{"id":15848,"date":"2016-08-01T09:30:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T09:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/?p=15848"},"modified":"2024-05-17T16:33:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T11:03:56","slug":"what-is-shodan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/what-is-shodan\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Shodan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having a life without \u2018Google\u2019 is hard to imagine today. We would be lost without the popular search engine in our lives. The popular retort \u201cGoogle it\u201d is always on our lips for any query posed by anybody. While Google searches for web sites, there is another search engine that is slowly gaining prominence. This is \u2018Shodan\u2019. \u2018Shodan\u2019 is a search engine for \u2018IoT\u2019 or \u2018Internet of things\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Internet of things or \u2018IoT\u2019:<\/span><\/h2>\n

Before we start discussing \u2018Shodan\u2019 let us first explain \u2018IoT\u2019. Recall, that we have already discussed \u2018IoT\u2019 in an earlier post. \u2018Internet of things\u2019 can be defined in two words \u2013 \u201cconnect\u201d and \u201cmonitor\u201d. Devices, buildings, vehicles will be embedded with sensors to enable them to connect with each other and also exchange data with each other. \u00a0IoT also enables the user to remotely turn on appliances and devices.
\nWikipedia defines IoT as follows: \u201cThe\u00a0<\/span>internet of things\u00a0<\/span>(IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items –\u00a0<\/span>embedded<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>with\u00a0<\/span><\/span>electronics<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>software<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>sensors<\/span>, actuators, and <\/span>network connectivity<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>that enable these objects to collect and exchange data\u201d<\/span> (Internet of things).\u00a0<\/span>\u201cSmart refrigerator\u201d, \u201csmart lights\u201d and \u201csmart coffeemaker\u201d are a few examples of IoT devices.<\/p>\n

Why Shodan?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u201cShodan\u201d launched in 2009, and originally conceived in 2003 is the brain child of John Matherly who was a computer security whiz.\u00a0 By means of \u2018Shodan\u2019 one can search for servers, routers, power plants, smart TVs, refrigerators, traffic lights, baby monitors and anything that can be tracked on the Internet (sound scary?) \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was originally created so that organizations could keep track of customers using their products, their location and also to perform \u201cempirical market intelligence\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"webcam-security-20160127\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The possibility of \u2018Shodan\u2019 being misused by hackers seeking to find critical infrastructure and cause monetary and physical damages is huge. However, \u2018Shodan\u2019 tries to be accountable by showing only 10 results for users not logged in and 50 results for users who are logged in. More results are shown after a fee is paid and the reason for the search is revealed. Thus each individual is accountable and other mechanisms are enabled to prevent anonymous access.<\/p>\n

Example of search results with \u2018Shodan\u2019:<\/span><\/h2>\n

The search results of \u2018Shodan\u2019 when presented with the query of \u2018default password\u2019, is astounding. It shows the devices using the default username of \u2018admin\u2019 and default password of \u2018password\u2019 around the world. This is a hacker\u2019s heaven wherein the devices (like traffic lights, baby monitors, medical devices) can be exploited and be controlled remotely. <\/span><\/p>\n

Pros and cons of Shodan:<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u2018Shodan\u2019 has been created with good intentions for use by pen testers, security professionals and researchers for data collection that will help them to make intelligent business decisions. It can also help pen testers to seek the vulnerabilities within their organization that are open to Shoden crawlers and seal them.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the search results can also spur hackers and devious mind individuals to seek this information and use it for more malicious purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

We saw \u2018Shoden\u2019 \u2013 the crawler for \u2018IoT\u2019 devices in our post today. For more information visit: https:\/\/www.shodan.io. We will discuss more technical topics in subsequent posts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bibliography\r\nInternet of things<\/i>. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having a life without \u2018Google\u2019 is hard to imagine today. We would be lost without the popular search engine in our lives. The popular retort \u201cGoogle it\u201d is always on our lips for any query posed by anybody. While Google searches for web sites, there is another search engine that is slowly gaining prominence. This is \u2018Shodan\u2019. \u2018Shodan\u2019 is a search engine for \u2018IoT\u2019 or \u2018Internet of things\u2019. Internet of things or \u2018IoT\u2019: Before we start discussing \u2018Shodan\u2019 let us first explain \u2018IoT\u2019. Recall, that we have already discussed \u2018IoT\u2019 in an earlier post. \u2018Internet of things\u2019 can be defined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[952,1440,1459],"class_list":["post-15848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-updates","tag-iot","tag-search-engine","tag-shodan"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"profile_24":false,"profile_48":false,"profile_96":false,"profile_150":false,"profile_300":false,"tptn_thumbnail":false,"web-stories-poster-portrait":false,"web-stories-publisher-logo":false,"web-stories-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Pavan Gumaste","author_link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/author\/pavan\/"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Having a life without \u2018Google\u2019 is hard to imagine today. We would be lost without the popular search engine in our lives. The popular retort \u201cGoogle it\u201d is always on our lips for any query posed by anybody. While Google searches for web sites, there is another search engine that is slowly gaining prominence. 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