Spyse is a cybersecurity search engine that has caught the attention of many pentesters due to its unique data-gathering design. Most services offer scanning tools, and Spyse places itself on a different tier by combining those tools into a search engine.
Moreover, the search engine draws results from a massive database, with tons of technical internet data that is readily available for users. This means that users don’t have to perform new scans every time they need to find a specific chunk of data on the open-source.
With recent upgrades and neat productivity improvements, Spyse could be the next big thing in cybersecurity.Â
How Spyse Works to Collect Data
Reducing scanning time is one of the most discussed, most asked for topics in cybersecurity. This is because users who need to perform reconnaissance on a bunch of targets, or even scan their own infrastructure, have to do so using a variety of different services for different types of data. Spyse’s solution is using a scanner infrastructure which performs data scans beforehand and offers readily processed data to the user.
Spyse’s scanner infrastructure consists of ten self-developed scanners which are made to gather specific information from predetermined sources. The data is checked and sorted by Spyse algorithms, which can easily establish a source with faulty data if it comes up.
Further enhancing the reach of their scanners is a global server distribution system. This system helps them reach for data all over the world, bypassing area scanning restrictions and internet service provider blocking. These developments enable Spyse to harvest large amounts of data from all over the internet uninterruptedly.
Access to Expansive Database
As Spyse’s scanners harvest data from all over the world, their database offers easy access to this data with handy productivity perks. For example: data gathered by Spyse is interlinked before being stored in the database, resulting in a fruitful gathering experience. Users can travel through links of data and gain extra information on their targets, visualize relationships between different companies on the web and find more vectors of attack for their own infrastructure.
The database is stored on 50 highly-functioning servers that contain over 7 billion documents of technical internet information. This includes info such as DNS records, domains and subdomains, autonomous system data, SSL/TLS certificate data, and much more. All of this data can be obtained instantly, which is why Spyse is such a powerful tool for cybersecurity experts.
Ways to Access Data on Spyse
The main way to get data from Spyse is by using the web interface. It looks like a regular search engine, but tailored for cybersecurity. Users can perform a simple search by entering a query, or an advanced search using live filters. The results return on a new page which contains a multitude of data on the target, sorted into tables. These tables can be filtered to show precise results, after which data can be downloaded by the user.
           Spyse has an API with documentation on Swagger, making the API flexible with many methods for use. These methods can be found detailed on the API docs of the Spyse website. All the GUI info can be easily attained with the API, and the user gets all the same data as they do on the web interface. As for a CLI, Spyse has yet to drop a release date. However, they do have a Python wrapper, that was made by an outsourced developer whose work has gained popularity amongst pentesters.Â
Tools for Better Productivity
From all the features built to enhance the users’ search results, there are two features that stand out in particular. The first is called Advanced Search, a little button next to the search string enabling which allows the user to filter their results for precision. Users can apply up to 5 search parameters per query and greatly narrow down results from mass bulks of data. For example: by applying the DNS records filter, users will also find out expanded information about these records like who hosts them, what technologies are used by the host, and if they have any vulnerabilities. Advanced search is a handy addition when mass amounts of results are difficult to deal with.
Spyse also have a thing called the Scoring Tool, which works automatically every time you enter a query. This tool pre-scans a given target for vulnerabilities and gives it an overall security score of 0-100, which is presented among with your search results. The found vulnerabilities are sorted by their level of threat and can then be explored in detail. This is an especially useful feature for those who need to quickly build target lists or find out if their own infrastructure is facing threats.
Final Words
Spyse is an excellent tool for security specialists, pentesters and bug bounty hunters. These people share many of the same tasks when it comes to gathering data, and many of the same problems. Specialists can use Spyse’s tools to easily automate the data gathering process, simulate a hacker’s vision of their infrastructure, and (pentesters can) perform mock attacks. Spyse also grants full invisibility to the user when they are trying the defenses of infrastructure, or performing any data gathering tasks. Spyse also helps avoid rate limits when conducting heavy tasks like reconnaissance.
Overall, this cybersecurity search engine will be a useful tool for anybody looking to strengthen their infrastructure. There are a variety of ways one could implement Spyse: from bug bounty hunters making quick target lists, to business analysts observing the innovative trends of the technology market. In the right hands, the possibilities are only limited by imagination.
