Best Practices for Enhancing Attack Surface Management and Accelerating Vulnerability Response

Attack Surface Management (ASM) has become a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity. As enterprises expand across on-premise systems, cloud services, and third-party platforms, their external attack surface grows continuously. The mission of ASM is to maintain visibility into exposed assets, reduce blind spots, and respond swiftly to newly discovered risks. Rapid vulnerability response is tightly aligned with ASM: knowing exactly which internet-facing systems are vulnerable allows teams to prioritize remediation and protect business operations.

This article introduces several best practices for ASM and rapid vulnerability response, using Shodan and ZoomEye as practical examples. These two platforms highlight how cybersecurity search engines can be applied effectively in real-world scenarios.

Cybersecurity search engine platforms are among the most powerful tools for this task. They continuously discover and analyze exposed assets across the Internet, offering organizations data support from tactical monitoring to strategic risk management. For security service providers, these platforms are critical to delivering higher-value protection and actionable insights.

Key Value These Platforms Deliver:

• Strengthen Attack Surface Management: Detect and control exposed internet assets in real time, enabling proactive risk mitigation.
• Accelerate Vulnerability Response: Rapidly quantify affected assets during emerging vulnerabilities, ensuring critical issues are prioritized and remediated.

ASM Scenarios

Monitoring exposed remote access services Example: Track RDP endpoints tied to Microsoft organization.

• Shodan best practice: port:3389 org:"microsoft"
• ZoomEye best practice: port="3389" && org="microsoft"

Monitoring exposed directory listings Example: Detect misconfigured servers where files and sensitive data may be browsed directly.

• Shodan best practice: http.title:"Index of /" org:"microsoft"
• ZoomEye best practice: title="Index of /" && org="microsoft"

Rapid Vulnerability Response Scenarios

Identifying assets exposed to CVE-2025-53770. Example: Discover Microsoft-related assets vulnerable to this CVE, enabling teams to quickly quantify risk, prioritize remediation, and contain potential exploitation.

• Shodan best practice: "MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices" org:"microsoft"
• ZoomEye best practice: vul.cve="CVE-2025-53770" && org="microsoft"

Identifying assets exposed to CVE-2025-47812. Example: Locate Microsoft-related assets vulnerable to this CVE.

• Shodan best practice: "Wing FTP Server" org:"microsoft"
• ZoomEye best practice: vul.cve="CVE-2025-47812" && org="microsoft"

Conclusion

Cybersecurity search engine platforms are indispensable for organizations seeking to strengthen Attack Surface Management and accelerate vulnerability response. Shodan excels in quick discovery and broad monitoring, while ZoomEye delivers richer and more granular filters—covering certificates, CVEs, hashes, bug bounty tags, and time-based queries.

By combining both platforms, security teams gain continuous visibility into their attack surface, respond faster to emerging vulnerabilities, and deliver greater value to stakeholders. This dual-platform approach reduces exposure, enhances resilience, and keeps defenses aligned with the ever-changing digital threat landscape.