Using OpenScanner for IP & Domain Triage

Whether you’re triaging phishing domains or chasing infrastructure from an IOC, time matters. I built OpenScanner to automate the repetitive but essential steps we all take during IP/domain investigations and to complement the cheat sheet I posted earlier.

This post covers how to use the tool, how it ties into an investigation workflow, and goes through a real world case to demonstrate how to identify suspicious behaviour and infrastructure traits.

What Is OpenScanner?

OpenScanner is a Python tool that automates reputation lookups, DNS resolution, WHOIS checks, passive DNS, certificate transparency, and more. It helps answer the key questions quickly:

• Is this IP known malicious?
• Is this domain newly registered or have suspicious DNS Records?
• Does it point to cloud infrastructure, a VPN, or a TOR node?
• Are there passive or historical DNS/WHOIS records?
• Are there redirect chains, shortened URLs, or payloads involved?

Why Use It?

OpenScanner speeds up OSINT investigations and gives analysts:

• A full profile of a domain or IP from multiple angles
• Clear output with minimal input
• Separation of IP vs domain logic
• Highlighting of common red flags and suspicious indicators

It complements any incident response, threat hunting, or phishing triage workflow.

Installation & Setup

Download the OpenScanner.py file from my GitHub

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Install dependencies:

  pip install -r requirements.txt
  

API Keys

The following API keys are required for full functionality. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of them the tool will automatically skip any services that are not configured.

Note: The free tier of most of these APIs is not for commercial use. Please purchase a paid tier if you wish to use this script for commercial purposes.

I was lazy and hardcoded my API keys, definitely not best practice. Do yourself a favour and use environment variables instead, like this:
VT_API_KEY = os.getenv("VT_API_KEY")
It’s safer, cleaner, and won’t make future-you cry.

Usage

python3 OpenScanner.py example.com
python3 OpenScanner.py 8.8.8.8 --verbose
python3 OpenScanner.py http://malicious.url --expand

• --verbose: show full API JSON responses
• --expand: trace URL redirects (use in a VM)
  • Just a heads-up: this sends an actual request to the domain, so there’s some risk involved. Please only run this with a VM + VPN combo. Don’t go poking shady URLs bare-handed!

Investigation Steps (With OpenScanner)

Step 1: Triage the Target

• Use AbuseIPDB for IP reputation and abuse history
• Use URLScan.io to look at screenshots, scripts, redirection
• Ask: Does it look like a normal site? Are there weird or unexpected behaviours?

Step 2: Reputation Checks

• Use GreyNoise, IPVoid, Hunting.abuse.ch
• Look for tags like vpn, proxy, scanner, cloud provider, residential or tor
• Check blacklists and passive sightings

Step 3: DNS & WHOIS

• Fetch DNS records: A, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME
• Use SecurityTrails, whois, crt.sh
• Look for:
  • Newly registered domains (<30 days)
  • WHOIS privacy or redacted details
  • Short expiry windows (common for disposable domains)
  • Subdomains or wildcard records

Step 4: Certificate Transparency

• Use crt.sh, Censys
• Find SSL cert reuse across suspicious infrastructure
• Pivot from cert to other domains

Step 5: VirusTotal Graph

• Query IP or domain
• Look for:
  • High detection counts
  • Related samples
  • Behavioral graph activity

Step 6: Payload Retrieval (Safely)

• Browserling: View JS-heavy sites in a sandbox
• curl -vL or --expand option: Watch redirects

Let’s see an Example

Grabbing a Domain from the recent deep-dive I did into some Crypto Malware here

python3 openscanner.py sonosarcs[.]com

And it outputs:

🔍 Investigating: sonosarcs.com
Resolved Hostname: sonosarcs.com
Resolved IP: 185.203.241.103

=== IP Analysis ===
[AbuseIPDB]
- Reports: 0
- Abuse Confidence Score: 0%
- ISP: Podaon SIA
- Usage Type: Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit
- ASN: N/A
- Domain Name: podaon.com
- Country: N/A
- Link: https://www.abuseipdb.com/check/185.203.241.103

[GreyNoise]
- Name: N/A
- Classification: N/A
- Tags: None
- Link: https://viz.greynoise.io/ip/185.203.241.103

[ipinfo.io]
- City: Oude Meer
- Org: AS211381 Podaon SIA
- ASN: N/A
- Link: https://ipinfo.io/185.203.241.103

[Shodan]
- Org: Podaon SIA
- OS: Windows Server 2019 (version 1809) (build 10.0.17763)
- Open Ports: [8080, 5986]
- Link: https://www.shodan.io/host/185.203.241.103

[Censys]
[Censys] API credentials not set. Check manually: https://search.censys.io/hosts/185.203.241.103

[IPVoid]
- Detection count not found.
- Link: https://www.ipvoid.com/ip-blacklist-check/?ip=185.203.241.103

=== Domain/URL Intelligence ===
[VirusTotal]
- Harmless: 60
- Malicious: 2
- Suspicious: 0
- Link: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/search/sonosarcs.com

[WHOIS]
- Domain: SONOSARCS.COM
- Registrar: Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc
- Creation Date: 2025-06-18 10:57:23
⚠️ Domain is newly registered!
- Expiry Date: 2028-06-18 10:57:23
- Name Servers: JOHN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM, MAGDALENA.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
- WHOIS Link: https://who.is/whois/sonosarcs.com

[crt.sh]
- Found 3 certificates
- Link: https://crt.sh/?q=%25.sonosarcs.com

[Hunting.abuse.ch]
- No results for: sonosarcs.com

[SecurityTrails]
- Registrar: N/A
- Created: N/A
- Updated: N/A
- Subdomains: www
- Link: https://securitytrails.com/domain/sonosarcs.com

[URLScan.io]
- Found 0 scan(s) for domain: sonosarcs.com
- Submit new scan: https://urlscan.io/#submit-form=sonosarcs.com

[DNS Records]
A records:
 - 185.203.241.103
NS records:
 - john.ns.cloudflare.com.
 - magdalena.ns.cloudflare.com.

[Browserling]
- Open in Browserling: https://www.browserling.com/browse/win/7/https://onosarcs.com

From this output, we can see that although only 2 engines flagged the domain as malicious on VirusTotal, that’s often not enough to label it cleanly, thats why using a multi-tool approach is so important.

A few red flags we can pick out:

Hosting: The IP is hosted by Podaon SIA, a VPS provider. With some pivoting, you’ll find this host sells cheap VPS infrastructure, a common choice for threat actors to host malware or phishing infrastructure anonymously.

WHOIS: The domain is newly registered (within the last two weeks), which is a classic trait of constantly rotating scam/c2 infrastructure.

Open Ports: Shodan shows open ports like 5986 and 8080, but not 443, which is the common port for https websites.

No scans in URLScan.io, no reputation yet, often a sign the domain hasn’t been seen in the wild much.

Indicators of a Suspicious Website

Quick note on defanging:
Always defang malicious indicators when sharing them internally, that’s just good hygiene. e.g. http://www.malicious[.]com/bad/path

But seriously, you only need to defang the top-level domain. Please, please, please stop defanging every single subdomain… it’s not only painful to look at, but it also wastes time during testing, scanning, or analysis when we have to refang everything just to make it usable.

Bonus: My Full Cheat Sheet

For more in-depth investigation commands and reference material, check out:

IP & Domain Investigation Cheat Sheet

Covers:

• whois, dig, nslookup basics
• curl flags for headers, tracing, decoding
• IP classes, ranges, and CIDR breakdowns
• Investigation workflows and behavioural signals

Final Thoughts

OpenScanner is a side-project born from need: I was tired of bouncing between tabs. If it saves you time or catches something you might’ve missed, it’s done its job.

Suggestions, or feature ideas welcome.