So, our goal is to figure out where Cody is in this video clip. This is my first time participating in a OSINT challenge. Cody is shown to be on a beach somewhere in the world, most likely in the United States because he is an American citizen, and the people around him appear to be American as well. We can also see a house near the beach with an American flag, indicating that this beach is in America.On May 18, 2020, the skies are blue and the temperature appears to be in the 65-76 degree Fahrenheit range.Another thing we can deduce from this capture is that it was shot on a coast, so we can get a sense of where we might look. Washington State, Oregon, and California are a few examples.We can also see mountains/hills that are present in this capture. So that, along with the green scenery, strengthens my case that this is on the west coast.
So, with everything we've been given/know, we can now begin our search.Let's give the tool we'll be using to assist with our investigation a name.For our investigation, we will use exiftool.I won't go into detail about what exiftool is, but a quick summary is that it provides metadata for videos/images.It's a free tool that anyone can use, so I recommend you go check it out and try it for yourself, or follow along with me on this tutorial. Cody uploaded the raw video to Dropbox, and when I downloaded it, I noticed that it was a .MOV file, so I checked to see if Exiftool supported this format. , and it fact it was so that made this easy for our end.I opened a powershell window and made sure to use the correct directory path. As an example,
PS C:\Users\xxxx\Documents\exiftool-11.81> & '.\exiftool(-k).exe' '.\Video May 17, 14 21 07.mov'
With that we should get zero errors and it should look something like this
Quiz time.
1. What device did Cody use to record this video?
2. Phone Manfuactuer?
3. Latitude coordinates
4. Longitude coordinates
We already have Cody's location, so we can simply enter his coordinates into a website.
For this tutorial, I'll be using "GPS Coordinates," and I recommend you do the same.
Make sure to use the coordinates provided by exif! Also, make sure to provide precise coordinates; if you don't, your search will be affected.
GPS Latitude: 48 deg 15' 48.96" N
GPS Longitude: 122 deg 44' 56.76" W
The name of the trail will be "Pacific Northwest Scenic Trail, Island County, Washington, United States of America."We've tracked him down!But, as is common practice, let us confirm it.
A tool that I recently discovered is an upgraded version of Google Maps that provides us with three Google Maps windows (Map view, Satellite view, street view). It's known as "Dual Maps."
Here's an example:
This tool is fantastic; it makes our job so much easier.So, with that out of the way, let's get back to our challenge.As previously stated, it is critical to check other sources before doing anything.
I compared it to GPS and dual maps, and this was the outcome.
Very similar, but there are some differences, such as the name location, and the surrounding names of the area appear to be different. Always double-check your sources!We could call it a day and be done with this challenge, but my curiosity always leads me to do extra and find the house shown in the video.
This may appear unnecessary, but if we're this far into the challenge, it can't hurt to try.
The first website that came to mind was, of course, Zillow. My luck ran out after a few searches; the houses on the coast had no photos, and if they did, the photos were not similar. So that rabbit hole was short, but I came to the conclusion that this house was one of two, and I'll post it below.
I'd like to conclude this challenge by saying that I've been having a lot of fun doing different things in the cybersecurity space. This industry is massive, and there is a lot to learn and do.
OSINT is something I'm familiar with, but it didn't evoke my interest as much as other technical work.But I've enjoyed taking on this challenge and putting my soft and technical skills to use.
I hope you had a good time, and I'll talk to you soon.