Shodan (website)

Shodan is a search engine that lets the user find specific types of computers (routers, servers, etc.) connected to the internet using a variety of filters. Some have also described it as a search engine of service banners, which are meta-data the server sends back to the client. 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, port 80), as well as FTP (port 21), SSH (port 22) Telnet (port 23), SNMP (port 161), SIP (port 5060), and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP, port 554). The latter can be used to access webcams and their video stream.

It was launched in 2009 by computer programmer John Matherly, who, in 2003, conceived the idea of searching devices linked to the Internet. The name Shodan is a reference to SHODAN, a character from the System Shock video game series.

Background

The website began as Matherly's pet project, based on the fact that large numbers of devices and computer systems are connected to the Internet. Shodan users are able to find systems including traffic lights, security cameras, home heating systems as well as control systems for water parks, gas stations, water plants, power grids, nuclear power plants and particle-accelerating cyclotrons; most have little security. Many devices use "admin" as their user name and "1234" as their password, and the only software required to connect to them is a web browser.

Shodan

Shodan may refer to:

Shodan (rank)

Shodan (初段), literally meaning "beginning degree," is the lowest black belt rank in Japanese martial arts and the game of Go. The 2nd dan is higher than Shodan, but the 1st dan is called Shodan traditionally and not "Ichidan". This is because the character 初 (sho, alternative pronunciation: hatsu) also means first, new or beginning in Japanese.

Also frequently referred to as "first dan", it is a part of the kyū/dan ranking system common to modern Japanese martial arts. The term may be used to describe both the rank a person holds, as well as the person (i.e., it is proper to say that a person holds the rank of shodan, and it is also appropriate to say, "I am a shodan in 'x' martial art").

See also

References

SHODAN

SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) is a fictional artificial intelligence and the main antagonist of the cyberpunk-horror themed action role-playing video games System Shock and System Shock 2.

Character design

SHODAN is an artificial intelligence whose moral restraints were removed from her programming by a hacker in order for Edward Diego, station chief of Citadel Station, on which SHODAN was installed, to delete compromising files regarding illegal experiments and his corruption. She is a megalomaniac with a god complex and sees humans as little better than insects, something which she constantly reminds the player of. Her words are accompanied by stuttering, fluctuating voice pitch, shifts of timbre, and the presence of three voices speaking the same words with the constituent voices alternately lagging behind and leading ahead in different patterns, as well as computer glitches resembling a sound card malfunction. Although as a cybernetic entity SHODAN has no conventional gender, the original disc version refers to her as either an 'it' or a 'he', while the later CD version uses 'she'. On screens, SHODAN manifests herself as a green and/or grey female cybernetic face that usually wears a malevolent expression, and speaks with a chaotic, discordant voice. She is voiced by former Tribe keyboardist and vocalist, Terri Brosius, the wife of System Shock 2's sound editor, Eric Brosius, who distorted the samples to provide the distinctive SHODAN effect. In the cyberspace of System Shock, she is initially represented as an inverted blue-grey cone, reminiscent of the Master Control Program from the 1982 Disney film Tron. After she has been hacked, the cone turns red, the surface shatters and four "tentacles" or "claws" grow from the top, with her actual face starting to form above that.