What Shannon Tests
Shannon is an AI-powered penetration testing framework that delivers actual exploits, not just alerts. It autonomously hunts for attack vectors in your code, then uses its built-in browser to execute real exploits to prove vulnerabilities are actually exploitable.
White-Box Approach
White-box only. Shannon Lite is designed for white-box (source-available) application security testing. It expects access to your application’s source code and repository layout.
- Code-Aware Dynamic Testing: Analyzes your source code to intelligently guide its attack strategy
- Live Exploitation: Performs browser and command-line based exploits on the running application to confirm real-world risk
- Structured Data Flow Analysis: Traces user input to dangerous sinks for vulnerabilities like Injection and SSRF
- Context-Driven Attacks: Leverages source code insights to craft targeted, high-probability exploits
Proof-by-Exploitation Methodology
Shannon enforces a strict “No Exploit, No Report” policy to minimize false positives:
- Hypothesis Generation: Specialized agents analyze code to identify potential vulnerability paths
- Active Exploitation: Dedicated exploit agents attempt to execute real-world attacks
- Impact Demonstration: Only vulnerabilities that can be successfully exploited are reported
- Reproducible Proof-of-Concepts: Every finding includes copy-and-paste PoCs for validation
This approach ensures that reports focus exclusively on proven, actionable risks rather than theoretical possibilities.
Shannon enhances its discovery phase by leveraging leading reconnaissance and testing tools:
- Nmap: Network infrastructure mapping and service enumeration
- Subfinder: Subdomain discovery and DNS reconnaissance
- WhatWeb: Web application fingerprinting and technology detection
- Schemathesis: API testing and specification validation
- Playwright: Browser automation for dynamic exploitation
- Custom Exploit Scripts: AI-generated exploit code for validation
Multi-Agent Architecture
Shannon emulates a human penetration tester’s methodology through four distinct phases:
┌──────────────────────┐
│ Reconnaissance │
└──────────┬───────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────┴───────────┐
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ Vuln Analysis │ │ Vuln Analysis │ │ ... │
│ (Injection) │ │ (XSS) │ │ │
└─────────┬───────┘ └─────────┬───────┘ └─────────┬───────┘
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ Exploitation │ │ Exploitation │ │ ... │
│ (Injection) │ │ (XSS) │ │ │
└─────────┬───────┘ └─────────┬───────┘ └─────────┬───────┘
│ │ │
└─────────┬─────────┴───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│ Reporting │
└──────────────────────┘
Phase 1: Reconnaissance
Builds a comprehensive map of the application’s attack surface by analyzing source code, integrating with reconnaissance tools, and performing live application exploration.
Phase 2: Vulnerability Analysis
Specialized agents for each OWASP category hunt for potential flaws in parallel, performing structured data flow analysis and producing hypothesized exploitable paths.
Phase 3: Exploitation
Dedicated exploit agents validate hypotheses by executing real-world attacks using browser automation, command-line tools, and custom scripts.
Phase 4: Reporting
Compiles validated findings into a professional report with reproducible Proof-of-Concepts, focusing exclusively on proven risks.
Autonomous Operation
Shannon is fully autonomous from start to finish:
- Single Command Launch: Start a complete pentest with one command
- Advanced Authentication: Handles 2FA/TOTP logins and “Sign in with Google” automatically
- Browser Navigation: Autonomous exploration of the application
- Zero Intervention: Complete analysis and exploitation without human interaction
- Professional Reporting: Final report delivered automatically
Parallel Processing
Shannon parallelizes the most time-intensive phases, running analysis and exploitation for all vulnerability types concurrently to deliver faster results.