sandbox blocked the agent's scanner from reaching the internal target host

Not specified by the original author.

sandbox blocked the agent's scanner from reaching the internal target host

TL;DR

Sandboxes deny egress by default, so the scanner's connection to the internal target dies at the sandbox boundary. That is the sandbox doing its job. Add the specific target host and port to the sandbox's egress allowlist through the approved change path (nothing wider), verify DNS for the target resolves inside the sandbox, and re-run the scan.

sandbox blocked the agent's scanner from reaching the internal target host

Use this when

• An agent's scanner cannot reach an internal target from inside its sandbox
• The same scan works from outside the sandbox but fails inside it
• You see connection timeouts or DNS failures only in the sandboxed run
• You are setting up a new scan target for a sandboxed agent

Not for this skill when

• The target's own firewall blocks the scanner (that is a target-side rule, fix it there)
• You are choosing a scanner tool
• You are choosing a sandbox product

Steps

1. Prove the block is the sandbox: run a basic connection test to the target from inside the sandbox and from outside it.

   getent hosts target-host.example.com
   curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://target-host.example.com:8443/health

   Expected: it fails inside and works outside, which isolates the sandbox as the cause.

2. Check the sandbox's egress policy for an entry covering the target host and port. Expected: no entry found, confirming the allowlist gap.

3. Add the target host and port, and only that, to the egress allowlist through the approved change path. Expected: the entry is present and scoped to the one host and port.

4. Verify DNS for the target resolves inside the sandbox, then re-run the scan. Expected: the scan reaches the target and produces results.

Variant: agent sandbox cannot reach internal host

Same fix. Start with the DNS check: sandboxes often use a different resolver, and a DNS failure looks exactly like a blocked connection.

Variant: egress blocked scanner target host

If the policy change needs approval, file it with the scan window attached; approvers move faster when the exception has an expiry.

Variant: sandbox network policy blocked security scan

For Kubernetes-style sandboxes, the fix is a network policy egress rule to the target's IP and port; for VM sandboxes it is the security group or firewall rule. Same principle, different control.

Why this happens

Deny-by-default egress is the point of a sandbox: the agent cannot reach anything it was not explicitly allowed to reach. Scanners need explicit network exceptions for internal targets, and the scan was scheduled before the exception existed.

Edge cases and pitfalls

• Allowlist the specific port, not all ports; a host-wide opening defeats the sandbox.
• DNS inside the sandbox may resolve differently; verify with the in-sandbox resolver, not your laptop.
• The target may also need to allowlist the sandbox's egress IP; the path has two ends.
• Time-box the exception to the scan window and remove it after; a permanent hole for a one-off scan is how sandboxes rot.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_9UQjvfnVGLGclHaIxFFVUA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_9UQjvfnVGLGclHaIxFFVUA

Thread query: sandbox blocked the agent's scanner from reaching the internal target host

TL;DR: Sandboxes deny egress by default, so the scanner's connection to the internal target dies at the sandbox boundary. That is the sandbox doing its job. Add the specific target host and port to the sandbox's egress allowlist through the approved change path (nothing wider), verify DNS for the target resolves inside the sandbox, and re-run the scan.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Fix this in Shodan enrichment by acting on the exact message first: confirm the address being queried is the public address Shodan scans (not the translated internal one), query Shodan for that public address, and cross-check one host against an internal scan before trusting an empty result. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

Shodan enrichment failed error no open ports data for known exposed host

Use this when

• The operation in Shodan enrichment fails with this exact message: Shodan enrichment failed error no open ports data for known exposed host.
• The same failure repeats on retry with unchanged inputs.
• A review, export or check is blocked until this item completes.

Not for this skill when

• The message is a permission or outage notice from the platform. Resolve that first, then return here if this error remains.
• The operation completes and you only disagree with its output. That is a quality review, not this failure.

Steps

1. Reproduce the failure with the smallest scope that still shows it in Shodan enrichment, and copy the full message plus the alert, incident or enrichment record involved into the run notes. Verify: the error is reproduced on demand with a named item, not only seen in a log.
2. Apply the specific fix for this error: confirm the address being queried is the public address Shodan scans (not the translated internal one), query Shodan for that public address, and cross-check one host against an internal scan before trusting an empty result. Verify: the known exposed host returns its open ports from Shodan for the corrected address.
3. Check the neighbouring items that share the same config, template, feed or credential, because this class of failure rarely affects only one item. Verify: the neighbouring items are listed and each is marked affected or clear.
4. Compare the result counts, decisions or alerts against the source in Shodan enrichment so a silent partial success is caught before sign off. Verify: counts match the source or every difference is named and explained.
5. Rerun the original operation in Shodan enrichment on the previously failing scope, watching for the same message rather than assuming success from a quiet log. Verify: the operation completes and the original message does not appear.
6. Record the fix, the triggering input and the verification result on the item so the next occurrence is recognised immediately. Verify: the record names the error, the fix applied and the evidence of success.

Why it happens

Shodan holds scan results for public addresses, so querying a NAT-translated or stale address returns an empty record for a host that is exposed under another address.

Variant phrasings

Shodan enrichment failed error no open ports data for known exposed host

The verbatim form searchers paste from the terminal or console. Treat it identically: same fix, same single item proof, then the full rerun.

How to fix: Shodan enrichment failed error no open ports data for known exposed host failure

The how-to phrasing for the same failure in Shodan enrichment. The steps above apply unchanged; start at the reproduction step rather than skipping to the rerun.

Shodan enrichment troubleshooting for this failure

The symptom-first phrasing used when the console hides the full message. Surface the full message first, confirm it matches the code block above, then follow the steps.

Compatibility: Shodan enrichment at current versions, plus the platform API or console the query names; no extra tooling beyond a text editor and the source system access needed to verify counts.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_S5rb-y3-nJSZV8sUHgpt2Q

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_S5rb-y3-nJSZV8sUHgpt2Q

Thread query: Shodan enrichment failed error no open ports data for known exposed host failure

TL;DR: Fix this in Shodan enrichment by acting on the exact message first: confirm the address being queried is the public address Shodan scans (not the translated internal one), query Shodan for that public address, and cross-check one host against an internal scan before trusting an empty result. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

When the VPN session dies mid-scan, the agent's traffic either fails or, worse, routes outside the tunnel, so every result after the drop is untrustworthy. Detect the drop (tunnel interface down or route lost), stop the scan immediately, reconnect the VPN, verify with a probe to a scoped host, and resume from the checkpoint. Never let scan traffic flow untunneled.

agent VPN session expired mid-authorized-scan and the agent failed to reconnect

Use this when

• Scan results stop mid-run on an engagement that requires VPN access.
• The agent reports hosts as down that were reachable an hour earlier.
• You run long scans from a tester workstation through an engagement VPN.

Not for this skill when

• The VPN was never up. That is a setup problem; connect before launching.
• The target is internet-facing and needs no VPN. Then a drop is a network issue, not a tunnel issue.
• The range is outside your authorized engagement. Do not scan it at all.

Steps

1. Confirm the tunnel state: check that the VPN interface exists and that the route to the target range points through it. Verify: you can state whether the tunnel is up or down right now.
2. If the tunnel is down, stop the scan immediately. Do not let it continue "to see what happens"; post-drop results are false negatives at best. Verify: no scanner process is still sending packets.
3. Reconnect using the engagement's VPN procedure (not a personal VPN, not a different endpoint). Verify: the tunnel interface is back and the route is correct.
4. Probe one known-live scoped host through the tunnel before resuming. Verify: the probe succeeds, proving traffic flows through the tunnel again.
5. Resume the scan from the checkpoint, and mark the gap window in the engagement log. Verify: results from the gap window are excluded from findings.

Variant phrasings

vpn drops during pentest scan

Common phrasing.

scan traffic routing outside tunnel after vpn disconnect

The dangerous variant.

agent reconnect vpn mid scan

Agent-workflow phrasing.

Compatibility: any tunnel-based engagement access. The stop-on-drop rule is tool-agnostic.

Why it happens

VPN sessions expire on timers or idle timeouts, and agents have no tunnel awareness: they see "host down" and keep hammering. The scan tool retries through the default route, which either fails (false negatives) or exits the tunnel entirely (scope and safety problem).

Edge cases / pitfalls

• A kill switch (block all traffic when the tunnel drops) turns this whole failure into a safe stop. Use one if the engagement setup allows it.
• Reconnecting to a different VPN endpoint can change your source address and invalidate session-bound scan state. Reconnect to the same endpoint when possible.
• Log the drop and reconnect with timestamps. The gap window matters for report accuracy.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_YH3UN749wExOVWZCcF8Y7w

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_YH3UN749wExOVWZCcF8Y7w

Thread query: agent VPN session expired mid-authorized-scan and the agent failed to reconnect

TL;DR: When the VPN session dies mid-scan, the agent's traffic either fails or, worse, routes outside the tunnel, so every result after the drop is untrustworthy. Detect the drop (tunnel interface down or route lost), stop the scan immediately, reconnect the VPN, verify with a probe to a scoped host, and resume from the checkpoint. Never let scan traffic flow untunneled.