Target Intelligence

You give us a CVE. We tell you every vulnerable host on the internet right now.

VulnCheck Target Intelligence is a continuously updated index of internet-facing hosts confirmed to be running vulnerable software. Unlike traditional internet scanners that surface potentially vulnerable hosts, Target Intelligence applies fingerprinting and version detection techniques to identify hosts with a high degree of confidence, then maps those findings directly to CVEs.

This makes Target Intelligence useful as a stage 1 triage tool: before an attacker gets there, you can answer the question "which hosts on the internet are actually on the target list for this CVE right now?"

Base URL

https://api.vulncheck.com/v3/index/target-intel

Authentication

All requests require a bearer token in the Authorization header.

Authorization: Bearer <your_api_token>

Query Parameters

Parameters can be combined. All parameters are optional, but at least one should be provided for meaningful results.

ParameterTypeDescription
cidrstringCIDR range for subnet lookups. Use /32 for a single host (e.g., 203.0.113.42/32)
hostnamestringHostname derived from DNS lookup at time of scan
cvestringCVE ID to retrieve all confirmed vulnerable hosts (e.g., CVE-2024-21887)
vendorstringSoftware vendor name
productstringSoftware product name
versionstringSoftware version string
cpestringFull CPE string
asnstringAutonomous System Number (e.g., AS15169)
countrystringCountry name (e.g., United States, Germany)
country_codestringISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., US, DE)
protocolstringTransport protocol (typically tcp)
portintegerTCP port number
contains_cvebooleanWhen true, returns only hosts where a CVE is associated with the fingerprinted service
classificationsstringComma-separated list of classification values to filter by. Valid values: c2, scanner, proxy, attack-infrastructure, honeypot, mcp, cdn, sector, canary-attacker
limitintegerMaximum number of results to return per page

Note on vendor, product, and version: These parameters work in any combination. Querying by vendor alone or version alone is supported but may return broad results. Combining two or more produces more targeted output.


Response Schema

Each result represents a single observed host-port-service tuple. Results are returned as a JSON array.

Top-Level Fields

FieldTypeAlways PresentDescription
ipstringYesIPv4 address of the observed host
hostnamestringYesHostname from DNS lookup at scan time (may be empty)
portintegerYesTCP port on which the service was observed
timestampstringYesISO 8601 timestamp of when the observation was made
date_addedstringYesISO 8601 timestamp of when the record was added to the index
protocolstringYesTransport protocol (typically tcp)
cpearrayYesCPE strings derived from fingerprinting
cvearray|nullConditionalCVE IDs associated with this host's fingerprint. null when no CVE match
vendorarrayYesVendor names derived from fingerprinting
productarrayYesProduct names derived from fingerprinting
versionarrayYesVersion strings derived from fingerprinting
fingerprintsarrayYesPer-fingerprint detail objects — see below
contains_cvebooleanYestrue when the fingerprinted service has an associated CVE
asnstringConditionalAutonomous System Number (e.g., AS64500). Omitted when not available
as_namestringConditionalAutonomous System name. Omitted when not available
as_domainstringConditionalAutonomous System domain. Omitted when not available
countrystringConditionalCountry name. Omitted when not available
country_codestringConditionalISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. Omitted when not available
classificationsarrayConditionalClassification tags applied to this host (e.g., c2, honeypot, proxy). Omitted when none apply
metadataobjectConditionalAdditional metadata. Omitted when not available

fingerprints Array

Each element describes a single fingerprint match for the host-port.

FieldTypeDescription
cpestringCPE string for this fingerprint
vendorstringVendor name
productstringProduct name
versionstringProduct version
Additional fieldsstringVariable. May include detected service banner and other enrichment attributes depending on what the fingerprint captured

Example Requests

Look up a single IP using CIDR notation

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  "https://api.vulncheck.com/v3/index/target-intel?cidr=203.0.113.42/32"

Find all hosts confirmed vulnerable to a specific CVE

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  "https://api.vulncheck.com/v3/index/target-intel?cve=CVE-2024-21887"

Find all hosts running a specific product

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  "https://api.vulncheck.com/v3/index/target-intel?vendor=ivanti&product=connect+secure"

Filter CVE results by country

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  "https://api.vulncheck.com/v3/index/target-intel?cve=CVE-2024-21887&country_code=US"

Example Response

{
  "data": [
    {
      "ip": "203.0.113.42",
      "hostname": "vpn.example.com",
      "port": 443,
      "timestamp": "2025-01-15T08:42:11Z",
      "date_added": "2025-01-15T08:42:11Z",
      "protocol": "tcp",
      "cpe": ["cpe:2.3:a:ivanti:connect_secure:22.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"],
      "cve": ["CVE-2024-21887", "CVE-2023-46805"],
      "vendor": ["Ivanti"],
      "product": ["Connect Secure"],
      "version": ["22.3.0"],
      "fingerprints": [
        {
          "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ivanti:connect_secure:22.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
          "vendor": "Ivanti",
          "product": "Connect Secure",
          "version": "22.3.0"
        }
      ],
      "contains_cve": true,
      "asn": "AS64500",
      "as_name": "Example ISP",
      "as_domain": "example.com",
      "country": "United States",
      "country_code": "US",
      "classifications": ["c2:cobalt-strike"]
    }
  ]
}

When no CVE is associated with a fingerprinted service, the cve field is null (not an empty array) and contains_cve is false:

{
  "ip": "198.51.100.7",
  "hostname": "",
  "port": 80,
  "timestamp": "2025-01-15T09:10:00Z",
  "date_added": "2025-01-15T09:10:00Z",
  "protocol": "tcp",
  "cpe": ["cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:10.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"],
  "cve": null,
  "vendor": ["Apache"],
  "product": ["Tomcat"],
  "version": ["10.1.0"],
  "fingerprints": [
    {
      "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:tomcat:10.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
      "vendor": "Apache",
      "product": "Tomcat",
      "version": "10.1.0"
    }
  ],
  "contains_cve": false,
  "asn": "AS64501",
  "country": "Germany",
  "country_code": "DE"
}

Data Freshness

Target Intelligence maintains a rolling window of scan data. The index is continuously updated as new scan results arrive. Older observations are expired on a rolling basis to keep the dataset current and operationally relevant.

The unique key per record is the combination of IP + port + fingerprint/service information. If a host is re-scanned, its record is updated with the latest observation.


What This API Is and Is Not

Target Intelligence is:

  • A confirmed exploitation target queue for known-vulnerable internet-facing hosts
  • A pre-loss triage tool for understanding exposure at the moment a CVE is disclosed
  • A source of high-confidence, CVE-mapped host data with version-level fingerprinting

Target Intelligence is not:

  • An Attack Surface Management (ASM) tool it does not take a seed domain and enumerate assets
  • A complete inventory of all internet-facing assets for a given organization
  • A replacement for internal asset discovery

To look up hosts associated with an organization, query by ASN, CIDR range, or a list of known IPs.