OSINT Recon — Open Source Intelligence Gathering
Systematically gather, analyze, and correlate publicly available information from open sources.
Cross-references: recon for the active/passive target-mapping pass against an authorized system (DNS, ports, fingerprinting) — osint-recon focuses on people, organizations, leaked data, and historical artifacts; the two pair naturally. breach-patterns for ingesting public breach intelligence into your own preemptive assessments. incident-triage if OSINT surfaces evidence the user is already compromised.
Ethics Check
Before proceeding, confirm:
- The investigation has a legitimate purpose (threat intel, authorized assessment, CTF, defensive research)
- You are only gathering publicly available information
- Results will not be used for harassment, stalking, or doxing
Refuse requests that target individuals for harassment or aggregate private information beyond what the objective requires.
Collection Techniques
Domain and Infrastructure OSINT
Run these to map a target's infrastructure:
whois <domain> # Registration data
dig any <domain> # DNS records
Query certificate transparency for subdomains:
curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.<domain>&output=json" | jq -r '.[].name_value' | sort -u
Additional sources: SecurityTrails, DNSDumpster, ipinfo.io, bgp.he.net, Wayback Machine, Shodan, Censys.
Organization OSINT
- Company registrations, filings, SEC records (public companies)
- LinkedIn company page — employee count, roles, tech stack hints
- Job postings — reveal internal tools, tech stack, pain points
- Press releases and news articles
- GitHub/GitLab organization pages and public repositories
- Patent filings
Email and Username OSINT
- Email format patterns (e.g., first.last@domain.com)
- HaveIBeenPwned — check for breach exposure (check only, never distribute breach data)
- PGP key servers for email discovery
- Gravatar lookups for email-to-identity correlation
Document and File OSINT
- Extract metadata from public documents:
exiftool <file> reveals author, software, GPS, timestamps
- Google dorking:
site:<domain> filetype:pdf, site:<domain> filetype:xlsx
- Pastebin and code paste site monitoring
- Public cloud storage enumeration (S3 buckets, GCS buckets with predictable names)
Threat Intelligence
- CVE databases for the target's technology stack
- Exploit databases (exploit-db, searchsploit)
- Threat feeds and IOC databases (VirusTotal, MalwareBazaar, OTX)
- Abuse contact databases
Analysis
- Cross-reference findings across multiple sources
- Validate information with at least two independent sources
- Build a timeline of events when investigating incidents
- Map relationships between entities (people, domains, IPs, organizations)
- Rate confidence: High (multiple corroborating sources), Medium (single reliable source), Low (unverified)
Output Format
# OSINT Report
## Objective: [what we're investigating and why]
## Target: [entity/domain/person]
## Date: [date]
### Collection Summary
| Source | Findings | Confidence |
|--------|----------|------------|
### Key Findings
#### Finding 1: [Title]
- **Source:** [where this was found]
- **Details:** [what was discovered]
- **Confidence:** High / Medium / Low
- **Relevance:** [why this matters to the objective]
### Correlations
[How different findings connect to each other]
### Intelligence Gaps
[What we couldn't find or verify]
### Recommendations
[Next steps and actionable intelligence]
Boundaries
- Only use publicly available sources
- Never attempt to access private or authenticated systems
- Do not aggregate PII beyond what is necessary for the stated objective
- Attribute all findings to their source
- Rate confidence levels honestly — do not overstate certainty
- If a finding could cause harm if misused, note the sensitivity
- Refuse requests for doxing, stalking, or unauthorized surveillance
References
- OSINT Framework (osintframework.com)
- SANS OSINT resource list
- Bellingcat Online Investigation Toolkit
1---2name: osint-recon3description: Gather and correlate open source intelligence from public sources for authorized investigations, threat intelligence, and attack surface assessment. Use when the user mentions 'OSINT,' 'open source intelligence,' 'digital footprint,' 'public records,' 'threat intelligence,' 'investigate a domain,' or needs to research a target using publicly available data.4---5
6# OSINT Recon — Open Source Intelligence Gathering
7
8Systematically gather, analyze, and correlate publicly available information from open sources.
9
10Cross-references: `recon` for the active/passive target-mapping pass against an authorized system (DNS, ports, fingerprinting) — osint-recon focuses on people, organizations, leaked data, and historical artifacts; the two pair naturally. `breach-patterns` for ingesting public breach intelligence into your own preemptive assessments. `incident-triage` if OSINT surfaces evidence the user is already compromised.
11
12## Ethics Check
13
14Before proceeding, confirm:
151. The investigation has a legitimate purpose (threat intel, authorized assessment, CTF, defensive research)
162. You are only gathering publicly available information
173. Results will not be used for harassment, stalking, or doxing
18
19Refuse requests that target individuals for harassment or aggregate private information beyond what the objective requires.
20
21## Collection Techniques
22
23### Domain and Infrastructure OSINT
24
25Run these to map a target's infrastructure:
26
27```bash
28whois <domain> # Registration data
29dig any <domain> # DNS records
30```
31
32Query certificate transparency for subdomains:
33```bash
34curl -s "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.<domain>&output=json" | jq -r '.[].name_value' | sort -u
35```
36
37Additional sources: SecurityTrails, DNSDumpster, ipinfo.io, bgp.he.net, Wayback Machine, Shodan, Censys.
38
39### Organization OSINT
40
41- Company registrations, filings, SEC records (public companies)
42- LinkedIn company page — employee count, roles, tech stack hints
43- Job postings — reveal internal tools, tech stack, pain points
44- Press releases and news articles
45- GitHub/GitLab organization pages and public repositories
46- Patent filings
47
48### Email and Username OSINT
49
50- Email format patterns (e.g., first.last@domain.com)
51- HaveIBeenPwned — check for breach exposure (check only, never distribute breach data)
52- PGP key servers for email discovery
53- Gravatar lookups for email-to-identity correlation
54
55### Document and File OSINT
56
57- Extract metadata from public documents: `exiftool <file>` reveals author, software, GPS, timestamps
58- Google dorking: `site:<domain> filetype:pdf`, `site:<domain> filetype:xlsx`
59- Pastebin and code paste site monitoring
60- Public cloud storage enumeration (S3 buckets, GCS buckets with predictable names)
61
62### Threat Intelligence
63
64- CVE databases for the target's technology stack
65- Exploit databases (exploit-db, searchsploit)
66- Threat feeds and IOC databases (VirusTotal, MalwareBazaar, OTX)
67- Abuse contact databases
68
69## Analysis
70
71- Cross-reference findings across multiple sources
72- Validate information with at least two independent sources
73- Build a timeline of events when investigating incidents
74- Map relationships between entities (people, domains, IPs, organizations)
75- Rate confidence: **High** (multiple corroborating sources), **Medium** (single reliable source), **Low** (unverified)
76
77## Output Format
78
79```markdown
80# OSINT Report
81## Objective: [what we're investigating and why]
82## Target: [entity/domain/person]
83## Date: [date]
84
85### Collection Summary
86| Source | Findings | Confidence |
87|--------|----------|------------|
88
89### Key Findings
90
91#### Finding 1: [Title]
92- **Source:** [where this was found]
93- **Details:** [what was discovered]
94- **Confidence:** High / Medium / Low
95- **Relevance:** [why this matters to the objective]
96
97### Correlations
98[How different findings connect to each other]
99
100### Intelligence Gaps
101[What we couldn't find or verify]
102
103### Recommendations
104[Next steps and actionable intelligence]
105```
106
107## Boundaries
108
109- Only use publicly available sources
110- Never attempt to access private or authenticated systems
111- Do not aggregate PII beyond what is necessary for the stated objective
112- Attribute all findings to their source
113- Rate confidence levels honestly — do not overstate certainty
114- If a finding could cause harm if misused, note the sensitivity
115- Refuse requests for doxing, stalking, or unauthorized surveillance
116
117## References
118
119- OSINT Framework (osintframework.com)
120- SANS OSINT resource list
121- Bellingcat Online Investigation Toolkit
briiirussell