DC33: Amass Workshop

​Workshop Abstract: Introducing OWASP Amass v5.0
Presenter: Jeff Foley, Founder and Project Leader of the OWASP Amass Project
Duration: 2 Hours
Hosted by: OWASP at DEFCON 33

The OWASP Amass Project has become a foundational toolset for security researchers, bug bounty hunters, red teamers, and defenders who rely on automated reconnaissance and external asset discovery to map attack surfaces. With the release of Amass v5.0, the project has undergone a major architectural transformation centered around the Open Asset Model (OAM)—a structured property graph that defines how Internet-facing assets and their relationships are stored, analyzed, and queried.

This two-hour hands-on workshop, led by Jeff Foley, the project’s founder and long-time maintainer, offers attendees a first look at Amass v5.0’s new intelligence collection engine, which seamlessly populates the Open Asset Model database during enumeration operations. The session will walk through how Amass collects and organizes OSINT from various sources—including DNS records, WHOIS/RDAP data, TLS certificates, and more—and models the results as a dynamic graph of properties and relationships between discovered assets.

Participants will learn to use core Amass tools such as:

amass enum – for deep, recursive asset discovery using passive and active techniques

amass subs – for quick subdomain discovery from the Open Asset Model database

amass viz – to render interactive visualizations of asset relationships in the Open Asset Model

In addition to these staples, the workshop will introduce the new assoc tool, a powerful query interface designed to unlock the true potential of the Open Asset Model database. Built around a custom Triples query language, the assoc tool enables users to describe paths—called association walks—through the asset graph, surfacing linked insights across related properties (e.g., domains associated with a network, IPs linked to DNS records, etc.). The language is inspired by RDF-style triples but optimized for simplicity and clarity in cybersecurity investigations.

Amass v5.0 also ships with completely refactored documentation, providing diagrams to help users understand the data types, their fields, and their associations within the OAM. This new documentation dramatically lowers the learning curve for users new to the Amass Project, making it easier to build mental models of how different types of Internet assets are discovered and interrelated.

This workshop will include a live walkthrough of setting up and running Amass v5.0, from enumeration to advanced queries. Participants will leave with hands-on experience using the full Amass suite, understanding how the Open Asset Model works under the hood, and writing association walk queries using Triples.

What to Expect:

Real-world reconnaissance examples using Amass against publicly available targets

Query design exercises with assoc to extract actionable intelligence

Tips for integrating Amass data into your own tooling and pipelines

Visual mapping of organizational assets using OAM and viz

Level: Intermediate
Some experience with OSINT tools, command-line interfaces, or network security is recommended but not required. The workshop is designed to be self-contained and accessible.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop and follow along. Project contributors will be present throughout the session to provide hands-on support, answer questions, and help troubleshoot issues in real time, making this a highly interactive experience.

By the end of the session, participants will walk away with practical skills in reconnaissance, data extraction from structured asset models, and a solid understanding of how Amass v5.0 is redefining modern Internet-wide discovery.

Join us at DEF CON to explore the future of OSINT automation and asset intelligence with OWASP Amass!