DANGEROUS SEARCH ENGINES FOR IOT; Shodan, Censys and Thingful
What is Shodan? Shodan was created by computer scientist John Matherly as a hobby. Matherly wanted to track any type of device connected to the internet. This is how Shodan became real in 2009. Shodan indexation works by searching open ports of any service or device. This means that Shodan, unlike any normal search engine, does not focus on searching web pages but on collecting the banners of the services (server response to a request). These services include HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSH, Telnet, SNMP and SIP protocols. Then, the user can search for devices by regions or geographic areas applying Shodan filters. How Does Shodan Work? Shodan works by requesting connections to every imaginable internet protocol (IP) address on the internet and indexing the information that it gets back from those connection requests. Shodan crawls the web for devices using a global network of computers and servers that are running 24/7. An IP address is your device’s digital signature — it
