Comprehensive OSINT Guide
Comprehensive OSINT Guide A practitioner’s reference for Open Source Intelligence — methodology, collection disciplines, tooling, pivoting techniques, and operational security. Compiled from 34 research sources. Table of Contents Fundamentals The OSINT Lifecycle People OSINT (HUMINT/SOCMINT) Company & Corporate OSINT Infrastructure & Network OSINT Domain, DNS & Certificate Intel Social Media Intelligence Geolocation & Imagery (GEOINT) Breach, Leak & Paste Intel Metadata Extraction Code & Repository OSINT Dark Web & Threat Intel IoT & Device Discovery Tools Reference Automation & Visualization AI-Assisted OSINT Operational Security Legal & Ethical Considerations Quick Reference 1. Fundamentals Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the discipline of collecting, correlating, and analyzing information that is publicly or legally available to produce actionable intelligence. “Open source” does not mean “easy” or “low value” — it means no clandestine collection is involved. The sources are lawful: the skill lies in knowing where to look, how to pivot, and how to assemble fragments into a coherent picture. ...