OSINT Essentials

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OSINT Essentials: What and why QUICK TIP: Image analysis
Tools & Services

SOCIAL
FACEBOOK
BLUESKY
X
INSTAGRAM
REDDIT
TIKTOK

Who posted what? - Search for posts by keyword, within selected date ranges. From Henk van Ess & Daniel Endresz.

Facebook Graph Searcher - Graph Search Generator by Intelligence X. Website has other tools worth checking out.

Graph.tips - Facebook Graph Search Generator by Henk van Ess and Tormund Gerhardsen

LookupID - Finds a Facebook user's unique ID number.

Advanced search - Search using a large variety of filters. The resulting searches can be saved, as well as adjusted within the search box or the url

Google search lists - A custom search that allows you to use Google to search for lists by keyword

Bluesky advanced search - Adds functionality to Bluesky search.

Pack2List - Allows you to convert any Bluesky starter pack to a list.

Toolzu - Tools for viewing & downloading content & profile info

Storysaver - Enables downloading of Instagram stories

Redective - Gives information on Reddit users. Search by username

r/whatisthisthing - Subreddit crowdsourcing identification of objects submitted by users

As yet, I'm not aware of any tools or services specifically targeting TikTok - if you are, let me know.

A targeted Google search can be used to search for accounts, using as the search term names or phrases you think may be used in them

site:tiktok.com name

GEO
GENERAL MAPS
SPECIALIST MAPS
MAP TOOLS

Google Maps - Maps from Google, including Street View, 3D, Photo Spheres

Google Earth - Browser-based version of Google Earth. Standalone desktop version can be downloaded here

Bing Maps - From Microsoft. Small variations in satellite orbit can mean dramatically different views to Google Maps

Yandex Maps - Particularly useful for Russia and some surrounding countries

OpenStreetMap - Global crowd-sourced maps

Wikimapia - Crowd-sourced maps with descriptive details of locations and very useful filter layers

Mapillary - Crowdsourced street-level imagery

World Imagery Wayback - Historical satellite views from Esri

Open Infrastructure Map - Shows key infrastructure such as power lines, solar installations etc. User-generated

Submarine Cable Map - Searchable map of undersea cables worldwide

Open Railway Map - Map of railway lines worldwide

CarbonBrief Nuclear Map - Shows the location and operating status of nuclear power plants worldwide

Peakfinder - Mountain and hill peaks worldwide, with visual representations

Suncalc.org - Shows the position of the sun at any time and location. See also The Photographer's Ephemeris, which is slightly less intuitive. Very similar to suncalc.org is suncalc.net - but it's not working at the moment after Google made changes to the charges for the Google Maps API.

Shademap - Visualises shadow direction and length for given location, date, and time

Global Gazetteer - List of locations worldwide, with spelling variations in multiple languages and scripts.

Dual Maps - Allows map, satellite, and Street View in Google Maps to be displayed simultaneously

Area Calculator - Gives the area of a shape you draw on a Google map

MapChecking - Helps estimate maximum crowd density for a selected area (French)

Latlong - Converts degrees, minutes and seconds to decimal values, and vice versa

PeakVisor - Provides detailed 3D views of mountains worldwide

VIDEO/PHOTO/AUDIO
YOUTUBE
IMAGE SEARCH
METADATA
IMAGE ANALYSIS
WEBCAMS
AUDIO

MW Metadata - Displays detailed metadata on YouTube videos, as well as the channel on which they're posted.*

TubePilot - Displays detailed metadata on YouTube videos, as well as the channel on which they're posted.*

YouTube GeoFind - Allows searches by location for geotagged YouTube videos.*

InVid - Browser extension that allows an array of analytical functions to be carried out on video and still images.

Watch Frame by Frame - Speed up, slow down or advance YouTube or Vimeo video frame by frame within the browser

Anilyzer - Allows video from YouTube or Vimeo to be played frame by frame or in slow motion

metadata2go.com - Online tool for viewing metadata, including image Exif data (metadata embedded within images), such as camera setting used when taking a photographs, date and location information, and thumbnails. Also can be used for video, and tends to do better on this than other tools

Online EXIF Viewer - Exif viewer - very fast

Jimpl - Exif viewer - can also be used to remove metadata

VerEXIF - Exif viewer - can also be used to remove metadata

Metadata Interrogator - Desktop metadata viewer that works offline and extracts metadata from multiple filetypes

A word of caution: image analysis is quite complex, and I have seen people embarrass themselves by reading too much into the results. Do not expect this to tell you definitively whether a photo is "fake". The creator of FotoForensics warns: 'Any single analysis algorithm can generate noise that may result in a false-positive interpretation. You should confirm your results with other analysis methods. ("Observation" is always a good one, so is "common sense".)'

FotoForensics - Tools for digital picture analysis, including error level analysis, metadata, and tutorials.

Forensically - Digital image forensic analyser

EarthCam - Large directory of live webcams worldwide.

Live World Webcams - Webcams worldwide. Has some locations I haven't seen in other directories.

Windy - Webcams worldwide. Have to enable the webcams layer via the camera icon on the lower right.

WebcamTaxi - Worldwide webcam directory with a user-friendly interface

WXYZ web cams - Webcams worldwide. Doesn't look as slick as some of the big sites, but has some cameras in places others don't.

FxSound - Improves sound quality of audio clips. Desktop app. Windows only

TRANSPORTATION
AVIATION
MARITIME
RAIL
ROAD

RadarBox24 - Flight tracker with live maps and search function. Displays flight info by default in map view

FlightAware - Flight tracker with live maps and search function

Freedar - Customisable flight tracker that includes military aircraft. Also has monitoring of air traffic control audio

Airportia - Tracks flights, airports and airlines worldwide

AviationDB - Searchable database of info on aviation. This link goes to the very useful Aircraft Query page

Live ATC - Live air traffic control broadcasts

PlaneSpotters - Details on planes worldwide, with a huge collection of photographs

Pinkfroot - User-submitted photographs of planes. Searchable. Also has a section on ships

Airline livery quiz - For practice - can you identify an airline by its livery?

Marine Traffic - Live tracker and database of marine vessels

Vessel Finder - Live tracker of marine vessels

Myshiptracking - Live tracker of marine vessels with information on ports worldwide

Marine Insight ship guide - A guide to different types of ships operating worldwide

Ship prefixes - Wikipedia guide to prefixes used to identify vessels operated by merchant and national navies

Pinkfroot - User-submitted photographs of ships. Searchable. Also has a section on planes

OpenRailwayMap - Crowd-sourced maps showing railways worldwide

Travic - Live public transit vehicle tracking

Live railroad webcams - Live feeds from railroad webcams

Railways of the World - Enthusiast website with a huge amount of information about railways, rail companies etc worldwide

World license plates​ - Shows pictures of licence plates from around the world ​ Plates Mania​ - Photos of vehicles and licence plates
PEOPLE
SOCIAL PRESENCE
PEOPLE SEARCH
PHONE/EMAIL
FACE SEARCH

WhatsMyName - Searches for usernames across platforms. Very fast - and from the people at OSINT Combine, so no concerns about privacy or security issues.

Instant Username - Searches for usernames across platforms.

Namechk - Searches for usernames across platforms

NameCheckup - Searches for usernames across platforms

Infobel - Listings for telephone directories worldwide

Numberway - Listings for telephone directories worldwide

World phone numbers - List of phone number codes worldwide

Hunter - Searches for email addresses on a specified domain

email-format - Searches for email addresses on a specified domain

emailrep.io - Gives information on email addresses, including platforms they have been linked to

WEBSITES
WEBSITE ANALYSIS
MONITORING
ARCHIVING

Spyonweb - Finds domains with the same Google Analytics code, AdSense ID, hosting IP etc

DNSlytics - Finds domains with the same Google Analytics code, AdSense ID, hosting IP etc

Whois - Information on registration of domain names. Declining in usefulness due to non-compliance with GDPR

Subdomain Finder - Scans domain and finds subdomains

Followthatpage - Monitors web pages and sends alerts to an email address

Distill - Monitors web pages and sends alerts to an email address

Visualping - Monitors web pages and sends alerts to an email address

Wachete - Monitors web pages and sends alerts to an email address

FluxGuard - Monitors web pages and sends alerts to an email address. The same company provides the similar Versionista

ChangeTower - Monitors web pages and sends alerts to an email address

Web Alert - Mobile (Android) app. Monitors web pages and gives notifications on your device.

Google Alerts - Monitors blogs, news and other websites for new mentions of specified keywords and phrases. Alerts can be sent to email or RSS

Archive.today - Allows archiving of pages and posts, including Facebook

Internet Archive - User-friendly archiving - particularly with the Wayback Machine browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Doesn't work on Facebook

Conifer - Formerly known as Webrecorder, an archiving service that asks you to set up your own account to save collections, with 5GB of space free, and also share and download them. Strong on social media.

Video Vault - Preserves online video with downloads and metadata

MISCELLANEOUS
MILITARY
INFRASTRUCTURE
TIME/DATE
WIKIPEDIA
4chan

International Encyclopedia of Uniform Insignia - Military and other uniform badges and insignia from around the world. Also has a discussion forum

Military Factory - Information on military hardware, including weapons and vehicles

Weapons ID Database - Helps in visual identification of weapons. Provided by Small Arms Survey

SKYDB - Database of highrise buildings worldwide with information and photographs

Skyscraper Page - Database of skyscrapers worldwide, some under construction or at planning stage

Brueckenweb - bridges - Website with photos and info on more than 90,000 bridges

Maintenance holes - Pictures of maintenance hole covers from around the world

Time Zone Converter - Find times in different locations worldwide

Unix time stamp converter - Converts Unix time stamps to human readable format and vice versa

Julian Date Converter - Converts Julian date to standard date and vice versa

Calendar converter - Shows dates according to different calendar systems used around the world

xtools - A suite of tools giving analysis of page edits and other activities

Wikimap - Map with a visual representation of geotagged Wikipedia articles

4chan Search - Searches the 4chan boards

Search4chan - Searches the 4chan boards

Archived.moe - Searchable archive of 4chan posts