Visual Recon
Automatically screenshot every live host to triage hundreds of subdomains visually instead of manually opening each one. Combined with technology fingerprinting, this reveals technology stacks, default CMS install pages, admin panels, and misconfigured services at a glance. Process 500+ hosts in minutes and identify high-value targets by visual inspection.
When to Use
- You have 100+ live subdomains and need to prioritize targets quickly.
- Manual browsing is too slow for bulk reconnaissance.
- Need to identify default install pages (WordPress setup, phpMyAdmin login, Jenkins dashboard).
- Want to compare visual fingerprints across subdomains (shared infrastructure).
- Target serves different content based on User-Agent or geolocation.
Prerequisites
terminalgowitness, httpx, and curl.gowitnessinstalled:go install github.com/sensepost/gowitness@latest.- A list of alive subdomains from
subdomain-enumeration.
Quick Start
bashgowitness file -f alive_subs.txt -P ./screenshots/ --no-http
Procedure
Phase 1 — Mass Screenshot Capture
bash# gowitness — fast, Go-based screenshot tool gowitness file -f alive_subs.txt \ -P ./screenshots/ \ --no-http \ --timeout 15 \ --resolution-x 1440 \ --resolution-y 900 # With database for searchable results gowitness file -f alive_subs.txt -P ./screenshots/ --no-http \ --db gowitness.db --chrome-window-x 1440 --chrome-window-y 900 # Query results gowitness report list --db gowitness.db gowitness report generate --db gowitness.db # eyewitness — with HTML report generation python3 EyeWitness.py \ -f alive_subs.txt \ --web \ -d ./eyewitness_output/ \ --timeout 15 \ --no-prompt
Phase 2 — Headless Mode for JS-Rendered Sites
bash# Single-page applications need JS execution gowitness single -u https://[SPA_COMPANY] \ -P ./screenshots/ \ --chrome-window-x 1440 --chrome-window-y 900 # Batch headless capture cat spa_urls.txt | while read url; do gowitness single -u "$url" -P ./screenshots/ done
Phase 3 — Visual Analysis Patterns
Review screenshots for high-value patterns:
bash# Extract all titles from screenshots for quick filtering gowitness report list --db gowitness.db \ | grep -iE "login|admin|dashboard|setup|install|phpmyadmin|jenkins|grafana|api|dev|staging|test" # Look for default error pages (identifies specific web servers) gowitness report list --db gowitness.db \ | grep -iE "404|403|502|503|default|maintenance|under construction"
What to look for:
| Screenshot shows | Meaning |
|---|---|
| WordPress install page | Fresh WordPress — test registration on /wp-admin/install.php |
| phpMyAdmin login | Database access panel — try default creds |
| Jenkins login | CI/CD server — check for unauthenticated access |
| Grafana/Prometheus | Monitoring dashboard — check for public data |
| IIS default page | Windows server — check for ASP.NET endpoints |
| Apache default page | Standard Linux server — check for server-status |
| Error stack traces | Debug mode enabled — extract server paths and versions |
| Directory listing | Readable file tree — check for config files |
| Login form on custom port | Internal admin panel — highest priority target |
Phase 4 — Visual Diffing (Multi-Environment)
bash# Compare screenshots across subdomains to find shared infrastructure # Same visual = shared server = if one is vulnerable, all are ls screenshots/ | cut -d'-' -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn # High count of identical-looking sites = mass vulnerability potential
Phase 5 — Technology Fingerprinting from Screenshots
bash# whatweb — identifies CMS, frameworks, servers whatweb -i alive_subs.txt -a 3 -t 50 --log-brief=cms_results.txt # wappalyzer CLI — detailed tech stack wappalyzer https://target.com # httpx with tech detection built-in cat alive_subs.txt | httpx -silent -tech-detect -o tech_detected.txt # Extract unique technologies cat tech_detected.txt | awk -F'[' '{print $2}' | tr -d ']' | tr ',' '\n' \ | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
Phase 6 — Screenshot-Based Triage Pipeline
bash# Full pipeline: subdomains → alive → screenshot → filter → prioritize cat all_subs.txt \ | httpx -silent -mc 200 -o alive_200.txt gowitness file -f alive_200.txt -P ./screenshots/ --no-http # Generate report for manual review gowitness report generate --db gowitness.db -o ./report/ # Extract login/admin pages for priority testing gowitness report list --db gowitness.db \ | grep -iE "login|admin|sign.?in|dashboard|panel|manage" \ > priority_targets.txt
Pitfalls
- Large screenshot batches can overwhelm disk. 500 screenshots at 1440x900 ≈ 300MB.
- JS-heavy SPAs may render as blank. Use headless mode with longer timeout.
- Redirect chains produce screenshots of the redirect target. This is correct — you want the final destination.
- CAPTCHA pages waste screenshots. Filter CAPTCHA hosts before screenshotting.
- Timeout on slow servers.
--timeout 15is usually sufficient; increase for slow connections.
Verification
- Screenshots exist for all hosts in
alive_subs.txt. - Visual inspection confirms each screenshot shows meaningful content (not blank, not error).
- Technology detection matches the visual fingerprint (WordPress favicon = WordPress CMS).
- Priority targets (login panels, admin dashboards, dev environments) are identified and moved to next phase.
Related Skills
subdomain-enumeration— Generate the list of alive subdomains.web-enumeration— Deep dive into individual hosts found via screenshots.cms-detection— Automated CMS and framework detection on discovered hosts.
