What is out of scope?

Question

FractalScan Surface has a concept of assets being in and out of scope. What does this mean and how is it determined what's in and what's out?

Answer

FractalScan Surface uses 'in scope' and 'out of scope' to control how much of an attack surface to scan. Since everything on the internet is connected, we need to ensure the scope of a FractalScan Surface scan is appropriately focussed.

'In scope' nodes, be they Domains, IP addresses, Components, etc., are connected back to one of the seed nodes via a valid path. A subdomain (or child) of a seed domain will be in scope. However, the domain of a 3rd-party script used on the seed domain's website will be 'out of scope'.

Simply put, if it is 'in scope', then FractalScan Surface has determined that the risks associated with the asset are your responsibility. If it is out of scope, then FractalScan Surface can't be sure it is yours, and you will need to add it as a seed to get FractalScan Surface to inspect it further.

To view the 'out of scope' nodes, go to the 'Out of Scope' page on a scan, and you can add nodes to scope as seeds. Note, this will depend on permissions.