Censys Search Use Cases

Enumerate domains in use

Inventory in-use and historical domains and hostnames used to conduct digital business.

Discover shadow IT

Search for devices and services that do not belong to a known inventory to identify rogue or unauthorized assets that can pose a security risk.

Audit open ports and services

Search for open ports and services on your network. This information is valuable for ensuring that only necessary services are running and no unauthorized or unnecessary ports are open.

Identify potentially vulnerable software

Identify devices or services with potential vulnerabilities by querying service banners, software versions, or HTTP headers and bodies.

Check for host anomalies during log enrichment

Check connections to and from servers with unusual locations, to detect potential insider threats or unauthorized activity.

Monitor TLS certificate usage

Track SSL/TLS certificates for expired misconfigured certs in use. Inventory certificate authorities in use, and ensure that digital certificates are being generated in accordance with organizational policy.

Find devices with weak encryption

Search for devices that use outdated protocols or weak cryptographic configurations.

Discover IoT devices

Identify Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected to an organization’s network. This is essential for monitoring and securing these potentially vulnerable endpoints.

Track vendor or provider compliance

Monitor whether third-party vendors or service providers are adhering to security standards and configurations specified in their agreements.

Search for sensitive data exposure

Identify exposed services such as databases or misconfigured web services that are leaking sensitive information.

Investigate malicious infrastructure

Find malicious infrastructure, such as command and control servers, phishing websites, and other suspicious domains or IP addresses.

Track TLS vulnerabilities

Identify TLS vulnerabilities, such as deprecated cipher suites or weak keys.

Hunt for misconfigured cloud resources

Identify cloud resources that are not securely configured.