Information Gathering & Reconnaissance

Target Organization: XYZTelecom (Hypothetical)

Objective: Conduct passive reconnaissance using OSINT techniques.

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Step 1: Define Scope & Rules of Engagement

• Use only publicly available data (OSINT).

• No active scanning or exploitation.

• Focus on passive reconnaissance techniques.

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Phase 1: Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Gathering

Step 2: Identify Basic Information

• Website & Domain:

  • Example: https://www.XYZTelecom.com

  • Check robots.txt for restrictions.

  • Analyze source code for hidden comments, API keys.

• WHOIS Lookup:

  • Tool: WHOIS Lookup

  • Command:

    whois XYZTelecom

  • Extract Details:

    • Registrar name

    • Creation & expiration date

    • Contact emails (if visible)

Step 3: Collect Employee & Email Information

• Google Dorking:

  • Example Queries:

    site:XYZTelecom.com filetype:pdf
    site:XYZTelecom.com intitle:index.of
    site:linkedin.com/in "XYZTelecom"

• LinkedIn Scraping:

  • Tool: theHarvester

  • Command:

    theHarvester -d XYZTelecom.com -b linkedin

• Email Permutations:

  • Use Hunter.io to find email patterns.

  • Example format: [e-mail]

Step 4: DNS & Subdomain Enumeration

• Find subdomains:

  • Tools: Sublist3r, Amass, crt.sh

  • Command:

    sublist3r -d XYZTelecom.com

• Extract DNS records:

  • Tool: dig

  • Command:

    dig XYZTelecom.com ANY

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Phase 2: Infrastructure & Technology Stack Analysis

Step 5: Analyze Website & Hosting

• Wappalyzer Browser Extension

• BuiltWith: https://builtwith.com/

• WhatWeb CLI Tool:

  whatweb XYZTelecom.com

Step 6: Identify Publicly Exposed Services

• Shodan Search:

  • Query:

    hostname:XYZTelecom.com

  • Look for:

    • Open SSH, FTP, RDP, database ports

    • Outdated software versions

• Cloud Storage Misconfigurations:

  • Google Dorking:

    site:s3.amazonaws.com "XYZTelecom"

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Phase 3: Social Engineering Research

• Identify potential phishing attack vectors.

• Check for leaked credentials on haveibeenpwned.com.

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Final Report & Documentation

Key Findings

• AcmeCorp uses WordPress with outdated plugins.

• Employee emails follow [e-mail] format.

• Exposed subdomain: vpn.XYZTelecom.com.

• Shodan reveals an exposed database server (security risk).

Recommendations

• Enforce strong password policies.

• Update and secure outdated software.

• Restrict publicly exposed services.

• Educate employees on phishing risks.

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