Google is a search engine for human readable content. Shodan does the same for machine readable content.
You can:
- search for specific IP addresses, and it will show you the active ports, and running services.
- search for a specific response header in the set of countries
- browse through the screenshots of open VNC & RDP
- open webcams
- and more…
The free accounts can use any feature, but the list of results is limited. But if you really want to look under the deck of the internet, the subscription is worth it.
Stupid question, but what’s Shodan and why should I get it?
Well, if you ever asked yourself “How can I nmap the whole internet without wasting months of my life?” Shodan is for you. Otherwise, it’s probably not.
If you’re still curious anyway, I’m not the best person to pitch it to you… but I know just the right guy - Viss, and his DefCon presentation. Shodan is a tool that can help you find stuff that he talks about.
TOTES MCGOATS©
5 bucks for network monitoring made it a deal for me. Thanks 🙂
I believe it was the fictional artificial intelligence that became self-aware and tried to take over the world in the game System Shock, and later System Shock 2.
That one I knew, but thanks anyway 🙂