Guide to use OSINT Framework?

How To Use OSINT Framework?

Osint- open-source intelligence

Osint is a collection and analysis of data collected from open-source to produce effective intelligence. NATO defines osint as the derived from publicly accessible information, along with other unclassified information that has slight public distribution. As the name implies, osint is a cybersecurity framework. This tool is mainly used by security researchers and penetration testers for digital footprinting, intelligence gathering, and OSINT research, based on the different topics and goals.

Osint is important because it has very low rigorous processing, exploitation processes, and timeline than more technical intelligence disciplines such as:

1. HUMINT

2. SIGNIT

3. MASINT

4. GEOINT, Etc

Osint encloses a great variety of sources.

(T) – Specifies a link to a tool that should be installed and run locally

(D) – Google dork (aka Google Hacking)

(R) – Requires registration

(M) – specifies a URL that carries the search term and the URL itself must be edited automatically

When we click on the username, domain name, and email address a lot of information will come on the screen in the form of a sub tree. As all the tools are in the single interface makes it super easy to search for the username, email address, domain name, etc. Another interesting category that snatched our attention was “Vulnerabilities,” build within the Domain Names category, which offers access to a lot of quality vulnerability and top CVE databases, such as:

1. Mage Scan

2. Sn1per (T)

3. ASafaWeb

4. Zone-H.org

5. XSSposed.org

Reasons why osint must be included in all-source intelligence projects

  • The Intelligence Communities need to understand a vast range of foreign countries and cultures. Threats are quickly changing and geographically diffuse. An intelligence analyst may be imposed to shift rapidly from one topic to the next. Progressively, IC professionals need to fastly adapt social, economic, and cultural information about a country.
  • • Open-source information comes up with a base for understanding classified materials. The amount of classified information fabricated on one topic can be confined. A notable example relates to terrorism, where open-source data can fill gaps and fabricate links that allow analysts to understand the fragmented intelligence.
  • Open-source materials can save both sources and methods. Sometimes an intelligent judgment that is literally informed by sensitive, classified information can be defended based on open-source reporting. This can be proven useful when policy-makers need to explain policy decisions or communicate with foreign officials without negotiating classified sources.
  • A robust open-source program can collect data to monitor the world's cultures and how they change. This is difficult, using the snapshots provided by classified gathering methods. Only open sources can store history for such a long time.

Open-source intelligence analysis software

There are many categories of tools intended for osint analysis. Open source tools to query multiple search engines simultaneously are part of the OSI ecosystem. These tools exploit the APIs of both free and paywalled open-source and PIA sources. The ecosystem of bespoke OSI gathering, collection and analysis tools includes specialized functions related to the following data types and categories.

  • Username
  • Email Address
  • Domain Name
  • IP Address
  • Images
  • Videos
  • Documents
  • Instant messaging
  • Telephone Numbers
  • Public Records
  • Business Records
  • Transportation
  • Geolocation Tools / Maps
  • Forums / Blogs / IRC
  • Archives
  • Metadata
  • Dark Web
  • Digital Currency

OSINT sources are split into six various categories of information flow:

Media: Print newspapers, magazines, radio, and television from across and between different countries.

Internet: It outpaces a variety of other sources due to its timeliness and ease of access. This source also outpaces other social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Public government data: public government reports, websites, budgets, hearings, press conferences, telephone directories, and speeches. Although this source comes from an official source, they are publicly accessible and may be used openly and freely by the public.

Professional and academic publications: information gained from journals, conferences, academic papers, symposia, and dissertations.

Commercial data: commercial imagery, financial and industrial valuation, and the databases.

Grey literature: technical reports, preprints, patents, business documents, newsletters, working papers, and unpublished works.

OSINT tools

Using the right OSINT tool can help you discover information about your company, employees, IT assets, and other sensitive data that could be exploited by an attacker. Finding the information first and then hiding or separating it could reduce everything from cracking to denial-of-service attacks. Following are examples of the osint tools:

  • • Maltego, Mitaka, SpiderFoot, Spyse, BuiltWith, Intelligence X, DarkSearch.io, Grep.app, Recon-ng, theHarveste, Shodan, Metagoofil, Searchcode, SpiderFoot,Babel X

Benefits of using OSINT

  • Less risky - Using publicly accessible information to fetch intelligence has no risk compared to using humans on the ground to collect information, especially in hostile countries.
  • Cost-effective - Collecting OSINT is not much expensive as other intelligence sources, like human resources or spy satellites gather intelligence which can become costly.
  • Ease of accessibility - OSINT is always available anywhere.
  • Legal issues - OSINT can be shared between different parties without worrying about imposing any copyright license as these resources are already published.
  • Helping in a financial investigation - OSINT lets specialized government agencies detect tax evaders, observing a target's social media accounts, vacations, and lifestyle has a notable value for a government inspector who may be pursuing them for undeclared income.
  • Preventing online counterfeiting - OSINT can be used to find counterfeit products and direct police to shut sites or send warnings to websites to end trafficking with them.
  • Maintaining political stability - OSINT helps governments to understand their people’s attitudes and to act punctually to keep away from future collisions with the general public.

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