recon

recon is a cursor rule for Claude Code, Cursor from briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills. It costs 71 tokens per session (991 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A structured way to map the systems and entry points of a target during an authorized penetration test, capture-the-flag challenge, or bug bounty program. It includes activities such as domain, subdomain, port, and technology discovery.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to discover domains, subdomains, network services, technologies, and other reachable assets within an approved testing scope.
Why use it?
Security testing is easier when you know what is exposed and which assets belong to the target. It organizes scattered findings into an attack-surface map for the next testing stage.

Cursor rule for Claude CodeCursor

Written for Claude Code and Cursor: $ARGUMENTS substitution, but also a Cursor rule (.mdc).

Good fit Use it to discover domains, subdomains, network services, technologies, and other reachable assets within an approved testing scope.

Compare 6 cursor rules from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Cursor.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for recon

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for recon

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills/recon.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 71 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 991 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00071 $0.00991
Opus 5 $0.00036 $0.00495
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00198
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00099

Measured 10d ago against content hash 56f92934a568, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

recon scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.$ARGUMENTS&output=json" | jq -r '.[].name_value' | sort -u
adapters/cursor/recon.mdc · 113 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 113 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Recon — Penetration Testing Reconnaissance

Perform structured reconnaissance against an authorized target, organizing findings into an actionable attack surface map.

Cross-references: osint-recon for the deeper open-source-intelligence pass (people, organizations, historical data) — this skill is the active/passive target-mapping side, osint-recon is the broader investigative side; they pair naturally. web-pentest for the next stage once recon has produced an attack surface map and an authorized target list. owasp-audit for source-code review when you have access to the target's code.

Authorization Check

Before running any commands, confirm:

  1. The user has written authorization for the target (pentest engagement, bug bounty program, CTF/lab environment)
  2. The target is within the defined scope

If authorization is unclear, ask before proceeding. Never assume authorization.

Methodology

Phase 1: Passive Recon

Gather information without touching the target directly.

DNS enumeration:

  • Run dig any $ARGUMENTS for A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, CNAME records
  • Attempt zone transfer: dig axfr @ns-server $ARGUMENTS
  • Enumerate subdomains via certificate transparency:
    curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.$ARGUMENTS&output=json" | jq -r '.[].name_value' | sort -u
    

WHOIS and registration: Run whois $ARGUMENTS for registrant, nameserver, and creation date info.

Search engine dorking: Use targeted queries — site:, inurl:, filetype:, intitle: — to find exposed pages, documents, and admin panels.

Technology fingerprinting: Identify frameworks, CMS, server software, and JavaScript libraries from public-facing pages.

Public code repositories: Search GitHub/GitLab for the target's org name, domain, API keys, or internal paths.

Historical data: Check the Wayback Machine for old endpoints, removed pages, and configuration files.

Phase 2: Active Recon (explicit authorization only)

Port scanning:

nmap -sC -sV -oN scan-results.txt $ARGUMENTS

Start with top 1000 ports. Expand to full range (-p-) if needed. Use -Pn if the host appears down but is in scope.

Read the full file on GitHub · 113 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 113 lines · 71 tokens per session scan A 56f92934a568

Subscribe to this mod's changes

recon is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills (384 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 71 tokens to every session and 991 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.