Day 2

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Gathering Techniques

What is OSINT?

• Definition: Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the process of collecting publicly available information about a target.
• Purpose:
  • Gather intelligence for reconnaissance
  • Identify sensitive data or vulnerabilities

OSINT Sources

1. Search Engines

Google Dorks: Advanced queries for Google search

site:example.com filetype:pdf
intitle:"Index of" site:example.com

2. Social Media Platforms

Tools:

• Twint: Scrapes Twitter data

  twint -u target_username

3. WHOIS Databases

• Obtain information about domains and ownership

4. Public Archives and Data Dumps

• Have I Been Pwned: Check for compromised credentials
• Sherlock: Find usernames across multiple platforms

  sherlock target_username

5. Image Analysis

ExifTool: Extract image metadata

exiftool image.jpg

6. IP and Network OSINT

Shodan CLI:

shodan search apache country:IN