/web2-recon

name: web2-recon
description: Web2 recon pipeline — subdomain enumeration (subfinder, Chaos API, assetfinder), live host discovery (dnsx, httpx), URL crawling (katana, waybackurls, gau), directory fuzzing (ffuf), JS analysis (LinkFinder, SecretFinder), continuous monitoring (new subdomain alerts, JS change detection, GitHub commit watch). Use when starting recon on any web2 target or when asked about asset discovery, subdomain enum, or attack surface mapping.
sources: community, public_research

WEB2 RECON PIPELINE

Full asset discovery from nothing to a prioritized URL list ready for hunting.

---

SETUP (one-time)

# 1. Set your Chaos API key (get free key at chaos.projectdiscovery.io)
export CHAOS_API_KEY="your-key-here"
# Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc for persistence:
echo 'export CHAOS_API_KEY="your-key-here"' >> ~/.zshrc

# 2. Update nuclei templates (run weekly)
nuclei -update-templates

# 3. Configure subfinder with API keys for more sources
mkdir -p ~/.config/subfinder
cat > ~/.config/subfinder/config.yaml << 'EOF'
# Get free keys at: virustotal.com, securitytrails.com, censys.io, shodan.io
virustotal: [YOUR_VT_KEY]
securitytrails: [YOUR_ST_KEY]
censys_apiid: YOUR_CENSYS_ID
censys_secret: YOUR_CENSYS_SECRET
shodan: [YOUR_SHODAN_KEY]
EOF

# 4. Verify all tools installed
which subfinder httpx dnsx nuclei katana waybackurls gau dalfox ffuf anew gf interactsh-client

---

THE 5-MINUTE RULE

> If a target shows nothing interesting after 5 minutes of recon, move on. Don't burn hours on dead surface.

**5-minute kill signals:**

• All subdomains return 403 or static marketing pages
• No API endpoints visible in URLs
• No JavaScript bundles with interesting endpoint paths
• nuclei returns 0 medium/high findings
• No forms, no authentication, no user data

---

STANDARD RECON PIPELINE

Pre-Hunt: Always Run First

TARGET="target.com"

# Step 0: Passive — crt.sh certificate transparency (no API key needed)
curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=%.${TARGET}&output=json" \
  | jq -r '.[].name_value' \
  | sed 's/\*\.//g' \
  | sort -u > /tmp/subs.txt
echo "[+] crt.sh: $(wc -l < /tmp/subs.txt) subdomains"

# Step 1: Chaos API (ProjectDiscovery — most comprehensive source)
curl -s "https://dns.projectdiscovery.io/dns/$TARGET/subdomains" \
  -H "Authorization: $CHAOS_API_KEY" \
  | jq -r '.[]' >> /tmp/subs.txt

echo "[+] Chaos returned $(wc -l < /tmp/subs.txt) subdomains"

# Step 2: subfinder (passive multi-source)
subfinder -d $TARGET -silent | anew /tmp/subs.txt
assetfinder --subs-only $TARGET | anew /tmp/subs.txt

echo "[+] Total subdomains after all sources: $(wc -l < /tmp/subs.txt)"

# Step 3: DNS resolution + live host check
cat /tmp/subs.txt | dnsx -silent | httpx -silent -status-code -title -tech-detect | tee /tmp/live.txt

echo "[+] Live hosts: $(wc -l < /tmp/live.txt)"

# Step 4: URL crawl
cat /tmp/live.txt | awk '{print $1}' | katana -d 3 -jc -kf all -silent | anew /tmp/urls.txt

# Step 5: Historical URLs
echo $TARGET | waybackurls | anew /tmp/urls.txt
gau $TARGET --subs | anew /tmp/urls.txt

echo "[+] Total URLs: $(wc -l < /tmp/urls.txt)"

# Step 6: Nuclei scan
nuclei -l /tmp/live.txt -t ~/nuclei-templates/ -severity critical,high,medium -o /tmp/nuclei.txt

Output to Organized Directory

TARGET="target.com"
RECON_DIR="recon/$TARGET"
mkdir -p $RECON_DIR

# All outputs go here:
/tmp/subs.txt         → $RECON_DIR/subdomains.txt
/tmp/live.txt         → $RECON_DIR/live-hosts.txt
/tmp/urls.txt         → $RECON_DIR/urls.txt
/tmp/nuclei.txt       → $RECON_DIR/nuclei.txt

---

ATTACK SURFACE TRIAGE

Find Interesting Targets in URL List

# Parameters worth testing
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "[?&](id|user|file|path|url|redirect|next|src|token|key|api_key)=" | tee /tmp/interesting-params.txt

# API endpoints
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "/api/|/v1/|/v2/|/v3/|/graphql|/rest/|/gql" | tee /tmp/api-endpoints.txt

# File upload endpoints
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "upload|file|attachment|document|image|avatar|photo|media" | tee /tmp/uploads.txt

# Admin/internal paths
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "/admin|/internal|/debug|/test|/staging|/dev|/management|/console" | tee /tmp/admin-paths.txt

# Authentication endpoints
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "/oauth|/login|/auth|/sso|/saml|/oidc|/callback|/token" | tee /tmp/auth-paths.txt

gf Patterns (Quick Classification)

# Install gf patterns: https://github.com/tomnomnom/gf
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf xss | tee /tmp/xss-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf ssrf | tee /tmp/ssrf-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf idor | tee /tmp/idor-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf sqli | tee /tmp/sqli-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf redirect | tee /tmp/redirect-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf lfi | tee /tmp/lfi-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf rce | tee /tmp/rce-candidates.txt

---

JS ANALYSIS

SecretFinder (API keys, tokens in JS bundles)

# Activate venv
source ~/tools/SecretFinder/.venv/bin/activate

# Scan a single JS file
python3 ~/tools/SecretFinder/SecretFinder.py -i "https://target.com/static/js/main.js" -o cli

# Scan all JS URLs found in recon
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep "\.js$" | head -50 | while read url; do
  echo "=== $url ==="
  python3 ~/tools/SecretFinder/SecretFinder.py -i "$url" -o cli 2>/dev/null
done

deactivate

LinkFinder (Endpoints hidden in JS)

source ~/tools/LinkFinder/.venv/bin/activate

# Single JS file
python3 ~/tools/LinkFinder/linkfinder.py -i "https://target.com/app.js" -o cli

# All pages (crawls JS from HTML)
python3 ~/tools/LinkFinder/linkfinder.py -i "https://target.com" -d -o cli

deactivate

---

DIRECTORY FUZZING

ffuf — Standard Fuzzing

# Directory discovery on a live host
ffuf -u "https://target.com/FUZZ" \
     -w ~/wordlists/common.txt \
     -mc 200,201,204,301,302,307,401,403 \
     -ac \
     -t 40 \
     -o /tmp/ffuf-dirs.json

# API endpoint discovery
ffuf -u "https://target.c