Shodan (website)

Shodan

Type of site	search engine
Available in	English
Created by	John Matherly
URL	www.shodan.io
Registration	Optional
Launched	2009 (2009)
Current status	Active

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2022)

Shodan is a search engine that lets users search for various types of servers (webcams, routers, servers, etc.) connected to the internet using a variety of filters.^[1] Some have also described it as a search engine of service banners, which is metadata that the server sends back to the client.^[2] This can be information about the server software, what options the service supports, a welcome message or anything else that the client can find out before interacting with the server.

Shodan collects data mostly on web servers (HTTP/HTTPS – ports 80, 8080, 443, 8443), as well as FTP (port 21), SSH (port 22), Telnet (port 23), SNMP (port 161), IMAP (ports 143, or (encrypted) 993), SMTP (port 25), SIP (port 5060),^[3] and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP, port 554). The latter can be used to access webcams and their video streams.^[4]

It was launched in 2009 by computer programmer John Matherly, who, in 2003,^[5] conceived the idea of searching devices linked to the Internet.^[6] The name Shodan is a reference to SHODAN, a character from the System Shock video game series.^[5] Using Shodan with respect to a device the user does not own is a felony crime under the laws of some states in the United States, even if no damage is done to the device or system.^[7][8][9]