Top 12 Best Open Source Intelligence Tools (OSINT Tools) for Penetration Testing 2023

We all know very well that getting or gathering any information by using various tools becomes really easy. In this article, we have discussed various OSINT tools, as if we search over the internet, then there will be many different pages to pop out.

But the most problematic thing is to gather different information from multiple pages for an appropriate target within the project.

Hence, we have accumulated each and every detail about these tools and put them all together in this post, and as a result, we will show you the 10 best OSINT tools.

Generally, OSINT tools are used by pen testers to find possible weaknesses and information in a company’s protection system that is working.

However, tools play a significant role, but without knowing the usage of tools, it would be worthless for the users to use it.

Hence, before moving toward the tools, let’s gain some knowledge about OSINT and why do we need OSINT tools.

What is OSINT ?

As we have discussed above that OSINT stands for open-source intelligence, and it refers to a collection of data or information from public sources like companies, organizations, or about people.

Generally, OSINT techniques have been produced from openly available information for the public that is collected, utilized, and distributed at a suitable time to a suitable audience for directing a particular intelligence demand.

The internet is a wide range of sources of data which has enormous advantages and disadvantages as well as.

Hence if we talk about benefits, then we can say that the internet is free to access, and everyone can enjoy or use it until and unless it has been restricted by the organization or by the law.

On the other hand, if we talk about the disadvantages, then let me clarify that anyone with a wicked intentions can easily misuse the information which is available on the internet.

Internet information can vary from time to time, like audio, video, text, website information, article or news, etc.

Why do We Need OSINT tools?

After knowing what is OSINT tools, now the question arises why do we need OSINT tools? Suppose there is a situation where you have to find proper information related to a specific topic on the internet.

And for this, you have to do it in two ways, first, you have to analyze and gather all the information about the topic; its kind of laboring and time taking too.

Now, on the other hand, you can simply use the open-source intelligence tools, as the tools are directly connected to the different websites, and check the topic if it’s present or not just in a few seconds.

Hence, now we hope that for you it is clear that it saves a lot of time, and the users get proper information without remembering the information.

And not only that even we can also use various tools to collect all specific information about the topic that we are seeking.

Top 10 Best OSINT Tools 2023

• Social Links
• Google Dorks
• NexVision  
• TheHarvester
• Shodan
• Hudson Rock
• Maltego
• Metagoofil
• Recon-Ng
• Check Usernames
• TinEye
• SpiderFoot
• Creepy

1. Social Links

Social Links is a software company that develops AI-driven solutions that extract, analyze, and visualize data from open sources including social media, messengers, blockchains, and the Dark Web.

Their flagship product SL Professional empowers investigators and data security professionals to reach their work objectives quicker and more effectively.

SL Professional offers a suite of custom-designed search methods spanning more than 500 open sources. The product’s advanced search queries, many of which rely on machine learning, allow users to filter the data as it is being gathered in a range of sophisticated ways.

However, Social Links OSINT solutions do more than just gather information; they also offer advanced analysis tools for refining data as you progress through investigations, returning accurate results for an ever more comprehensible picture of the investigation.

Product Features

• A professional bundle of 1000+ original search methods for over 500 open data sources including all major platforms across social media, messengers, blockchains, and the Dark Web

• Advanced automation features which leverage machine learning to deliver an expansive range of information retrieval, delivering accurate results at remarkable speeds

• Bespoke analysis tools enable data to be significantly enriched and molded to the user’s particular purposes

• Seamless integration within any IT infrastructure

• Social Links offer training and support as part of their product packages

For organizations who need the ultimate OSINT solution, Social Links also has an enterprise-grade platform SL Private Platform – an on-premise OSINT solution offering their widest range of search methods, full customization according to the users’ needs, and private data storage.

2.Google Dorks

We all know that Google is a well-known and the world’s most-used search engine, but don’t be shocked! As the tech giant, Google is not an open-source tool, but we all use google to find the information that we want.

As search engine simply provides us with essential information, as well as they, also record important information.

And Google Dorks implements a flexible and easy way of searching for information by applying some operators, and conceivably it is also known as Google Hacking as well.

The result of this search engine comprises social media posts, ads, websites, images, etc. the operators of the search engine could easily make the information much better and more accessible for securing data.

OSINT Tools Features

As we know that Google uses operators to find information, and here are some operators that we have mentioned below:-

• Intitle – Generally this operator is used to search the title.
• Ext – This operator is used for a specific extension in the file.
• Inurl – It simply helps us to find specific strings mentioned in the URL.
• Filetype – As its name itself states that with this operator you can simply know that it is used to find the file.
• Intext – It helps us to find a particular text on a specific page.

2. NexVision

NexVision is an AI-powered OSINT tool that automates data collection and processing to drive decision-making. It is the most comprehensive OSINT tool on the list used by corporations, governments, the military, and researchers. 

Unlike other OSINT tools that are limited in its scope, or produce too many false-positive results, NexVision provides the largest OSINT data pool (surface and dark web, social media data lake) and it uses artificial intelligence (AI), to remove false positives, so users get the most accurate intelligence. 

Objective 

• Provide accurate, timely, and actionable intelligence that empowers teams throughout the organization to make faster,  more accurate decisions and amplify their impact — from security operations, compliance, incident response, fraud prevention, risk analysis, and threat monitoring.

OSINT Tools Features 

• AI/ML-powered engine with the continuous collection, analysis, and sorting of big data (from publicly available databases and the deep web) 
• Provide real-time access to the whole web, including the clear web and the dark web (where criminal activities occur), without the use of an anonymizing browser like Tor.
• Greatly increasing data available whilst removing false positives 
• Multilingual data support 
• Equipped with natural language processing and steganography-decoding capabilities. Able to detect jargon and capture hidden information advanced threat actors employ to avoid detection.
• A dashboard that allows users to set keyword alerts, conduct investigations and analyze results whilst staying anonymous. 
• The easy-to-use interface that is accessible to analysts without prior data science or computer science background.
• Provide alerts in real-time and send text/email alerts to the user 
• Cloud-deployment solution with the ability to integrate with existing IoC stacks via API for easy adoption 

Users can use NexVision to conduct background checks on people and organizations, gather social sentiment, and monitor keywords throughout the whole web and NexVision will send an alert whenever there is new intelligence on the target. 

3. TheHarvester

TheHarvester is an outstanding tool if you want to find emails, user names, hostnames, or domain-associated information from different public search engines and PGP key servers.

This tool is a sub-part of the Kali Linux Tools and is quite attractive for harvesting intelligence applied in the initial steps of a penetration test.

This tool is basically created to help the penetration tester on a more advanced stage, and it’s really efficient, manageable, and easy to use. Moreover, there are different sources are available that it supports are Google for Emails and subdomains, PGP server for hostname/subdomains and users, and many more.

4. Shodan

Shodan is an effective and powerful Hackers search engine generally used by hackers to see through all exposed assets.

It gives you the proper results that make more sense and are associated with security professionals.

It mainly contains data linked to assets that are being connected to the network, and this tool can be accessed from computers, laptop, traffic signals, webcams, and different IoT devices.

Basically, this tool simply helps the security analyst in recognizing the target and test it for several vulnerabilities, services, passwords, ports, and many more. Moreover, it also provides flexibility in community searches as well.

5. Hudson Rock

With expertise developed at the cybercrime intelligence division at the prestigious 8200 cyber unit at the IDF, Hudson Rock’s powerful cybercrime threat intelligence feed provides invaluable data for infrastructure protection, end-user protection, and supply chain risk assessment. 

Cavalier — Hudson Rock’s monitoring and notification platform (and API) for threat intelligence professionals — notifies SOC teams about employees, customers, partners, and third parties that had their computers compromised through global malware spreading campaigns.

With very sensitive and actionable data sourced from threat actors in exclusive hacking circles, Cavalier’s database of millions of compromised machines helps organizations combat ransomware and other cyberattacks. 

Hudson Rock also offers a great sales prospecting tool for cybersecurity sales teams called ‘Bayonet’.

Free Trials for Cavalier & Bayonet, as well as a free preview version of their robust cybercrime API are available at HudsonRock.

6. Maltego

It is a part of kali Linux and a product of Paterva. This open-source intelligence tool is mainly used to perform an essential investigation toward various targets with the help of some in-built transforms.

If you want to use Maltego then you should be registered on the Paterva site, after proper registration, you can create your own desired machine, or you can simply run the machine to get the target.

The program that we use in Maltego is generally written in Java and it comes built-in pre-packaged with the Kali Linux.

There are several steps built-in inside Maltego through which you can easily collect information from different sources, based on the result, and not only that even it will also generate graphical results of the target as well.

7. Metagoofil

We can say that Metagoofil is an information-gathering tool generally used for extracting metadata of public documents of the targeted company or organization.

This tool offers a lot of features like searching for the record, extraction of metadata, reporting of the result, and local downloads.

After the result, it produces a report with usernames, software versions, and servers or specific machine names that will serve Penetration testers in the information-gathering stage.

8. Recon-Ng

Recon-Ng is generally used to perform surveillance on the target and is one of the best OSINT Tools in the list, furthermore, it’s also built into Kali Linux.

Recon-ng has several modules inbuilt, which is it’s one of its most powerful features, and not only that even its method relates to Metasploit.

Those users who have used Metasploit before can know the exact power of modular tools. To use a modular tool, you have to add the domain in the workspace and these workspaces are mainly generated to carry out the operation inside it.

There are some great modules, like bing-domain-web and google-site-web, which are used to find additional domains associated with the first initial target domain.

The result of these domains will be stay as recorded domains to the search engines.

9. Check Usernames

As we discussed above that how much time takes and laboring to find a username presence without using an open-source intelligence tool. Thus if you want to get any information about usernames without wasting time, then Check Usernames is one of the best tools for it.

It simply searches for a specific username at a time from more than 150 websites, and not only that even it also has a fantastic feature with which you can quickly check the presence of the target on a particular website so you can immediately attack or counter your target.

10. TinEye

TinEye is the first reverse image search engine, and all you have to do is to submit a proper picture to TinEye to get all the required information like where it has come and how it has been used.

It uses different methods to function its tasks like image matching, signature matching, watermark identification, and various other databases to match the image instead of using keyword matching.

TinEye applies neural networks, machine learning, pattern recognition, and image identification technology rather than keywords or metadata.

In short, if you are searching for any tool like this for reverse image search then undoubtedly it is one of the best tools that you can find on the internet.

11. SpiderFoot

It is another open-source tool in OSINT Tools GitHub list that is available for both the well-known platforms, Linux and windows. It has been written in Python language, and it runs on any virtual platform. As it has automatically qualified to use questions over 100+ OSINT specialists to grasp the intelligence on emails, IP addresses, names, domain names, etc.

It basically combines with easy and interactive GUI with a powerful command-line interface. It receives and collects a wide range of information about the target, such as a web server, netblocks, e-mails, and many other things.

While Using Spiderfoot, you may able to target as per your need and requirement, as it simply collects the data by learning how they are linked to each other.

Moreover, it gives clear penetrations about possible hacking warnings like data leaks, vulnerabilities, and additional relevant information on the same.

Hence this insight will help to leverage the penetration test and improve the threat intelligence to notify before it gets attacked or looted.

12. Creepy

It is an open-source Geolocation intelligence tool, which gathers information about Geolocation by using several social networking platforms and different image hosting services that are previously distributed somewhere else.

Generally, Creepy is classified into two primary tabs that are, ‘Targets’ and ‘map view’ tab. Basically, it shows the descriptions on the map, applying a search filter based on the exact location and date.

And not only that, even all these reports are accessible in CSV or KML format as well. Moreover, it is written in python language and also comes with a packaged binary for Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, and Backtrack, and also for Microsoft windows as well.

OSINT Tools – Conclusion

In this article, we tried to cover all the information on OSINT tools, including OSINT techniques, and what they need, and we have also discussed the top 10 best OSINT tools of 2023 as well.

Though the list can go on, the fact is that it depends on the selection of the right tool and proper techniques. Hence the above tools are free to use so that users can easily use them and can check which is more suitable for them.

So, what do you think about this? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below. And if you liked this post, then do not forget to share this post with your friends and on your social profiles too.

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