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sector-recon-methodology

Security & auditing

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Updated 10-16 03:33

About this skill

Sector Recon Methodology Skill

Methodology for selecting non-regulated industry sectors with the highest WordPress vulnerability rates, compiling company domain lists, and running batch reconnaissance within authorized engagements. Distilled from surveying 600+ US company domains across 28 sectors under bug bounty and authorized testing programs.

When to Use

  • Planning a new recon campaign and need to choose sectors.
  • Expanding from tested sectors into new ones.
  • Building target lists from sector keywords via crt.sh.
  • After recon-playbook Phase 0 — this skill provides the sector intelligence.
  • Comparing your findings against baseline vulnerability rates per sector.

Prerequisites

  • curl, jq, httpx, and subfinder.
  • Understanding of the US regulatory landscape (HIPAA, GLBA, PCI-DSS) — regulated sectors have near-zero vulnerability rates.
  • An execution environment with explicit concurrency and rate limits.

How to Run

# Generate targets for a sector
SECTOR="landscaping"
curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.${SECTOR}%25&output=json" | jq -r '.[].name_value' | \
  sed 's/\*\.//g' | sed 's/^www\.//' | sort -u > ${SECTOR}_targets.txt

Script: scripts/parallel_sector_probe.py — OPSEC-controlled batch probe with random delays, generates per-domain findings files. Run python3 scripts/parallel_sector_probe.py targets.txt output_dir/ for a full WP/CORS/XMLRPC/leak scan.

Quick Reference

Tier Sectors Typical WP Rate Best Pattern Notes
1 Law, Landscaping, Pools, Pest, Roofing, Dental, Gyms, Real Estate, HVAC, Property, Auto Repair, Photography 30-50% CORS + WP users Minimal WAF, GoDaddy/Bluehost
2 Cleaning, Moving, Accounting, Septic, Window, Car Wash, Bakery, Locksmith, Solar, Chimney, Fire, Pet Grooming 20-40% Source leaks, CORS Mixed hosting, some WAF
3 Car Dealers, Insurance, Travel, Banks, Healthcare 0-5% N/A Enterprise WAF, regulated, no WP

Sector Vulnerability Rankings

Tier 1 — High Yield (15-25% vulnerability rate)

Sector Vuln Rate Top Pattern WordPress Rate WAF Protection Best Targets
Law Firms 25% P-06 (CORS auth) ~30% Minimal Solo/small firm, GoDaddy-hosted
Landscaping 20% WP-01 (user enum) ~50% Minimal Local SMB, franchise model
Pool Services 20% WP-01 (user enum) ~45% Minimal Summer-seasonal businesses
Pest Control 20% P-02 (CORS) ~40% Minimal Franchise-heavy
Roofing 15% WP-01, P-17 ~45% Minimal Local contractors
Dental Clinics 15% WP-01 (user enum) ~35% Some Single-dentist practices
Gyms/Fitness 15% WP-01 (user enum) ~40% Some CrossFit, yoga, martial arts
Real Estate 15% P-02 (CORS) ~40% Some Independent brokerages
HVAC/Plumbing 14% WP-01, P-02 ~35% Some Franchise-heavy, staging common
Property Management 15% P-02 (CORS) ~30% Some PII-heavy sector
Photography 10% WP-01 (user enum) ~50% Some Portfolio sites, often WP
Funeral Homes 10% WP-01 (user enum) ~33% Minimal WordPress + user enum found on 2 targets (funeral.example.com, memorial.example.com)
Senior Living 17% P-02 (CORS) + XMLRPC ~33% Cloudflare senior-living.example.com (80 XMLRPC methods + CORS + multicall), senior-living2.example.com (CORS) — 2/12 tested = CRITICAL findings

Tier 2 — Medium Yield (5-14% vulnerability rate)

Sector Vuln Rate Notes
Cleaning Services 13% Carpet, window, mold remediation
Moving Companies 6% Fewer WP, more SaaS platforms
Accounting/CPA 5% Some regulated, some not — financial data at risk
Septic Services 25% source leaks Massive source leak rate (.env, .git, wp-config)
Window Cleaning 25% CORS Small operations, DIY WP
Car Washes 20% source leaks Dockerfile, swagger, actuator endpoints common
Bakeries 18% CORS wildcard 28 leaked files on one target
Locksmiths 20% WP users + XMLRPC 38 subdomains on one target
Solar Installers Minimal Major brands use enterprise platforms
Chimney Sweeps ~10% CORS + XMLRPC Small family businesses, WP common
Fire Restoration ~10% Franchise model (Servpro, Belfor)
Pet Grooming 20% WP users Dogtopia, Camp Bow Wow — WP detected

Critical Finding Example (from 248-target new sector expansion)

pool-company.example.com — Critical (Score 9):

  • 3 users exposed via REST API (wpadmin ID=1 — default admin account)
  • CORS credential reflection confirmed
  • XMLRPC system.multicall active
  • Attack chain: CORS phishing → exfiltrate user data → brute force wpadmin via XMLRPC multicall → full site takeover

Tier 3 — Zero/Low Yield (0-3% vulnerability rate)

Sector Vuln Rate Why
Car Dealerships 0% Enterprise CDK/Dealertrack platforms, not WordPress
Travel Agencies 0% SaaS (Sabre, Amadeus), not self-hosted
Banks/Credit Unions 0% GLBA regulated, mandatory security
Major Healthcare 0% HIPAA regulated, HITRUST certified
Home Services 0% Angi/Thumbtack platforms, not self-hosted

Skip these sectors unless you have specific intelligence suggesting WordPress usage.

Procedure

Step 1 — Sector Selection

OUTDIR="$OUTDIR/sectors"
mkdir -p "$OUTDIR"

echo "[*] Sector vulnerability potential assessment:"
echo ""

# Run quick sector probe: crt.sh → httpx → WP detection → user count
probe_sector() {
  local sector="$1"
  local file="$OUTDIR/${sector}_probe.txt"

  echo "[*] Probing sector: $sector"

  # Get domains from crt.sh
  curl -sk --max-time 20 --connect-timeout 10 "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.${sector}%25&output=json" 2>/dev/null | \
    jq -r '.[].name_value' 2>/dev/null | sed 's/\*\.//g' | sed 's/^www\.//' | \
    grep -E '^[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$' | sort -u | head -50 > "$OUTDIR/${sector}_domains.txt"

  # Option C: Manual known-company list (when crt.sh/subfinder time out)
  if [[ ! -s "$OUTDIR/${sector}_domains.txt" ]]; then
    echo "  crt.sh empty — using manual known-company list"
    # Generate known US companies in this sector
    # Example: for "vet" or "pet_care" sector, known chains include:
    cat > "$OUTDIR/${sector}_domains.txt" << 'EOF'
[VET_CLINIC]
[VET_CHAIN]
[PET_RETAILER]
[VET_CORPORATE]
[VET_HOSPITAL]
[VET_SPECIALIST]
[ANIMAL_CLINIC]
[VET_CLINIC]
[TRADE_PUBLICATION]
EOF
  fi

  local total=$(wc -l < "$OUTDIR/${sector}_domains.txt")
  echo "  Domains: $total"

  # Probe with httpx
  httpx -silent -l "$OUTDIR/${sector}_domains.txt" -threads 30 -status-code -tech-detect \
    -o "$OUTDIR/${sector}_alive.txt" 2>/dev/null

  local alive=$(wc -l < "$OUTDIR/${sector}_alive.txt")
  echo "  Live: $alive"

  # WordPress count
  local wp=$(grep -ci 'wordpress' "$OUTDIR/${sector}_alive.txt" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
  echo "  WordPress: $wp"

  # Quick user enumeration on WP targets
  local users=0
  grep -i 'wordpress' "$OUTDIR/${sector}_alive.txt" 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1}' | head -10 | while read -r url; do
    ucount=$(curl -sk --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "$url/wp-json/wp/v2/users" 2>/dev/null | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(len(d) if isinstance(d,list) else 0)" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
    [[ "$ucount" -gt 0 ]] && echo "    $url: $ucount users" >> "$OUTDIR/${sector}_users.txt"
  done

  local user_targets=$(wc -l < "$OUTDIR/${sector}_users.txt" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
  echo "  User leaks: $user_targets"

  # Score the sector
  echo "$sector | domains=$total | alive=$alive | wp=$wp | user_leaks=$user_targets" >> "$OUTDIR/sector_scores.txt"
}

# Probe top candidate sectors
for sector in "landscaping" "roofing" "hvac" "pools" "plumbing" "lawn-care" \
  "pest-control" "law-firm" "dentist" "gym" "real-estate" "auto-repair" \
  "moving-company" "photography" "cleaning-service" "church"; do
  probe_sector "$sector"
  sleep 3  # Rate limit
done

echo ""
echo "[*] Sector scores:"
sort -t'|' -k5 -rn "$OUTDIR/sector_scores.txt" 2>/dev/null | head -15

Step 2 — Target List Compilation

OUTDIR="$OUTDIR/sectors"

# For selected high-yield sectors, compile full target lists
SELECTED_SECTORS=("landscaping" "roofing" "pools" "plumbing" "pest-control" "law-firm")

echo "[*] Compiling target lists for selected sectors..."

> "$OUTDIR/all_targets.txt"

for sector in "${SELECTED_SECTORS[@]}"; do
  echo "  Sector: $sector"

  # crt.sh wildcard search
  curl -sk --max-time 20 --connect-timeout 10 "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.${sector}%25&output=json" 2>/dev/null | \
    jq -r '.[].name_value' 2>/dev/null | sed 's/\*\.//g' | sed 's/^www\.//' | \
    grep -E '^[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$' | sort -u > "$OUTDIR/${sector}_all.txt"

  # Also try subfinder
  subfinder -d "${sector}.com" -silent 2>/dev/null >> "$OUTDIR/${sector}_all.txt"

  # Add to master list with sector label
  while read -r domain; do
    echo "$domain|$sector" >> "$OUTDIR/all_targets.txt"
  done < "$OUTDIR/${sector}_all.txt"

  sleep 2
done

# Clean: remove CDN domains, parking pages, known false positives
echo "[*] Cleaning target list..."

# Remove common false positives
grep -viE 'cloudflare|akamai|fastly|awsdns|googleusercontent|azurewebsites' "$OUTDIR/all_targets.txt" | \
  sort -u > "$OUTDIR/all_targets_clean.txt"

total=$(wc -l < "$OUTDIR/all_targets_clean.txt")
echo "[+] $total clean targets across ${#SELECTED_SECTORS[@]} sectors"

Step 3 — Sector Baseline Statistics

After batch recon (using recon-playbook), compute per-sector stats:

OUTDIR="$OUTDIR/sectors"
FINDINGS_DIR="$OUTDIR/playbook/phase2_findings"

echo "[*] Computing sector statistics..."

# Extract sector from target list
declare -A SECTOR_WP
declare -A SECTOR_CORS
declare -A SECTOR_XMLRPC
declare -A SECTOR_LEAKS
declare -A SECTOR_TOTAL

# Read target list
while IFS='|' read -r domain sector; do
  [[ -z "$sector" ]] && continue
  ((SECTOR_TOTAL[$sector]++))

  findings_file="$FINDINGS_DIR/${domain}_p2.md"
  if [[ -f "$findings_file" ]]; then
    grep -q "WordPress:" "$findings_file" && ((SECTOR_WP[$sector]++))
    grep -q "CORS:" "$findings_file" && ((SECTOR_CORS[$sector]++))
    grep -q "XMLRPC:" "$findings_file" && ((SECTOR_XMLRPC[$sector]++))
    grep -q "Source leak:" "$findings_file" && ((SECTOR_LEAKS[$sector]++))
  fi
done < "$OUTDIR/all_targets_clean.txt"

# Print sector report
echo ""
echo "## Sector Vulnerability Report"
echo ""
echo "| Sector | Targets | WP | CORS | XMLRPC | Leaks | Rate |"
echo "|--------|---------|-----|------|--------|-------|------|"

for sector in "${!SECTOR_TOTAL[@]}"; do
  total=${SECTOR_TOTAL[$sector]}
  wp=${SECTOR_WP[$sector]:-0}
  cors=${SECTOR_CORS[$sector]:-0}
  xmlrpc=${SECTOR_XMLRPC[$sector]:-0}
  leaks=${SECTOR_LEAKS[$sector]:-0}
  vulns=$((cors + xmlrpc + leaks))
  rate=$(python3 -c "print(f'{$vulns/$total*100:.1f}%')" 2>/dev/null || echo "0%")

  echo "| $sector | $total | $wp | $cors | $xmlrpc | $leaks | $rate |"
done

Step 4 — Sector Recon Skill Template

When creating a new sector-specific recon skill, use this template:

---
name: recon-SECTORNAME
description: Reconnaissance workflow for SECTOR NAME companies.
version: 1.1.0
revision_date: 2026-07-25
license: MIT
platforms: [linux]
tags: [recon, sector, SECTORNAME]
category: recon
---

# SECTOR NAME Recon Skill

[2-3 sentence description of sector-specific attack surface]

## When to Use

- Targeting SECTOR NAME companies for recon.
- [Sector-specific trigger]

## Quick Reference

| Attack Surface | Expected Prevalence | Top Pattern |
|----------------|---------------------|-------------|
| WordPress | XX% | WP-01 |
| CORS | XX% | V1 |
| XMLRPC | XX% | WP-05 |
| Source leaks | XX% | P-17 |

## Attack Surface Signals

- [Sector-specific CMS/platform signals]
- [Common third-party integrations]
- [Typical infrastructure patterns]
- [PII/regulated data vectors]

## Sector-Specific Bypasses

- [WAF/CDN patterns for this sector]
- [Rate limiting characteristics]
- [Common security gaps]

## Real Examples

- [Target name]: [finding] (severity)
- [Target name]: [finding] (severity)

## Related Skills

- wp-mass-recon
- cors-credential-wordpress
- xmlrpc-exploitation
- source-leak-hunt

Pitfalls

  • Sector keyword overlap. pest control may return pest-control.example.com (the SaaS, not pest control companies). Filter by domain patterns typical of SMBs.
  • crt.sh noise from CDN/cloud. Domains like *.cloudfront.net or *.awsdns-*.org appear in sector crt.sh queries. Filter aggressively.
  • crt.sh / subfinder timeouts. Both tools frequently hang or return empty for low-traffic sectors or during high-demand windows. When they fail, fall back to manually compiling known US companies in the sector: use top-ranked national chains, franchise directories, and industry association member lists. Known-company lists are often more productive than sparse API results for long-tail sectors.
  • Sector saturation. After scanning 50+ targets per sector, you'll see the same patterns. Move to new sectors once the baseline is established.
  • Corporate vs. franchise. Some sectors (HVAC, pest control) have both corporate parent domains and individual franchise domains. The franchise domains are softer targets.

Verification

  • Sector vulnerability rates should be based on at least 20 scanned targets.
  • Every sector should have at least one WordPress detection, CORS finding, or source leak to be considered "productive."
  • Zero-yield sectors should be re-verified with a different methodology before being fully written off.
  • Sector reports should include: total targets, alive hosts, WP detected, vulnerabilities found, top patterns, and representative examples.