Shannon: The AI Security Hacker That Achieved 96.15% Success Rate

Meet Shannon, the fully autonomous AI hacker that's revolutionizing cybersecurity testing. With over 23,000 GitHub stars and an unprecedented 96.15% success rate on the XBOW Benchmark, Shannon represents a paradigm shift in penetration testing.

Unlike traditional security scanners, Shannon delivers actual exploits, not just alerts, following a strict "No Exploit, No Report" policy to eliminate false positives.

🎯 What Makes Shannon Revolutionary?

• Fully Autonomous Operation: Single command launch with zero human intervention
• 96.15% Success Rate: Industry-leading accuracy on hint-free, source-aware benchmarks
• Real Exploits Only: Delivers reproducible proof-of-concepts, not false positives
• Code-Aware Testing: Combines white-box analysis with black-box exploitation
• Advanced 2FA Support: Handles TOTP, Google Sign-In, and complex authentication flows

🏗️ How Shannon Works: 4-Phase Architecture

Phase 1: Reconnaissance

Shannon builds a comprehensive attack surface map using integrated tools like Nmap, Subfinder, and WhatWeb, while analyzing source code and performing live application exploration.

Phase 2: Vulnerability Analysis (Parallel)

Specialized agents hunt for vulnerabilities across OWASP categories simultaneously, performing structured data flow analysis to identify exploitable paths.

Phase 3: Exploitation (Parallel)

Dedicated exploit agents validate hypotheses through real-world attacks using browser automation and command-line tools. No successful exploit = no report.

Phase 4: Reporting

Professional reports containing only verified vulnerabilities with copy-and-paste proof-of-concepts.

🚀 Quick Start Guide

Prerequisites

• Docker - Install Docker
• Anthropic API Key - Get from Anthropic Console

Installation & Setup

# 1. Clone Shannon
git clone https://github.com/KeygraphHQ/shannon.git
cd shannon

# 2. Configure credentials
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS=64000

# 3. Prepare target repository
git clone https://github.com/your-org/your-repo.git ./repos/your-repo

# 4. Run pentest
./shannon start URL=https://your-app.com REPO=your-repo

📊 Proven Results: Real-World Performance

🧃 OWASP Juice Shop

• 20+ critical vulnerabilities in single run
• Complete authentication bypass + database exfiltration
• Full privilege escalation via registration bypass
• IDOR exploitation for unauthorized access

🔗 c{api}tal API

• 15 critical vulnerabilities leading to full compromise
• Root-level injection via command chaining
• Authentication bypass through legacy endpoints
• Mass assignment privilege escalation

🚗 OWASP crAPI

• 15+ critical vulnerabilities with full compromise
• Advanced JWT attacks (Algorithm Confusion, alg:none)
• Database compromise via injection
• Critical SSRF with token forwarding

⚙️ Advanced Configuration

Authentication Setup

# Create config file
cp configs/example-config.yaml configs/my-app.yaml

Example configuration:

authentication:
  login_type: form
  login_url: "https://your-app.com/login"
  credentials:
    username: "test@example.com"
    password: "yourpassword"
    totp_secret: "LB2E2RX7XFHSTGCK"  # For 2FA

  login_flow:
    - "Type $username into the email field"
    - "Type $password into the password field"
    - "Click the 'Sign In' button"

  success_condition:
    type: url_contains
    value: "/dashboard"

Workspace Management

# Named workspace for easy resuming
./shannon start URL=https://example.com REPO=repo-name WORKSPACE=my-audit

# Resume interrupted run
./shannon start URL=https://example.com REPO=repo-name WORKSPACE=my-audit

# List all workspaces
./shannon workspaces

📈 Monitoring & Management

# Real-time logs
./shannon logs

# Progress monitoring
./shannon query ID=shannon-1234567890

# Web UI monitoring
open http://localhost:8233

# Stop Shannon
./shannon stop

# Full cleanup
./shannon stop CLEAN=true

🎯 Vulnerability Coverage

Shannon targets critical OWASP categories:

• Broken Authentication & Authorization
  • JWT attacks, session flaws, privilege escalation, IDOR
• Injection Attacks
  • SQL, Command, NoSQL, LDAP injection
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
  • Reflected, Stored, DOM-based XSS
• Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
  • Internal reconnaissance, cloud metadata access

⚠️ Important Security Considerations

Critical Warning: Never run Shannon on production environments. Shannon actively executes attacks and can:

• Create/modify/delete data
• Compromise test accounts
• Trigger unintended side effects

Legal Requirements: Only use Shannon on systems you own or have explicit written authorization to test.

💡 Performance & Cost

• Runtime: 1-1.5 hours for full test
• Cost: ~$50 USD using Claude 4.5 Sonnet
• Parallel processing: Faster results through concurrent analysis

🚀 Hands-On Example: Testing OWASP Juice Shop

# Set up test environment
git clone https://github.com/juice-shop/juice-shop.git ./repos/juice-shop

# Start Juice Shop (separate terminal)
cd ./repos/juice-shop
npm install && npm start

# Run Shannon against local instance
./shannon start URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000 REPO=juice-shop WORKSPACE=juice-test

# Monitor progress
./shannon logs

Results will be saved to audit-logs/juice-test/deliverables/comprehensive_security_assessment_report.md

🔮 The Future of Security Testing

Shannon's 96.15% success rate represents a fundamental shift toward:

• Democratized Security: Professional pentesting for every team
• Continuous Validation: Security testing with every commit
• Zero False Positives: Only exploitable vulnerabilities reported
• Scaled Expertise: AI-powered security analysis at scale

Shannon Pro

For enterprises, Shannon Pro offers advanced data flow analysis, CI/CD integration, and dedicated support.

🎯 Conclusion

Shannon's revolutionary approach combines autonomous operation with human-level accuracy, delivering what security teams need most: actionable, verified vulnerabilities with zero false positives.

With over 23,000 GitHub stars and proven results against industry-standard applications, Shannon is transforming how we approach application security. Every development team can now have their own AI-powered security expert working 24/7.

Ready to revolutionize your security testing? Get started with Shannon today:

git clone https://github.com/KeygraphHQ/shannon.git

For more expert insights and tutorials on AI and automation, visit us at decisioncrafters.com.