osint

name

osint

description

Solve CTF OSINT (open source intelligence) challenges: username enumeration, domain recon, social media investigation, geolocation from images, and public records research. Use when given a username, email, domain, or photo to investigate. Triggers: "find this person", "username lookup", "who is", "geolocation", "reverse image search", "EXIF GPS", "whois", "domain recon", "social media". Tools: sherlock, theHarvester, exiftool, whois, dig. NOT for web app exploitation (use web).

CTF OSINT

Gather open source intelligence for OSINT challenges.

When to Use

Use this command for challenges involving:

• Username searching
• Domain reconnaissance
• Social media investigation
• Geolocation from images
• Public records research

Bundled Scripts

• check-tools.sh — Verify required OSINT tools are installed
• run-sherlock.sh — Username enumeration across platforms. Outputs JSON with found profiles categorized by type (social media, code platforms, other).
• run-exiftool.sh — OSINT-focused metadata extraction with GPS coordinate extraction. Outputs JSON with interesting fields, GPS data, and flag detection.

Instructions

1. First check tool availability: bash scripts/check-tools.sh

2. For username enumeration (outputs structured JSON):

   bash scripts/run-sherlock.sh <username>
   

   JSON output includes:

   • profiles[]: all found profiles with site and URL
   • social_media[]: social media profiles specifically
   • code_platforms[]: GitHub, GitLab, etc.
   • suggestions: cross-referencing guidance

3. For image geolocation (outputs structured JSON):

   bash scripts/run-exiftool.sh <image>
   

   JSON output includes:

   • gps_data: GPS coordinates if present
   • interesting_fields[]: CTF-relevant metadata (comments, author, etc.)
   • has_flag: true if flag pattern found in metadata

4. For domain reconnaissance:

   theHarvester -d target.com -b all
   dig target.com ANY
   whois target.com
   

5. Online resources:

   • Maps: Google Maps, Google Earth
   • Archive: web.archive.org
   • Reverse Image: Google Images, TinEye
   • Social: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook
   • Breach Data: haveibeenpwned.com

OSINT Workflow

1. run-sherlock.sh username → check JSON for profiles
2. Cross-reference social and code platforms
3. run-exiftool.sh image.jpg → check JSON for GPS, metadata clues
4. Build complete picture from combined findings

Team Roles

When using /ctf-kit:team-solve with an OSINT challenge, the lead spawns 3 specialists.

All OSINT teammates require plan approval before querying external services.

Role	Teammate Name	Focus	Tools	First Action
People & Social	social-investigator	Username enumeration, social media profiling, identity correlation, breach data	sherlock, scripts/run-sherlock.sh	Run sherlock on any usernames, cross-reference profiles across platforms
Domain & Infrastructure	domain-analyst	WHOIS, DNS records, subdomain enumeration, email harvesting, IP geolocation, certificate transparency	whois, dig, theHarvester	Run whois + dig on domains, check certificate transparency logs
Geolocation & Media	geo-analyst	EXIF GPS extraction, reverse image search, visual landmark identification, Street View correlation	exiftool, scripts/run-exiftool.sh	Extract EXIF GPS, identify visual landmarks, cross-reference with maps

When to broadcast

• Social: "Username 'target123' has GitHub with a repo containing coordinates" — geo analyst investigates
• Domain: "Domain registered to email X, also found on social platform Y" — social investigator digs deeper
• Geo: "EXIF GPS points to 48.8584, 2.2945 (Eiffel Tower)" — others search for related context
• Any: "Found the flag" — immediate broadcast, all stop

Plan approval flow

Before any teammate queries an external service:

1. Teammate describes the query and target
2. Lead reviews for scope (only target what the challenge asks for)
3. Lead approves or suggests alternative approach

Example Usage

/ctf-kit:osint image.jpg
/ctf-kit:osint challenge.txt