Case Studies

Real-world examples of reconFTW in action.

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Case Study 1: Bug Bounty - New Program Launch

Scenario: A new bug bounty program launched with *.target.com in scope. Goal is to find vulnerabilities quickly before other hunters.

Target Profile

• Scope: *.target.com (wildcard)

• Size: Unknown (new program)

• Time: 4 hours before others catch up

• Goal: Quick wins - subdomain takeovers, exposed panels, known CVEs

Configuration

# Custom config: bounty-rush.cfg

# Fast subdomain enumeration
SUBBRUTE=false           # Skip brute-force (time-consuming)
SUBPERMUTE=false         # Skip permutations
SUBIAPERMUTE=false

# Essential web checks only
WEBPROBESIMPLE=true
WEBPROBEFULL=false       # Skip detailed probing

# Priority vulnerability checks
NUCLEICHECK=true
NUCLEI_SEVERITY="critical,high"  # Only high-impact
SUBTAKEOVER=true         # Quick wins

# Skip slow modules
FUZZ=false
XSS=false
SQLI=false
SSRF_CHECKS=false

Execution

# Phase 1: Quick passive recon (15 minutes)
./reconftw.sh -d target.com -p

# Review subdomains found
wc -l Recon/target.com/subdomains/subdomains.txt
# 847 subdomains

# Phase 2: Fast vulnerability scan (2 hours)
./reconftw.sh -d target.com -r -f bounty-rush.cfg --adaptive-rate

# Phase 3: Check results immediately
cat Recon/target.com/subdomains/takeover.txt
cat Recon/target.com/vulns/nuclei_output.json | jq -r 'select(.severity=="critical")'

Results

Finding	Severity	File Location
Subdomain takeover on old.target.com	High	subdomains/takeover.txt
Exposed Jenkins on ci.target.com	Critical	vulns/nuclei_output.json
S3 bucket listing	Medium	osint/cloud_enum.txt
3 exposed admin panels	High	vulns/nuclei_output.json

Time to first finding: 23 minutes (subdomain takeover)

Key Takeaways

1. Passive first - Always run -p before full recon

2. Skip slow modules - Brute-force can wait

3. Focus on quick wins - Takeovers, panels, known CVEs

4. Review as you go - Don't wait for full scan to complete

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Case Study 2: Security Assessment - Enterprise Client

Scenario: Contracted for a security assessment of a Fortune 500 company. Need full coverage with minimal disruption.

Target Profile

• Scope: corp.example.com + IP range 10.0.0.0/8 (internal)

• Size: Large enterprise (~5,000 subdomains expected)

• Time: 1 week engagement

• Goal: Complete asset inventory, all vulnerabilities documented

Pre-Engagement Setup

# Create scope files
echo "*.corp.example.com" > scope-in.txt
echo "*.internal.example.com" >> scope-in.txt

echo "vpn.corp.example.com" > scope-out.txt
echo "mail.corp.example.com" >> scope-out.txt

Configuration

# Custom config: enterprise-assessment.cfg

# Thorough enumeration
SUBBRUTE=true
subs_wordlist="${tools}/subdomains_n0kovo_big.txt"
SUBPERMUTE=true
SUBIAPERMUTE=true

# All web checks
WEBPROBESIMPLE=true
WEBPROBEFULL=true
SCREENSHOT=true

# Full vulnerability assessment
NUCLEICHECK=true
NUCLEI_SEVERITY="critical,high,medium"
FUZZ=true
XSS=true
SQLI=true
SSRF_CHECKS=true
CORS=true

# Rate limiting (be respectful)
HTTPX_RATELIMIT=50
NUCLEI_RATELIMIT=100
ADAPTIVE_RATE_LIMIT=true

# Save everything
PORTSCANNER=true
PORTSCAN_ACTIVE=true

Execution Plan

Day 1-2: Reconnaissance

# External reconnaissance
./reconftw.sh -d corp.example.com -r \
  -i scope-in.txt -x scope-out.txt \
  -f enterprise-assessment.cfg

# OSINT deep dive
./reconftw.sh -d corp.example.com -n  # OSINT only

Day 3-4: Vulnerability Assessment

# Full vulnerability scan
./reconftw.sh -d corp.example.com -a \
  -i scope-in.txt -x scope-out.txt \
  -f enterprise-assessment.cfg

# Review and prioritize
cat Recon/corp.example.com/vulns/nuclei_output.json | \
  jq -r 'select(.severity=="critical")' > critical_findings.json

Day 5: Deep Dive on Findings

# Re-scan specific high-value targets
./reconftw.sh -d api.corp.example.com -a --deep

# Manual verification of critical findings

Results Summary

Category	Count	Files
Subdomains	4,892	subdomains/subdomains.txt
Live web servers	1,247	webs/webs.txt
Open ports	8,432	hosts/portscan_active.txt
Critical vulns	12	vulns/nuclei_output.json
High vulns	47	vulns/nuclei_output.json
Medium vulns	183	vulns/nuclei_output.json
Email addresses	234	osint/emails.txt
GitHub secrets	8	osint/github_company_secrets.json

Notable Findings:

• Exposed Kubernetes dashboard (critical)

• Default credentials on 3 admin panels

• SQL injection in legacy application

• 2 subdomain takeover possibilities

• 8 hardcoded API keys in public GitHub repos

Deliverable Generation

# Export all critical/high findings
cat Recon/corp.example.com/vulns/nuclei_output.json | \
  jq -r 'select(.severity=="critical" or .severity=="high") | 
  [.host, .severity, ."template-id", .name] | @csv' > findings.csv

# Generate AI report
./reconftw.sh -d corp.example.com -y --ai-report full

Key Takeaways

1. Scope files are essential - Prevent accidental out-of-scope testing

2. Rate limiting - Enterprise WAFs will block aggressive scans

3. OSINT is gold - GitHub secrets often provide initial access vectors

4. Document everything - Use --deep on interesting assets

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Case Study 3: Red Team - Distributed Scanning with Axiom

Scenario: Red team engagement against a large organization. Need to enumerate quickly across multiple regions without attribution.

Target Profile

• Scope: bigcorp.com and all subsidiaries

• Size: Very large (10,000+ subdomains estimated)

• Time: 48 hours for initial recon

• Goal: Complete external footprint, identify entry points

Infrastructure Setup

# Launch Axiom fleet (20 instances across regions)
axiom-fleet reconftw -i 20 --regions nyc1,lon1,sgp1,ams3

# Verify fleet
axiom-ls

Configuration

# Custom config: redteam-distributed.cfg

# Aggressive enumeration (fleet handles load)
SUBBRUTE=true
SUBPERMUTE=true
SUBRECURSIVE=true
SUB_RECURSIVE_BRUTE=true

# Full web checks
WEBPROBESIMPLE=true
WEBPROBEFULL=true

# All vulnerability checks
NUCLEICHECK=true
NUCLEI_SEVERITY="critical,high,medium,low"
FUZZ=true
XSS=true
SQLI=true

# Axiom configuration
AXIOM=true
AXIOM_FLEET_NAME="reconftw"
AXIOM_FLEET_COUNT=20
AXIOM_FLEET_SHUTDOWN=false  # Keep for multiple scans

Execution

# Create target list
cat << EOF > targets.txt
bigcorp.com
subsidiary1.com
subsidiary2.com
acquired-company.com
EOF

# Launch distributed scan
./reconftw.sh -l targets.txt -a -v -f redteam-distributed.cfg

Monitoring Progress

# Watch fleet activity
axiom-exec 'ps aux | grep -E "(nuclei|httpx|subfinder)"' -f reconftw

# Check intermediate results
axiom-exec 'wc -l /tmp/subdomains.txt' -f reconftw

# Pull partial results
axiom-scp 'reconftw*:/home/op/Recon' ./partial_results/ -f reconftw

Results

Scan completed in: 14 hours (vs estimated 72 hours single-machine)

Target	Subdomains	Web Servers	Critical	High
bigcorp.com	8,234	2,847	8	34
subsidiary1.com	1,892	623	3	12
subsidiary2.com	945	312	1	8
acquired-company.com	2,134	892	6	23
Total	13,205	4,674	18	77

Entry Points Identified:

1. Exposed Citrix gateway (CVE-2023-XXXX)

2. Password spraying vector (O365 enumeration)

3. VPN with default credentials

4. Subdomain takeover → potential phishing vector

5. API key leaked in JS files → internal API access

Cost Analysis

Fleet: 20 × $0.03/hr × 14 hours = $8.40
Total scan cost: Under $10 for massive reconnaissance

Post-Scan Cleanup

# Merge all results
axiom-scp 'reconftw*:/home/op/Recon' ./final_results/ -f reconftw

# Shutdown fleet
axiom-rm 'reconftw*' -f

Key Takeaways

1. Axiom is cost-effective - Massive scans for dollars, not hours

2. Regional distribution - Avoids geo-blocking

3. Keep fleet alive - Reuse for multiple targets

4. Merge results carefully - Use provided merge scripts

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Case Study 4: Continuous Monitoring - CI/CD Integration

Scenario: Security team wants automated weekly scans of all company assets with alerts for new findings.

Setup

Weekly cron job:

# /etc/cron.d/reconftw-weekly
0 2 * * 0 /opt/reconftw/scripts/weekly_scan.sh

Scan script:

#!/bin/bash
# weekly_scan.sh

TARGETS="/opt/targets/company_domains.txt"
CONFIG="/opt/reconftw/configs/weekly.cfg"
OUTPUT="/opt/recon_results/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"

# Run scan
cd /opt/reconftw
./reconftw.sh -l "$TARGETS" -r -f "$CONFIG" -o "$OUTPUT"

# Generate diff from last week
./scripts/diff_results.sh "$OUTPUT" "$LAST_WEEK"

# Send notification
./scripts/notify.sh "$OUTPUT/diff_report.txt"

Configuration

# weekly.cfg - Balanced for regular monitoring

# Standard enumeration
SUBBRUTE=false          # Passive only for regular scans
SUBPERMUTE=false

# Web checks
WEBPROBESIMPLE=true
SCREENSHOT=true

# Vulnerability focus
NUCLEICHECK=true
NUCLEI_SEVERITY="critical,high"
SUBTAKEOVER=true

# Notifications
SLACK_WEBHOOK="https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXX"
NOTIFY=true
NOTIFY_CONFIG="${tools}/notify-config.yaml"

Diff Script

#!/bin/bash
# diff_results.sh

NEW=$1
OLD=$2

echo "=== New Subdomains ===" > "$NEW/diff_report.txt"
comm -23 <(sort "$NEW/subdomains/subdomains.txt") \
         <(sort "$OLD/subdomains/subdomains.txt") >> "$NEW/diff_report.txt"

echo -e "\n=== New Vulnerabilities ===" >> "$NEW/diff_report.txt"
diff "$OLD/vulns/nuclei_output.json" "$NEW/vulns/nuclei_output.json" \
  | grep "^>" >> "$NEW/diff_report.txt"

Alert Output

🔔 Weekly Recon Report - 2024-01-15

=== New Subdomains (12) ===
new-api.company.com
staging2.company.com
...

=== New Vulnerabilities (3) ===
[CRITICAL] api.company.com - CVE-2024-XXXX
[HIGH] staging.company.com - exposed-admin
[HIGH] new-api.company.com - default-credentials

Full report: /opt/recon_results/2024-01-15/

Key Takeaways

1. Passive for monitoring - Brute-force only for initial scans

2. Diff is everything - Focus on changes, not full results

3. Alert on severity - Critical/High only for notifications

4. Archive results - Keep history for trend analysis

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Quick Reference: Scenario → Configuration

Scenario	Mode	Key Flags	Config Changes
Bug bounty rush	-p then -r	--adaptive-rate	Disable slow modules
Enterprise assessment	-a	-i, -x, -f	Rate limiting, thorough
Red team (distributed)	-a -v	--vps	Axiom fleet config
CI/CD monitoring	-r	-o, -f	Passive only, notifications
Quick triage	-p	None	Default passive
Deep dive (single target)	-a --deep	None	Enable everything

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Documentation Info Branch: dev | Version: v3.0.0+ | Last updated: February 2026