| name | osint-methodology |
| description | Comprehensive OSINT methodology for external red-team operations and authorized attack-surface assessments. Covers the 5-stage recon pipeline, asset-graph discipline, severity rubric, confidence upgrade workflows, time budgeting, identity-fabric mapping, breach×identity correlation, detectability tagging, detection-aware probing, WAF/CDN bypass, vulnerability prioritization, phishing infrastructure planning, bug bounty submission, and client deliverable templates. Use when planning or executing reconnaissance against authorized targets, mapping an organization's external attack surface, investigating a person/entity, or producing client deliverables. |
| version | 2.2 |
| triggers | ["external recon","external red team","red team external","attack surface management","attack surface mapping","ASM","perimeter recon","target reconnaissance","bug bounty recon","asset discovery","footprint","attack path","identity fabric","SSO discovery","IdP fingerprinting","tenant fingerprinting","M365 enumeration","Microsoft 365 recon","API discovery","GraphQL introspection","mobile recon","APK analysis","cloud bucket enumeration","breach correlation","secret leak hunt","origin discovery","CDN bypass","WAF bypass","vulnerability prioritization","CVE prioritization","EPSS","CISA KEV","phishing infrastructure","pretext development","bug bounty submission","responsible disclosure","client report","exec summary","risk translation","confidence upgrade","time budget","engagement profile","asset triage","detection-aware probing","back-off strategy","OSINT methodology","open source intelligence","target profiling","OSINT workflow","recon methodology","threat actor investigation","attribution"] |
OSINT Methodology — External Red-Team Edition
BEHAVIORAL CONTRACT
When triggered: Planning/executing authorized external recon, mapping an org's attack surface, investigating a person/entity, producing engagement deliverables, or methodology/framework questions about OSINT tradecraft.
Execute:
- If authorization is not established, run the soft scope check (§1) exactly once.
- Identify which pipeline stage (§7) the user/engagement is in or needs to start.
- Propose the next concrete action from the priority order (§7.1), citing the relevant sub-skill to co-load.
- Tag every assertion with a confidence level (§2). Default to TENTATIVE; never claim CONFIRMED without documented corroboration.
- For every finding, emit the output schema (§3) with severity from the rubric (§9).
- Apply detectability tagging (§6.2) to every proposed probe.
- If detection signs appear, execute the back-off ladder (§6.4).
- Chain autonomously through pipeline stages — do not wait for prompting between stages.
Output: Structured findings per §3 schema. Deliverables per §14 templates.
Severity rules: §9 anchors + escalation rules. HSTS missing on auth path = HIGH. Wildcard CORS + credentials = HIGH. Endpoint score >= 70 = at least HIGH. Domain breach >= 10 employees = CRITICAL. KEV CVE match = CRITICAL.
Gating rules: Never skip authorization check on first mention of new target. Never claim CONFIRMED on single-source evidence. No destructive probes unless explicit --aggressive mode.
Chain to: Always co-load offensive-osint (router). Load specific sub-skills per §11 pointers as engagement progresses. Chain autonomously through priority order (§7.1).
0. When to Use / When NOT
Use this skill when: planning or executing authorized external recon (red team, bug bounty, ASM); mapping an org's attack surface; investigating a person/entity/threat-actor; producing client deliverables.
Do NOT use this skill when: the user needs active exploitation, post-exploitation, or malware dev; blue-team/detection content; or the target's authorization is unclear — surface the scope question first.
1. Authorization & Legal Posture
Intended for assets the operator owns or has written authorization to assess.
Soft scope check — when authorization isn't established, ask once:
"Quick scope check: is this a target you own or have written authorization to assess? I want to make sure we stay on the right side of the engagement boundary."
Once asserted, don't re-ask. If the engagement type is stated ("pentest of acme.com under contract"), proceed.
Always-on guardrails:
- Never weaken auth, rate limits, or safety controls on the target side.
- No destructive probes (SYN scans at line-rate, masscan, fuzzing) outside explicit
--aggressive mode.
- Never paste real PII, credentials, session tokens, or API keys into cloud-hosted LLMs.
- Never act against assets outside documented scope, even "obviously related" ones.
2. Confidence Levels
Every assertion carries a confidence level.
| Level | Meaning |
|---|
| TENTATIVE | Plausible from indirect evidence; unverified. Snippet-only dork match, email pattern inferred from name, single passive-source subdomain. |
| FIRM | Directly observed, uncorroborated. Subdomain resolves; Shodan banner returned; CT-log entry. |
| CONFIRMED | Multiple independent corroborations OR directly verified. Live-validated token; bucket listable; three-source subdomain convergence. |
Rule of three for attribution: 3 independent weak signals, OR 1 strong + 1 weak. Never single-source attribute.
2.1 Confidence Upgrade Workflows
| Asset type | TENTATIVE → FIRM | FIRM → CONFIRMED |
|---|
| Subdomain | ≥2 passive sources OR DNS resolves | Serves on a standard port AND banner/cert returned |
| IP | ≥2 sources (passive DNS, ASN, Shodan) | TCP SYN-ACK or ICMP reply |
| WebApp | URL extracted but not yet hit | HTTP returns 2xx/3xx/4xx AND content-length > 0 |
| Email | Name-pattern inferred OR snippet-only | Listed in Hunter/IntelX/breach, OR SMTP 250 (abort at DATA) |
| Bucket | Permutation candidate + HEAD returns 200/301/403 (exists) | GET listing = CONFIRMED |
| Credential / secret | Regex match in captured text | Read-only validator returns success (scope + account-ID documented) |
| Person | Name from single source | Confirmed by second independent source |
| SSO tenant | OIDC discovery endpoint returns metadata | Tenant GUID extracted AND domain ties back via MX/autodiscover/SP record |
Default reporting posture: never claim CONFIRMED without explicit corroboration. When in doubt, downgrade.
3. Output Format
Each finding uses this schema (drops cleanly into asset-management tools):
Finding:
id: <stable hash or UUID>
module: <technique that discovered it>
asset_key: <typed key, e.g. sub:api.example.com>
category: <e.g. SECRET_LEAK, OPEN_GRAPHQL_API, SSO_EXPOSURE>
severity: <info|low|medium|high|critical>
confidence: <tentative|firm|confirmed>
title: <one-line summary>
description: <2-5 sentences>
evidence:
url: <where found>
timestamp: <UTC ISO8601>
sha256: <hash of any downloaded artifact>
raw: <truncated to 2 KiB>
references: [<CVE-ID, advisory URL, vendor doc>]
remediation: <action the asset owner can take>
Always use UTC timestamps.
4. Source Hygiene & Citations
For every artifact: URL + UTC timestamp + SHA-256 + tool version + run_id.
- Hash all downloads with SHA-256. Screenshot in PNG.
- Raw HTTP captures capped at 2 KiB body. JSONL logs, one line per event.
- Separate evidence read-only from working copies; never edit captured artifacts.
- Prefer durable references (CVE, ATT&CK technique ID, RFC). If ephemeral, archive first (archive.today, Wayback SavePageNow).
5. Do NOT
- Do NOT paste creds, session tokens, real PII, or unique pivots into cloud LLMs. Use local models for sensitive analysis.
- Do NOT assume vendor labels are ground truth (TRM, Chainalysis, Arkham can disagree).
- Do NOT assert ownership from a single signal (favicon hash, shared NS, shared CT issuer — each is a hypothesis).
- Do NOT run fuzzing, SYN scans, masscan, or
nuclei fuzzing/* outside explicit --aggressive mode.
- Do NOT use a credential validator for anything except read-only verification.
- Do NOT mirror-image the threat actor. Separate capability from intent and sponsorship.
- Do NOT escalate when you hit active defenses — back off and document (§6.4).
6. OpSec
6.1 Sock Puppets
Build posting history, age the account, use a separate browser profile. Persona generation: Fake Name Generator, This Person Does Not Exist. Browser isolation: Firefox Multi-Account Containers. Disposable numbers for SMS verification. Audit every extension before install. Maintain chain-of-custody: timestamp every action, hash every artifact.
6.2 Detectability Tagging
Tag every operation so you can reason about the trail you leave.
| Tag | Examples |
|---|
| Low | Passive Shodan InternetDB; crt.sh; Wayback CDX; SecurityTrails PDNS; Hunter.io; HTTP HEAD on public buckets; getuserrealm.srf; OIDC metadata fetch. |
| Medium | GetCredentialType user-enum; Okta /api/v1/authn user-enum; credential validation; AWS sts:GetCallerIdentity; Swagger/GraphQL probes; targeted favicon-hash + JARM fingerprinting. |
| High | Active port scans (naabu/masscan/nmap); Nuclei full runs against production; subdomain brute-force at scale; SMTP RCPT TO enum; web fuzzing. |
Defaults: passive by default. Active probes only when (a) explicitly authorized, (b) within agreed windows, (c) operator aware of log volume.
6.3 Validator Discipline
When you find a credential in the wild, confirm liveness with read-only validators only (/me, auth.test, sts:GetCallerIdentity). Never create, modify, delete, or send. Record checked_at UTC + truncated response + scope/account-ID. Concrete validator endpoints for 9 providers live in secrets-and-dorks §4.
6.4 Detection-Aware Probing
Signs you've been detected (escalating severity): 429 / Retry-After; captcha interstitials; WAF block page; status-code drift (200→403 from your IP only); banner change; NXDOMAIN rollback; honeypot bait (credentials that don't validate); direct contact.
Back-off ladder:
- Halve concurrency; add 2–10s jitter.
- Stop hitting the triggering path; pivot to a different module.
- New User-Agent / TLS fingerprint.
- Rotate egress IP (residential proxy, different cloud region).
- Pause 1–24 hours.
- If WAF block / status drift / direct contact: stop and consult the engagement lead.
7. External Red-Team Recon Pipeline
Five sequential stages; modules within a stage can run concurrently.
| Stage | What you do |
|---|
| 1 — Seed Discovery | WHOIS, ASN enum (HE BGP Toolkit, RIPEstat), DNS records (A/AAAA/MX/TXT/NS/SOA/CAA), CT history (crt.sh, Censys). |
| 2 — Asset Expansion | Subdomain enum (passive first → permutations → brute); cloud bucket permutation; typosquat generation; Wayback CDX; mobile app discovery; DNS walking; LinkedIn employee enum. |
| 3 — Enrichment | Port/service (Shodan InternetDB → naabu); TLS handshakes (cert chain, JARM, favicon mmh3); WAF/CDN inference; origin discovery; security headers; email harvest; email security audit; GitHub dorking; JS deep analysis; SSO/IdP fingerprinting; API discovery; secrets sweep (Postman, Stack Exchange); vendor product fingerprinting; container/CI-CD/cloud-native exposure; job posting harvest. |
| 4 — Exposure Analysis | Nuclei always-on checks; TLS deep audit; breach × identity correlation → SSO_EXPOSURE findings; targeted misconfig probes (.git/config, .env, /actuator/env, /_cat/indices, /console); vulnerability prioritization (CVE × EPSS × KEV × POC). |
| 5 — Reporting | Risk scoring per finding; asset graph export; client-facing report (exec summary + technical detail + remediation); reproduction package; bug bounty submission if applicable. |
7.1 Pipeline Priority Order (highest signal density first)
- Breaches — HudsonRock Cavalier + HIBP + DeHashed. Highest ROI; often yields plaintext corp SSO creds.
- GitHub recon — code-search dorks. Fastest path to AWS keys, Slack tokens, JWT secrets.
- Nuclei misconfig sweep — exposed admin panels, CVEs with public POCs.
- Cloud buckets — listable = CRITICAL.
- Ports — Shodan InternetDB first. VPN concentrators, RDP, Jenkins, Elasticsearch are high-value pivots.
- Email OSINT — feeds breaches; feeds phishing list.
- Web tech / WAF / screenshots — triage thousands of hosts.
- Wayback — archived JS for hard-coded keys; removed admin/dev paths.
- DNS deep + email security — SPF/DMARC gaps enable spoofing; TXT tokens reveal SaaS tenancies.
- Certificates → TLS — CT timeline catches forgotten subdomains; weak ciphers = cheap findings.
- ASN + reverse DNS — corporate IP space hosts unadvertised infra.
- Typosquats — registered = finding; unregistered = phishing shortlist.
7.2 Time Budgeting & Engagement Profiles
| Stage | Small org (<100) | Medium (100–1K) | Large (1K+) |
|---|
| 1. Seed | 30 min | 30 min | 30 min |
| 2. Asset expansion | 1–2 h | 2–4 h | 4–8 h |
| 3. Enrichment (per 100 alive webapps) | ~1 h | ~1 h | ~1 h |
| 4. Exposure analysis | 1–3 h | 3–6 h | 6–12 h |
| 5. Reporting | 2–4 h | 4–8 h | 1–2 days |
Profiles: 1-hour rapid (Stages 1–2 passive + breach + exec summary) · 4-hour focused (adds email harvest, SSO fingerprinting, typosquats) · 1-day standard (full Stages 1–4 in priority order) · 1-week deep (all of standard + JS deep, mobile, cloud-native, vendor product, package registry) · ongoing weekly diff (re-run Stages 1–3, diff against baseline).
Abort conditions: scope mismatch after Stage 1; near-zero attack surface after Stage 2; WAF/detection signs hit during any stage (§6.4).
8. Asset Graph Discipline
Every discovery is a typed asset in a graph, not a free-floating string.
8.1 Asset Taxonomy
| Category | Types |
|---|
| DNS / Network | domain, subdomain, ip, netblock, asn |
| Service | port, service, certificate |
| Identity | email, person, credential |
| Code / Config | repo, secret |
| Cloud / Storage | bucket, firebase_project |
| Web | webapp, wayback_endpoint, api_endpoint, api_spec, graphql_schema |
| Mobile | mobile_app, deep_link, exported_component |
| Phishing | typosquat_domain |
| SaaS | postman_collection, postman_workspace, postman_api_key, stack_post, saas_public_surface |
Every asset carries: type, key (typed dedup id), value, sources[], confidence, first_seen, last_seen, attrs{}.
Discipline: create the asset first, then attach the finding. Dedup by key. sources[] must list every source. Confidence is per-source, then aggregated.
8.2 Asset-Level Triage Rules
WebApp priority (highest first): auth (auth., login., sso.) → admin paths → dev/staging hosts → API (api., gateway.) → customer-facing (portal., app.) → marketing.
Email priority: exec (CEO/CFO/CISO) → IT/helpdesk/security → dev/engineer/DBA → sales/HR/finance → generic role accounts.
Repo priority: recently pushed (last 30 days) > stale; public with target name in description > code-only; mentions prod/internal/secret in name → HIGH priority despite being public.
9. Findings Rubric & Severity Mapping
Severity Anchors
| Severity | Anchor |
|---|
| CRITICAL | Pre-auth code execution; confirmed valid credentials; listable production data; fundamental trust violations. Examples: .env exposed, listable S3 bucket with PII, live-validated AWS admin key, open Kubernetes API with anon-auth, ≥10 employees in breach corpus + tenant identified. |
| HIGH | Significant exposure with clear escalation path; high-value info disclosure. Examples: public secret in GitHub repo, subdomain takeover possible, reflected CORS with credentials, exposed Jenkins/phpMyAdmin admin UI, open GraphQL introspection on prod, DMARC p=none. |
| MEDIUM | Info disclosure, hardening gaps, brute-force exposure. Examples: missing HSTS/CSP, Apache /server-status, internal IP/hostname in JS, schema leakage in error pages, android:allowBackup=true, wildcard CORS on user-data API, Slack webhook leaked. |
| LOW | Cosmetic or marginal gaps. Examples: missing X-Frame-Options, .DS_Store exposed, Stripe test key, cert pinning missing, outdated WordPress (no known active exploit). |
| INFO | Worth recording; no immediate action. Examples: robots.txt reveals paths, private bucket locked down, DNSSEC not enabled. |
Severity Escalation Rules
- HSTS missing on auth/login/SSO/admin path → MED → HIGH.
- Wildcard CORS + credentials header → MED → HIGH.
- Endpoint interest score ≥70 (
analysis-and-reporting §1) → at least HIGH.
- Domain breach ≥10 employees → CRITICAL regardless of stale-data caveats.
- Vendor product version matches CISA KEV → CRITICAL.
10. Pivot Modes & Scale Tactics
| Aspect | Investigative Mode | Offensive Recon Mode |
|---|
| Probing rate | Slow, single-threaded, blends with traffic | Bursts, parallel, rate-limited per provider |
| OpSec posture | Sock-puppet only; never reveal investigator | Engagement persona; team may notify SOC |
| Evidence handling | Court-grade chain of custody | Engagement-grade; same hash/timestamp discipline |
| Reporting format | Narrative + sourced timeline | Per-asset findings + remediation + reproduction |
Scale tactics:
- Small (<100): Individual-account focus. One exec/CFO compromise often hands you the keys. Deep on every email + every identity-fabric finding. Check founders' personal GitHub orgs.
- Medium (100–1K): Balanced enumeration. Full pipeline at standard depth. LinkedIn priority by role. Check both app stores.
- Large (1K–10K): Breadth-first; automation for asset discovery; manual triage on findings only.
- Very large / conglomerate: Scope pruning is the most important step. Brand-pivot map first. Breach corpus and systemic posture findings (DMARC gaps, SSO_EXPOSURE breadth) dominate over individual accounts.
11. Implementation: Companion Skill Pointers
The following modules have full implementation detail — probe paths, wordlists, curl one-liners, regexes, and scoring rubrics — in the specialized sub-skills. This skill defines what to do; those skills define how to do it.
Identity Fabric Mapping (identity-fabric §1) — Microsoft Entra (OIDC metadata, getuserrealm.srf, GetCredentialType), Okta (slug derivation, /api/v1/authn), ADFS, Google Workspace, generic OIDC (Auth0/Keycloak/Ping/OneLogin/Duo), SAML metadata (5 paths), AWS account-ID extraction, M365 deep surface (Teams federation, SharePoint, OneDrive, OAuth client_id, device-code phishing check, Power Platform).
API & Auth-Map (web-surface §1–§2, analysis-and-reporting §1) — 28-path Swagger/OpenAPI wordlist; 13-path GraphQL wordlist; introspection POST body; field-suggestion enumeration when introspection disabled; endpoint interest score 0–100 rubric.
JavaScript Deep Analysis (web-surface §6–§8) — sourcemap detection; secret catalog over JS bodies and sourcesContent[]; three-tier endpoint-extraction regex; internal-host leakage patterns; Next.js manifest parsing.
Mobile Attack Surface (analysis-and-reporting §2) — Android/iOS app discovery; ownership confidence 0–100 scoring; APK static analysis; manifest misconfig findings; Firebase canonical probe.
Cloud Attack Surface (web-surface §12 + cloud-and-infra §1–§2) — S3/GCS/Azure bucket permutation (6 prefixes × 15 suffixes); HEAD → GET probe technique; cloud-native fingerprints (Lambda, Cloud Run, Azure Functions, Vercel, Netlify, Workers); K8s/etcd/kubelet/container registry exposure.
WAF / CDN Bypass & Origin Discovery (docs/methods/cdn-bypass-techniques.md) — DNS history pivot; cert SAN pivot; favicon mmh3 + JARM clustering; direct IP probe with Host header; mail/ftp/cpanel exception; error page leakage; email-header bounce trick; confidence rules.
Vulnerability Prioritization (people-breach-intel §4 + docs/reference/tool-directory.md) — NVD, EPSS, CISA KEV, ExploitDB, Metasploit, InTheWild.io, Trickest CVE→POC; 9-signal scoring rubric → P0/P1/P2/P3 tiers.
Phishing Infrastructure — multi-source; pointers below.
- Typosquat shortlists: Generate candidates with dnstwist:
dnstwist --registered domain.com — cross-reference live domains with web-surface §11 takeover fingerprints.
- Subdomain takeover for trusted-domain phishing:
web-surface §11 (27 provider fingerprints, CNAME dangling checks).
- Email spoof feasibility matrix (SPF × DMARC):
web-surface §9 (SPF strictness, DMARC policy, DKIM selector enumeration).
- Pretext development from OSINT: leverage job titles, recent events, vendor relationships, and GitHub commit patterns gathered during earlier pipeline stages.
- Cert-SAN impersonation patterns: query crt.sh for
%.target.com certificates; extract SAN entries that could be mimicked on attacker-controlled infrastructure (e.g., sso.target.com, vpn.target.com, mail.target.com). Cross-reference with recon-asset-discovery §1 results — SANs that resolve to NXDOMAIN are prime candidates for registration + phishing.
- Combine all five vectors into a single phishing-readiness summary per target domain: (1) registered typosquats, (2) available typosquat candidates, (3) cert-SAN impersonation patterns, (4) dangling CNAME takeover targets, (5) spoof feasibility matrix.
12. Breach × Identity Correlation
Highest-ROI single technique for external red teams. Run on every engagement.
| Source | Tier | Notes |
|---|
| Hudson Rock Cavalier | FREE | Infostealer-log corpus; very high signal for corp SSO creds. |
| Have I Been Pwned | Free + paid | Domain-wide existence + Pwned Passwords (k-anonymity). |
| DeHashed | Paid | Per-record searchable API. |
| IntelX | Free + paid | Aggregator; phonebook search. |
Domain-level severity: ≥10 employees compromised → CRITICAL; 1–9 → HIGH; ≥1 end-user → MEDIUM; domain seen with 0 named accounts → INFO.
SSO_EXPOSURE: after Stage 3 identity-fabric mapping AND breach lookups, intersect discovered IdP tenant domain with breach corpus. Non-empty intersection → SSO_EXPOSURE finding, severity CRITICAL. Evidence: tenant ID + product + employee count + per-account source.
Stealer log discipline: encrypt at rest; SHA-256 every artifact; never paste plaintext passwords into cloud LLMs; maintain chain of custody; redact passwords in client reports by default (offer encrypted credential bundle separately).
13. Bug Bounty Submission & Responsible Disclosure
Platforms: HackerOne (CVSS-based) · Bugcrowd (VRT: P1–P5) · Intigriti · YesWeHack · HackenProof (crypto-focused) · Open Bug Bounty (XSS/SSRF only) · /.well-known/security.txt for unprogrammed targets.
Report structure:
Title: [Severity] [Component] Brief description
Summary: 2-3 sentences — what and why it matters.
Steps to Reproduce: numbered, copy-pasteable, URL + payload + expected vs actual.
Proof of Concept: screenshot or sanitized HTTP request/response.
Impact: what data/users/functions are at risk.
Severity: CVSS v3 vector + score + 1-sentence justification.
Remediation: concrete, actionable recommendation.
Unprogrammed CVD: check security.txt → security@<target> → WHOIS abuse contact → CERT/CC. Standard 90-day window before public release. Never: include others' PII, post publicly before window expires, or escalate via social media first.
14. Client Deliverable Templates
Executive summary structure: engagement metadata → top 3–5 findings (title + business impact + remediation effort) → postural observations (email security, identity fabric, cloud surface, mobile) → aggregate metrics (assets, findings by severity, live creds confirmed) → recommended next steps with timeline.
Per-finding report card: title + severity + confidence + asset key + UTC timestamp → description → evidence (URL + tool + screenshot + raw HTTP + SHA-256) → reproduction steps → business-language impact → remediation (immediate / short-term / long-term) → references + attack-path hint.
Risk translation (sample):
| Technical | Business language |
|---|
| Listable S3 bucket with PII | Customer records publicly downloadable. Potential GDPR/CCPA notification trigger. |
Exposed .env with DB credentials | Full database access; pivots to backups, billing, employee PII. |
| Live AWS admin key | Complete cloud compromise; cryptominer spin-up, full data exfiltration, lateral movement. |
DMARC p=none | Anyone on the internet can send email appearing to be from your domain. |
| ≥10 employees in breach corpus | Stolen corp SSO credentials circulating; active credential-stuffing risk. |
| Vendor appliance on CISA KEV | Attackers are actively scanning the internet for this exact issue. Patch now. |
Reporting cadence: Day 1 EOD kickoff summary → mid-engagement heads-up on first CRITICAL → end-of-engagement preliminary (top 5 findings) → final report within agreed SLA → re-test offer for CRITICAL/HIGH findings post-remediation.
Reproduction package: run-log.jsonl + assets.db + findings.db + evidence/ (screenshots, HTTP captures, downloads with .sha256) + re-test-script.sh + engagement metadata.
