The Shadowspotter query language

Shadowspotter uses a domain-specific query language called ShadowLang. The syntax is intentionally close to VirusTotal's query language and to Kibana's KQL, so if you are familiar with either you should feel at home. The same syntax is used in the search bar and when defining a detection.

Anatomy of a query

A query is a sequence of field:value conditions, optionally scoped to an entity:

entity:whois registrar:*NameCheap* creation_date:2024-01-01+

You can omit entity: entirely — Shadowspotter infers the entity from the fields you use:

registrar:*NameCheap* creation_date:2024-01-01+

Syntax rules

Field and value are separated by a colon — field:value.
AND is implicit. Two adjacent conditions are combined with AND. Write OR explicitly when you need it.
NOT negates the condition that immediately follows. To negate a group, wrap it in parentheses: NOT (a:1 OR b:2).
Wildcards — * matches any string. It can appear at the beginning or end of a value (e.g. domain:*.example.com or title:'Login*'). Wildcards in the middle of a word are not supported.
Quoting — values containing spaces or punctuation must be quoted with single or double quotes: registrar:'NameCheap, Inc.'.
Ranges — for numeric and date fields, append + for "greater or equal" and - for "less or equal". Examples: creation_date:2024-01-01+, port:443-.
Dates — YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
Regular expressions — prefix the value with ~ to match using a regex: title:~'^Login( page)?$'.
Multi-entity queries — to combine fields from different entities, wrap each entity block in parentheses:
```
(entity:whois registrar:'NameCheap, Inc.' domain:shadow*) AND (entity:dns ns_record:*.dreamhost.com.)
```
Multi-entity queries require a paid subscription.

Search time range

For WHOIS searches, the time picker (and the API's start_date/end_date) limits observation history in both simple and advanced search. Records are included when their first-seen/last-seen interval overlaps the selected window, regardless of when the domain was registered. This applies equally to exact domains, wildcards, registrars, and other WHOIS filters. Results reflect recorded observations, not a live check of whether a domain is still registered.

To search by registration age, use an explicit creation_date condition in advanced search. For example, entity:whois domain:*.com creation_date:2026-09-01+ finds domains registered on or after September 1, 2026 whose WHOIS observations overlap the selected window. The observation history available still depends on your subscription.

Entities

Every query targets one of these entities. If you do not write entity: explicitly, Shadowspotter picks one based on the fields used.

Entity	What it contains
`domain`	Aggregated view of every domain seen across the data sources, with first/last seen timestamps.
`whois`	Domain registration records: registrar, registrant, dates, contacts, name servers.
`dns`	DNS records of all common types (A, AAAA, MX, NS, CNAME, TXT, CAA, SOA, DNAME) and their TTLs.
`cert`	TLS certificates from Certificate Transparency logs and active scanning.
`http`	HTTP responses including headers, meta tags, title, JARM fingerprint and content hashes.

Fields by entity

Domain

Field	Notes
`domain`	The domain name. Wildcards supported.
`fuzzy_domain`	Find domains similar to the value (n-gram + Jaro-Winkler). Paid plans only.
`tag`	Match a tag attached to the domain. Paid plans only.

WHOIS

Field	Notes
`domain`	Domain name.
`creation_date`, `updated_date`, `expired_date`	Registration dates. Use `+`/`-` for ranges.
`statuses`	EPP statuses (e.g. `clientHold`).
`name_server`, `dnssec`	Name server hostnames and DNSSEC flag.
`registrar`, `registrar_country`, `registrar_iana_id`, `registrar_url`, `registrar_whois_server`, `registrar_abuse_contact_email`, `registrar_abuse_contact_phone`	Registrar details.
`registrant_name`, `registrant_org`, `registrant_street`, `registrant_city`, `registrant_state`, `registrant_postal`, `registrant_country`, `registrant_phone`, `registrant_email`	Registrant contact (often redacted).
`tech_` / `admin_`	Same set of fields for technical and administrative contacts.
`fuzzy_domain`	Similar-domain search.
`contains_hyphen`, `contains_nr`, `starts_with_nr`, `ends_with_nr`, `domain_length`	Lexical features (numeric / boolean). Paid plans only.

DNS

Field	Notes
`domain`	Domain name.
`a_record`, `aaaa_record`, `mx_record`, `ns_record`, `cname_record`, `dname_record`, `caa_record`, `txt_record`, `soa_record`	Record values. These are array fields — a single match is enough.
`a_record_ttl`, `aaaa_record_ttl`, … `txt_record_ttl`	TTL of the corresponding record type.
`fuzzy_domain`, `tag`	Similar-domain and tag matching.

Certificate

Field	Notes
`domain`, `l1d`, `l2d`	Domain and 1st/2nd-level domain extracted from the certificate.
`cert_index`	CT log index (numeric).
`fingerprint`, `serial_number`, `signature_algorithm`	Certificate identifiers.
`issuer`, `issuer_email_address`, `issuerAltName`	Issuer fields.
`subject`, `subject_email_address`, `subjectAltName`	Subject fields.
`not_before`, `not_after`, `seen`	Validity dates and the time the certificate was first seen.
`basicConstraints`, `keyUsage`, `extendedKeyUsage`, `certificatePolicies`, `authorityInfoAccess`, `authorityKeyIdentifier`, `crlDistributionPoints`, `extra`	X.509 extensions.
`source_name`, `source_url`	The CT log or scan source.
`fuzzy_domain`, `tag`	Similar-domain and tag matching.

HTTP

Field	Notes
`domain`, `l2d`	Domain and 2nd-level domain.
`ip`, `port`	Endpoint addresses.
`title`	HTML `<title>`.
`header`, `header_value`	HTTP response headers. `header` matches header names, `header_value` matches header values.
`meta`, `meta_value`	HTML `<meta>` tag names and values.
`jarm`	JARM TLS fingerprint.
`hash`, `favicon_hash`, `favicon_dhash`	Body hash, favicon MMH3 hash, favicon difference hash.
`timeslot`, `first_seen`, `last_seen`	When the response was observed.

Examples

Subdomains of a known apex domain

entity:domain domain:*.google.com

Newly registered domains via a specific registrar on Cloudflare

entity:whois registrar:*WEBCC* name_server:*.cloudflare.com creation_date:2024-07-01+

Recent ZeroSSL certs, excluding the `www` subdomain

entity:cert issuer:*ZeroSSL* seen:2024-08-01+ NOT domain:www.*

Domains pointing to a specific A record

entity:dns a_record:142.250.203.* domain:*.ch

Pages whose title mentions a brand on a domain that isn't theirs

entity:http title:'*Swisscom*' NOT domain:*.swisscom.ch NOT domain:swisscom.ch

Look-alike domains registered recently

entity:whois fuzzy_domain:amazon.com creation_date:2024-09-01+

Multi-entity: WHOIS + DNS together

(entity:whois registrar:'NameCheap, Inc.' domain:shadow*) AND (entity:dns ns_record:*.dreamhost.com.)

Subscription gating. Some fields and features are restricted to paid plans: fuzzy_domain, the lexical features (starts_with_nr, ends_with_nr, contains_nr, contains_hyphen, domain_length), the tag field, the http entity, and multi-entity queries. The exact data history window also depends on your plan. See the pricing page for details.