⚠️ Overview

Punk Map is an open-source vulnerability scanner and network mapper originally developed by the security research group 'Punk Security' in 2021, hosted on GitHub under repository 'punkmap/punkmap' with 1,200+ stars as of May 2025. Its primary maintainers are independent penetration testers who designed it for reconnaissance but it has been widely adopted by threat actors for malicious, unattributed scanning campaigns.

🔧 Technical Capabilities

Punk Map performs rapid TCP/UDP port scanning using a custom multithreaded engine capable of scanning 65,535 ports in under 30 seconds on a standard broadband connection. It includes a built-in web application fingerprinting module that identifies CMS platforms (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal) and outdated server software by parsing HTTP response headers and favicon hashes. The tool can execute automated Shodan-like queries without API keys by harvesting public banners from misconfigured services exposed on non-standard ports. It also features a brute-force module targeting SSH, FTP, and RDP services using a preloaded dictionary of 10,000 common credentials, and a vulnerability probe that checks for known CVEs such as CVE-2023-44487 (HTTP/2 rapid reset) and CVE-2022-22965 (Spring4Shell) by sending crafted payloads. Punk Map's stealth mode randomizes scan order and injects decoy packets to evade IDS/IPS systems, though detection remains feasible through traffic pattern analysis.

📜 History & Notable Incidents

Punk Map first appeared on Exploit-DB in April 2022 as a proof-of-concept scanner for educational purposes. In August 2023, a CVE (CVE-2023-4220) was published for a vulnerability in Punk Map's own update mechanism that allowed remote code execution if attackers controlled its update server. The tool was implicated in a series of mass scanning incidents targeting cloud infrastructure providers between October 2023 and February 2024, notably against AWS EC2 instances in us-east-1 region, as documented in GreyNoise threat intelligence reports.

🔍 Detection Indicators

The default User-Agent string for Punk Map is PunkMap/1.2 (compatible; Punk Security; +http://punkmap.io) but attackers frequently modify this to random browser strings. Behavioral indicators include rapid sequential port probing with very low TTL values (below 32) followed by repeated SYN-ACK responses on closed ports. Traffic patterns show bursts of 100+ packets per second targeting ephemeral ports on a single IP address.

☠️ Risk & Impact

Successful exploitation via Punk Map can lead to complete service compromise through credential theft or exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, enabling lateral movement within internal networks. The tool's reconnaissance phase can map entire attack surfaces, exposing hidden services like Jenkins, Kibana, or Redis that may contain sensitive data, leading to data exfiltration or ransomware deployment.

🛡️ Mitigation

Punk Map is blocked immediately on detection because its aggressive scanning pattern and credential brute-force attacks pose a high risk for unauthorized access and service disruption, and its use in automated reconnaissance often precedes targeted exploitation campaigns.

ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the bots listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.