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Software Engineering vocabulary · APIs, Networking and Security

Reconnaissance

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/rɪˈkɑːnɪsəns/nounCommon term

In software engineering, reconnaissance means: The first stage of an attack or security test, in which information about the target is gathered, such as domain names, staff, technologies and exposed services.

In Turkish: keşif, bilgi toplama

How it is used

Usually shortened to 'recon'. Passive reconnaissance uses public sources (OSINT) without touching the target, while active reconnaissance interacts with it. Pentest reports often begin with a recon section.

Example sentences

  1. During reconnaissance, the testers found an old staging site on a forgotten subdomain.

  2. Our threat model assumes that attackers start with reconnaissance on social media.

Common collocations

  • passive reconnaissance
  • active reconnaissance
  • OSINT
  • recon phase
  • penetration testAn authorised, simulated attack on a system, application or network, carried out by security specialists to find weaknesses before real attackers do.
  • attack surfaceAll the points where an attacker could try to get into a system or organisation or take data out, such as open ports, web apps, user accounts and suppliers.
  • open portA network port on a device that is accepting connections, which means a service is listening there and can be reached by others.
  • social engineeringManipulating people, rather than breaking technology, to make them reveal information, give access or take an action that helps an attacker.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: APIs, Networking and Security

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