for custom plugins and attack modulesBuilt-in...
IronWASP image