Shodan

Shodan is a publicly available computer search engine, which provides to the public a database containing the IP addresses and nmap information of nearly 1.8 million internet facing devices. The fact that 2 million computers are publicly available on the internet, often with no security patches implemented, makes Shodan an indispensable resource for security researchers, and for skiddies who are trying to learn how to hack.

Services Rendered

Shodan offers free services, but to support itself, and the money-grubbing habits of its parent organization, also offers paid services as well.

• Non Logged-in users. 10 results per query, no access to filtering by country, and no access to telnet
• Logged in users. 50 results per query, access to filter by country, access to common server reply strings, no access to telnet.
• People who paid 20 Euros. All of the above, and access to telnet, ssh, and 10,000 results per query.
• Cisco, who pay up to 9001 Euros/year. 1.8 million results per query, automated "exploit" tools, and a complimentary blowjob.

Controversy

There was controversy over how Shodan renders unsecured webcams freely available for the public to observe. On occasions such as the trendnet camera hacking, the public has been quick to point fingers at Shodan, while completely ignoring that Trendnet cameras explicitly inform the end user on security principles, such as changing the default password. For this reason, Shodan is popularly known as the scariest search engine on the internet.

See Also

• Skiddie

External links

• Shodan
• http://www.shodanhq.com/
• FTC and TrendNet settle claim over hacked security cameras

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