Agent skill

Vhost Enumeration

by uphiago in uphiago/recon-skills

Discover hidden virtual hosts via Host header fuzzing and SSL certificate parsing.

MITAuto-check: notesSecurity

Install Vhost Enumeration

skills CLI
$ npx skills add uphiago/recon-skills --skill vhost-enumeration -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install uphiago/recon-skills vhost-enumeration --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/uphiago/recon-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/recon/vhost-enumeration .claude/skills/vhost-enumeration && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
vhost-enumeration
GitHub stars
1.3k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
331 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
23
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Discover hidden virtual hosts via Host header fuzzing and SSL certificate parsing.

  • Works in 6 steps: Host Header Fuzzing → Response Filtering → Accessing VHOST Targets → …
  • Tasks that involve Fuzzing
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, Prerequisites, Quick Detection and Procedure, plus 3 more sections
  • Calls openssl and curl

What it does

Vhost Enumeration is an agent skill from uphiago/recon-skills. Discover hidden virtual hosts via Host header fuzzing and SSL certificate parsing.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts. Compatibility notes: Requires curl, ffuf, dnsx

It sits in Security, covering Fuzzing and Cloud networking. The repository describes itself as: Recon & pentest skill pack. CORS, XSS, SQLi, SSRF, RCE, WordPress, MCP, cloud, subdomain takeover, and more. Field-tested. MIT. Full write-up at hiago.sh. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Fuzzing
  • Tasks that involve Cloud networking

Example prompts

  • “/vhost-enumeration”

Requirements

  • Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires curl, ffuf, dnsx

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Host Header Fuzzing
  2. Response Filtering
  3. Accessing VHOST Targets
  4. SSL Certificate SAN Enumeration
  5. PTR Reverse DNS on IP Ranges
  6. Content Differencing

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1260244. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • openssl
    • curl

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use curl, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

  • Compatibility

    Requires curl, ffuf, dnsx

    From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Vhost Enumeration loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 25 tokens; SKILL.md has 331 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~25
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:96
    internal.target.com admin.target.com" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from uphiago/recon-skills at commit 1260244, republished under its MIT licence (© uphiago). 331 words, ~1,417 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/vhost-enumeration/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
vhost-enumeration
description
Discover hidden virtual hosts via Host header fuzzing and SSL certificate parsing.
compatibility
Requires curl, ffuf, dnsx
version
1.1.0
revision_date
2026-07-25
license
MIT
platforms
linux
tags
recon, vhost, virtual-host, Host-header, fuzzing, SSL, PTR
category
recon
related_skills
subdomain-enumeration, origin-ip-discovery, web-enumeration

Virtual Host Enumeration

Discover hidden virtual hosts on IP addresses by fuzzing the Host header. Many servers only respond to specific domain names and remain invisible to standard subdomain enumeration. VHOST fuzzing exposes internal services, development environments, and admin panels that share the same IP but answer to different hostnames.

When to Use

  • You have a list of target IPs from skill_view(name='origin-ip-discovery') or skill_view(name='port-service-discovery').
  • A server returns default/blank pages for unknown Host headers.
  • Subdomain enumeration may have missed internal-only hostnames.
  • SSL certificates on an IP list multiple domain names in the SAN field.
  • You need to map internal services behind a reverse proxy.

Prerequisites

  • terminal with curl, ffuf, dnsx, and httpx.
  • A DNS wordlist for hostname fuzzing.
  • A list of target IP addresses.

Quick Detection

bash
# Basic VHOST fuzz on a single IP
ffuf -u http://TARGET_IP \
  -w /path/to/wordlist.txt \
  -H "Host: FUZZ.target.com" \
  -fs 0 -mc 200,301,302,401,403

Procedure

Phase 1 — Host Header Fuzzing
bash
# Fuzz for virtual hosts matching the target domain pattern
ffuf -u http://TARGET_IP \
  -w $DNS_WORDLIST \
  -H "Host: FUZZ.target.com" \
  -fs DEFAULT_RESPONSE_SIZE \
  -mc 200,301,302,401,403 \
  -o vhost_ffuf.json

# HTTPS variant
ffuf -u https://target.com \
  -w $DNS_WORDLIST \
  -H "Host: FUZZ.target.com" \
  -mc 200,301,302,401,403

# Fuzz multiple IPs with a wordlist
cat unique_ips.txt | while read ip; do
  ffuf -u "http://$ip" \
    -w $DNS_WORDLIST \
    -H "Host: FUZZ.target.com" \
    -fs 0 -mc 200,301,302 -o "vhost_$ip.json"
  sleep 0.5
done
Phase 2 — Response Filtering
bash
# Auto-calibrate: ffuf detects default response size and filters it out
ffuf -u http://TARGET_IP \
  -w $DNS_WORDLIST \
  -H "Host: FUZZ.target.com" \
  -ac -sf -s \
  -mc 200

# Manual calibration: find the default response size first
curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -s http://TARGET_IP -H "Host: nonexistentxxxxx12345.target.com" | wc -c
# Use that size as -fs filter
Phase 3 — Accessing VHOST Targets
bash
# Method 1 — direct curl with Host header
curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -H "Host: dev.target.com" http://TARGET_IP

# Method 2 — /etc/hosts injection for browser access
echo "TARGET_IP  dev.target.com internal.target.com admin.target.com" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
# Then open http://dev.target.com in browser

# Method 3 — httpx with custom host resolution
echo "http://dev.target.com" | httpx -silent
Phase 4 — SSL Certificate SAN Enumeration
bash
# Extract hostnames from SSL certificate
echo | openssl s_client -connect TARGET_IP:443 -servername target.com 2>/dev/null \
  | openssl x509 -noout -text \
  | grep -Eo 'DNS:[^,\s]+' | cut -d: -f2 | sort -u

# Batch: extract hostnames from all discovered IPs
cat unique_ips.txt | while read ip; do
  echo | timeout 5 openssl s_client -connect $ip:443 2>/dev/null \
    | openssl x509 -noout -text 2>/dev/null \
    | grep -Eo 'DNS:[^,\s]+' | cut -d: -f2 | sort -u >> ssl_hostnames.txt
  sleep 0.5
done

# Check which of those hostnames resolve to the target
cat ssl_hostnames.txt | dnsx -silent -a -resp-only | sort -u
Phase 5 — PTR Reverse DNS on IP Ranges
bash
# If you have IP ranges, resolve PTR records to find hostnames
echo "10.0.0.0/23" | dnsx -silent -resp-only -ptr

# Batch on multiple CIDR ranges
cat cidr_ranges.txt | mapcidr -silent | dnsx -ptr -resp-only -silent > ptr_domains.txt
Phase 6 — Content Differencing
bash
# For each found VHOST, take a screenshot for visual triage
cat found_vhosts.txt | gowitness file -f - --no-http -P ./vhost_screenshots/

# Compare content across hosts — different content = different service
for host in $(cat found_vhosts.txt); do
  curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk "http://TARGET_IP" -H "Host: $host" | md5sum
  sleep 0.3
done | sort

Pitfalls

  • Wildcard DNS returns valid HTTP for any Host header. Use auto-calibration (-ac) and verify manually.
  • The default virtual host may return a generic page for unknown names. Calibrate -fs with a known-nonexistent hostname.
  • SSL/TLS prevents content comparison without SNI. Use openssl s_client -servername for each hostname.
  • Some servers accept any Host header. This produces false positives — verify each finding with manual curl.
  • Internal-only services may not be accessible from your IP. They may require internal network access.

Verification

  1. ffuf returns a status code and response size different from the calibrated default.
  2. Manual curl with the discovered Host header returns meaningful content (not the default page).
  3. The discovered hostname is not in the public subdomain list (previously unknown).
  4. SSL certificate SAN field confirms the hostname belongs on this server.
  5. Take a screenshot and confirm it's a distinct application or service.
  • subdomain-enumeration — Generate the DNS wordlist and existing subdomains.
  • origin-ip-discovery — Find the origin IPs that need VHOST scanning.
  • web-enumeration — Once VHOSTs are found, fuzz directories and endpoints.

© uphiago, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in recon/vhost-enumeration of uphiago/recon-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1260244

Compare with similar skills

Vhost Enumeration next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Vhost Enumeration compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Vhost Enumeration this skilluphiago/recon-skills1.3k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Fizzpashov/skills1.2k2 repos~11kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Fizz Syncpashov/skills1.2k2 repos~3.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Research FuzzerARA-Labs/Agent-Native-Research-Artifact692—~2.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Vuln Researchtanweai/xianzhi-research185—~847Automated safety check: PassNone
Binary Reverse Engineering Audittihanyin/REx-skill107—~5.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Vhost Enumeration

What does Vhost Enumeration do?

Discover hidden virtual hosts via Host header fuzzing and SSL certificate parsing. Vhost Enumeration is an agent skill from uphiago/recon-skills. Discover hidden virtual hosts via Host header fuzzing and SSL certificate parsing.

When should I use Vhost Enumeration?

Vhost Enumeration fits situations like: tasks that involve Fuzzing; tasks that involve Cloud networking.

How do I install Vhost Enumeration in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add uphiago/recon-skills --skill vhost-enumeration -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (recon/vhost-enumeration in uphiago/recon-skills) into .claude/skills/vhost-enumeration in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Vhost Enumeration in Codex?

Run `npx skills add uphiago/recon-skills --skill vhost-enumeration -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (recon/vhost-enumeration in uphiago/recon-skills) into .agents/skills/vhost-enumeration in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Vhost Enumeration in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add uphiago/recon-skills --skill vhost-enumeration -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/vhost-enumeration, .gemini/skills/vhost-enumeration, .github/skills/vhost-enumeration and .opencode/skills/vhost-enumeration in your project.

What does Vhost Enumeration need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Vhost Enumeration needs the command-line tools its instructions call (openssl and curl). Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires curl, ffuf, dnsx.

Does Vhost Enumeration access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use curl, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Vhost Enumeration safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (runs commands with sudo), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Vhost Enumeration use?

Vhost Enumeration is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Vhost Enumeration use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Vhost Enumeration?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Vhost Enumeration: Fizz (pashov/skills, 1.2k stars), Fizz Sync (pashov/skills, 1.2k stars), Research Fuzzer (ARA-Labs/Agent-Native-Research-Artifact, 692 stars) and Vuln Research (tanweai/xianzhi-research, 185 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Vhost Enumeration?

uphiago (a GitHub user) maintains it in uphiago/recon-skills, which has 1,294 GitHub stars. The repository holds 23 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 1, 2026.

Source: uphiago/recon-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.