Mcp Shodan
Open-source MCP server that lets AI assistants like Claude Code query Shodan for device, DNS, and CVE data from your terminal.
Mcp Shodan is a practical bridge for security professionals who already live in Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini CLI and want quick Shodan lookups without switching to a browser. It handles the mechanics — turning your natural-language question into a Shodan API call, and formatting banners, ports, DNS records, and CVE data as readable text. It is a thin wrapper: the value comes from Shodan's data, and you still supply your own Shodan API key and need enough Shodan familiarity to ask useful questions. If you need a full GUI, continuous monitoring, or team sharing with role controls, the Shodan web interface (or Shodan's own CLI) is the better fit than this MCP server.
Verified 38m ago · liveness 35/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/mcp-shodan
- Security researchers doing recon inside an AI assistant
- Penetration testers who work in CLI workflows
- DevOps engineers doing quick asset discovery
- Threat-intelligence analysts checking CVE/CPE data
- Users without a Shodan API key or subscription
- Users who need real-time streaming or continuous monitoring
- Teams requiring RBAC, audit logging, or shared workspaces
We scan live Reddit threads, YouTube comments, X posts, G2 reviews and other communities — and hand you an honest verdict in under a minute.
- Honest verdict, not marketing
- Real pros & cons from real users
- Attributed quotes with receipts
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Skip Mcp Shodan if you do not already have a Shodan API key and subscription, or if you need a graphical Shodan interface, continuous monitoring, or team features like RBAC and audit logging.
Mcp Shodan itself is free, but the queries only work against a paid Shodan API key — your real cost is your Shodan subscription, and the depth of results you see is capped by whichever Shodan plan you hold.
Mcp Shodan is an open-source MCP server, so the server layer is free. Your ongoing spend is the Shodan API key you attach to it, whose tier governs query volume and result depth — so budget for Shodan rather than for this tool. It is a cheap add-on for individual analysts already paying for Shodan, and a poor fit for teams that would need per-seat security tooling with audit and access controls.
In short
Mcp Shodan — Open-source MCP server that lets AI assistants like Claude Code query Shodan for device, DNS, and CVE data from your terminal. Best for Security researchers doing recon inside an AI assistant, Penetration testers who work in CLI workflows, DevOps engineers doing quick asset discovery. Free to use.
What people actually say about Mcp Shodan — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
1 mentions across 1 source (GitHub) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 1 source that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +Enables natural language Shodan queries in AI assistants.
- +Automates IP reconnaissance, DNS lookups, and vulnerability checks.
- +Works with popular AI tools like Claude Code and Gemini CLI.
- +Open-source and free to use with your own Shodan API key.
- +Reduces manual Shodan API call complexity for developers.
- −Limited community feedback makes reliability unproven.
- −Requires Shodan API key and compatible AI client setup.
- −Only supports a handful of AI assistant platforms.
- −No documentation on error handling or rate limits.
- −4 open issues hint at unresolved development problems.
- • Shodan API key may have usage costs depending on plan
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Mcp Shodan? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Natural-language search for internet-connected devices
- IP reconnaissance: open ports, services, banners
- OS fingerprinting from host responses
- Geolocation lookup for IP addresses
- DNS lookup: A, AAAA, MX, NS records
- Reverse DNS resolution
- Hostname enumeration
- SSL/TLS certificate retrieval and HTTPS certificate analysis
- CVE vulnerability intelligence
- CPE (common platform enumeration) data retrieval
- Shodan query translation and optimization for AI assistants
- Works with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop
- Open-source MCP server, free to self-host
About Mcp Shodan
Mcp Shodan is an open-source MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that bridges AI assistants such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Claude Desktop with Shodan's internet-device intelligence. You ask a question in plain English — 'what ports are open on this IP', 'find hosts running a specific CVE' — and the server translates it into a Shodan API call and returns structured, readable results in your chat. It covers IP reconnaissance (ports, services, banners, OS fingerprints, geolocation), DNS lookups (A, AAAA, MX, NS records), reverse DNS and hostname enumeration, SSL/TLS certificate inspection, and CVE/CPE vulnerability data. You need your own Shodan API key and a compatible MCP client; the server itself is free and self-hostable, so you can adapt it to your own workflow. It is aimed at security researchers, penetration testers, threat-intelligence analysts, and DevOps engineers who already work in a terminal and want Shodan lookups without leaving their assistant. It is not the full Shodan web UI — it is a focused query tool for fast, conversational lookups. Note: it is distributed via the MCP registry rather than a single vendor site, and no third-party news signal was captured this run.
Behind the Verdict
Where Mcp Shodan earns its place is in the gap between 'ask an AI assistant a security question' and 'ask Shodan a security question.' Without it, you would context-switch to the Shodan web UI or a browser tab for every lookup; with it, you stay in the same MCP client where you're already doing the work. The feature surface it exposes is squarely the reconnaissance side of Shodan: IP lookups that return open ports, running services, banners, OS fingerprints and geolocation; DNS enumeration for A, AAAA, MX and NS records plus reverse DNS and hostname resolution; SSL/TLS certificate details for a host; and CVE/CPE vulnerability intelligence so you can ask 'which internet-connected hosts have this vulnerability' in natural language. Those map directly onto day-one pentest or asset-discovery workflows. The honest limitations are structural, not bugs. First, the tool is a client for a dataset you must already have access to — you provide the Shodan API key, and what you can see (result depth, query breadth) is governed by your Shodan subscription, not by this server. Second, it is plain text, no graph or dashboard; if a finding needs to be shared in a report, you will paste it into whatever reporting layer you already use. Third, it is deliberately narrow: it is not a replacement for the Shodan web interface when you need to browse a host interactively. Fourth, because it is community/open-source, the scope of support and the cadence of fixes rest on maintainers rather than a vendor SLA. Who it fits: a penetration tester or security researcher who already has Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini CLI open in a terminal and wants Shodan answers inline; a threat-intelligence analyst checking CVE/CPE exposure for a set of hosts without leaving the assistant; a DevOps engineer doing quick asset discovery on infrastructure they own. Who it doesn't fit: anyone without a Shodan API key or subscription (nothing to query), teams that need RBAC, audit logging, or shared workspaces around the queries, and people who want a graphical Shodan experience. Note that the server is distributed through the MCP registry rather than a single product homepage, and no independent third-party coverage of this specific server was captured in this run, so claims here rest on the project's own description and the Shodan capabilities it exposes.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Mcp Shodan actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
During an engagement you want to know what a target IP exposes without leaving your terminal. You ask the assistant to look up the host, and Mcp Shodan translates the request, calls Shodan, and returns open ports, running services, and banners.
Outcome: You map the external attack surface in a single conversation instead of switching to a browser, and paste the text results into your engagement notes.
You are given a CVE identifier and want exposure context. You ask your assistant which internet-connected hosts are associated with that CVE, and the server pulls CVE and CPE data from Shodan.
Outcome: You get a quick list of exposed hosts and affected platforms to triage, without opening a separate Shodan session.
You want to confirm DNS records and certificate details for infrastructure you own. You ask the assistant to resolve the domain and pull the SSL certificate for the host.
Outcome: DNS records and certificate facts come back as readable text in the same chat where you are documenting the environment.
Use Cases
- Enumerate all open ports and services on a target IP by asking your assistant in plain English
- Find internet-connected hosts exposed to a specific CVE
- Resolve a domain to its IPs and check associated hostnames
- Run DNS reconnaissance for subdomains and mail servers
- Pull SSL/TLS certificate details for a given host before a scan
Limitations
- You must supply your own Shodan API key, and what the tool can return is bounded by your Shodan subscription — so the server adds convenience, not data.
- There is no graphical interface; results come back as plain text, so you paste findings into whatever reporting or ticketing layer you already use.
- It does not do real-time streaming or continuous monitoring of hosts.
- It lacks team features like RBAC, audit logging, and shared collections, so it suits individual analysts more than security teams.
- It is a query tool, not a replacement for the Shodan web interface when you need to browse a host interactively, and because it is an open-source community project, support and fix cadence rest on its maintainers rather than a vendor SLA.
as of 2026-10-08
Verification history
We have re-verified Mcp Shodan 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
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- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
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- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Mcp Shodan's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Mcp Shodan is an open-source MCP server, so the server layer is free. Your ongoing spend is the Shodan API key you attach to it, whose tier governs query volume and result depth — so budget for Shodan rather than for this tool. It is a cheap add-on for individual analysts already paying for Shodan, and a poor fit for teams that would need per-seat security tooling with audit and access controls.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Mcp Shodan — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For a developer already running an MCP client: installing the MCP server is a configuration step, and first value arrives as soon as you supply a Shodan API key. Expect under 15 minutes if your MCP client and Node/Python environment are already set up. If you are new to MCP clients, add time to configure the client. No GUI setup is involved.
Switching to or from Mcp Shodan
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From the Shodan web interface: keep your API key and route routine lookups (IP, DNS, certificate, CVE) through your assistant instead of the browser.
- →From Shodan's own CLI: keep the API key and expose the same query types through MCP so results land inside your chat.
- ↗To the Shodan web interface: use its GUI when you need to browse a host interactively or visualise results.
- ↗To a full security platform with RBAC and audit logging: move to a team-oriented product when collaboration and access control become requirements.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Mcp Shodan”, and we withheld 6: 6 did not mention Mcp Shodan. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Mcp Shodan.
Official links
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Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Mcp Shodan vs Audioeye
Choose Mcp Shodan if you're a security pro needing free, AI-assisted internet scanning via tools like Claude Code. Choose AudioEye if you're an enterprise focused on WCAG compliance, automated remediation, and reducing legal risk. They serve entirely different domains—pick the one matching your core task.
Mcp Shodan vs Push Security
If you're a security or identity team battling browser-based attacks and AI data leakage, Push Security is the clear choice—it blocks AiTM phishing and provides agentic threat hunting. For security researchers who need quick Shodan lookups from an AI assistant, Mcp Shodan is a free, lightweight tool. They solve different problems entirely.
Mcp Shodan vs Temporal Ai
Temporal AI is for teams who need bulletproof workflow durability with automatic retries and state recovery, but it's overkill for simple tasks. Mcp Shodan is a lightweight, free MCP server for Shodan lookups — great for security pros who want fast device data in their AI assistant. Choose Temporal if you orchestrate complex, long-running processes; choose Mcp Shodan if you only need Shodan queries via natural language.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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