The OSINT Newsletter - Issue #114
Reply Guys & Power Users: OSINT on Forums and Online Communities
đ Welcome to the 114th issue of The OSINT Newsletter. This issue contains OSINT news, community posts, tactics, techniques, and tools to help you become a better investigator. Hereâs an overview of whatâs in this issue:
What long-term posting history reveals
Where to find high-value discussions (beyond just Reddit)
A clean simple workflow
âŚand why rollercoasters capture that one userâs imagination.
đŞ If you missed the last newsletter, hereâs a link to catch up.
⥠Turning Physical Media into an OSINT Archive Powered by AI
đď¸ If you prefer to listen, hereâs a link to the podcast instead.
Letâs get started. âŹď¸
Reply Guys & Power Users: OSINT on Forums and Online Communities
The reply guy who just has to weigh in on every thread. The power user with 30,000 posts and even more opinions. The Boomer with a sign-off more dated than a digital calendar. The obsessive whoâs been answering the same question about rollercoaster lugnuts since 2009 and still isnât tired of it.
Every forum has them. From a real-life perspective, these people are (mostly) insufferable. From an OSINT perspective? These people are MVPs - the most valuable posters.
Give someone a forum and enough time, and theyâll build a record of everything: phases and bad takes included. Thatâs what makes forums powerful for OSINT. They track how users evolve when only their friends are watching.
This issue will teach you:
What long-term posting history reveals
Where to find high-value discussions (beyond just Reddit)
A clean simple workflow
âŚand why rollercoasters capture that one userâs imagination.
What Makes Forums Useful
Forums actually predate the Internet. Long before modern platforms, people were gathering in digital spaces to talk⌠and talk⌠and talk. Discussions are usually organised by topic, making it easy to follow context. Plus, small forum-specific details like join dates, post counts, locations, or signatures really add up.
Still - thereâs more:
Long-term User History
What divides a forum from a chatroom? Post length is one thing, as is content being at least semi-public, and that post material is at least temporarily archived. The latter part means forums are built for persistence. Users keep the same account for years and years, and can build up thousands of posts tied to one identity.
For OSINT, you can see not just what somebody says now, but how these views and interests rise, fall and evolve over time. Once they were super into frogs, now theyâre super into Alex Jones. Looks like a pipeline.
Unfiltered Personal Discussion
Forums tend to feel smaller and more community-driven than mainstream social platforms. As a result, users are often more direct and less curated in what they say.
Itâs common to find users drop their filters as they get more comfortable on a site. Some platforms are more unfiltered than others. You might think this will give you better material, but donât expect what you find on Kiwifarms or 4chanâs /b/ board to be genuinely useful. Or even make sense.
Beginner Platforms for Forum Surfing
Different platforms attract different types of users; all are annoying in their own special ways. Understanding where certain types gather and certain posts are made is key to finding the richest, most consistent data trails. Try:
Reddit
If you donât already scroll your free time away here, welcome to Reddit. Large, active, and searchable(ish), Reddit is useful for identifying usernames, interests, and initial posting behaviour. Subreddits act like mini-forums, centred around specific topics or communities. These could be big subreddits for games or TV, like r/BaldursGate3 or r/breakingbad; or really niche stuff like r/mousepadreview, or people who pee in the sink.
Bear in mind: r/ for a community, and u/ for a user.
Niche Forums
These are smaller, topic-specific communities where users post more consistently and in greater depth about their Thing. Hobby, profession, or interest, these are spaces with higher-signal content and long-term engagement.
Comment Sections
Comment sections on blog and news sites are often overlooked, but sometimes valuable. These spaces can contain older, less moderated discussions⌠with older, less moderated users. Comment section posters can be more flip than usual about identity and information sharing, but certain sites - looking at you, Youtube - are less profitable than others.
A Four-Fold Workflow For Making Forums Work For You
Now say that title at double speed. By the time your Fs donât falter, youâll have found the forum post you were foreseeing you might find in the first place.
Give the following a try:
Step 1: Search Username or Topic
Start by identifying the username or discussion topic relevant to your investigation. Use search engines and/or platform search functions to locate where OSINT-useful activity is most likely happening.
Step 2: Track History
Once youâve found that user, review their full post history. Once you find that post, review all the posts that led up to it. Donât just skim - look across time and mark recurring themes, preoccupations, and activity patterns.
Step 3: Identify Behavioral Patterns
Look for consistency. Writing style, posting times, interests, interactions with other users. Do they build a clearer picture of the individual behind the account? Do they give context to the comment you were searching for?
Step 4: Profit!!!!
OK - four steps were necessary to pull off several jokes in this section, but this final link in the chain is in fact extremely necessary. Always cross-reference your OSINT findings, to avoid weak leads and mistakes.
Key Insights
People Reuse Usernames
Many forums reward repeated use of the same username, through point systems like Reddit karma or Stack Overflow badges. Even up- or down-vote systems encourage sticking with one profile. For ease or kudos, many users link accounts or carry the same handle across multiple platforms - making an OSINT pivot a breeze.
Oversharing Is Normal
Frequent posters tend to reveal more over time. As a user gets cosy in their home community, they can overshare: opinions, experiences, and sometimes even more personal details that can be pieced together.
Dusty Old Posts
Old forums rarely get cleaned up, and older content is often less guarded. The web of the past was a more innocent place. Before privacy awareness increased, users were more open. As a result, historical posts are especially valuable for investigators.
Thread closed. Youâve survived the forum trenches. Youâre now - officially - a forum OSINT power user.
You should know:
What makes forums unique
How long-term posting history builds value
Why the same username will come up again and again
âŚAs for the obsessive: sheâs been posting about that rollercoaster since 2009, because thatâs the year she married it.
đ New CTF Challenge Live - Port Recon
A new CTF challenge has been posted on our CTF website. This weekâs challenge involves
identifying the location of a cruise port and uncovering the names of the six cruise ships visible in the provided image. Can you find the port and identify all six ships?
Start competing in our Capture the Flag (CTF)
đŞ If you missed the last CTF, hereâs a link to catch up.
Last weekâs CTF challenge featured a challenge titled âFinal Boardingâ where participants were tasked with identifying the airport from a photograph, finding its IATA code, determining the nearest boarding gate, and uncovering the name of a lounge.
Challenge solution WU :
To solve this challenge, participants should begin by performing a reverse image search on the photograph. One of the most distinctive elements is the walkway featuring the Revolut branding. Among the search results, they should find an exact match identifying the location as Leonardo da VinciâRome Fiumicino Airport in Italy. For example:
Once the airport has been identified, participants can look up its IATA code, which is FCO.
To determine the nearest gate, careful observation of the image is required. The gate number is not directly visible but can be seen reflected in the glass façade at the front of the photograph. The reflection reveals Gate A64, which is the closest gate to the location where the picture was taken.
Finally, the challenge asks for the name of the lounge located directly in front of the camera. Since the photograph was taken facing the gates, participants can inspect the airport terminal using Google Earth or the official terminal maps. By locating the area around Gate A64, they can identify the lounge opposite the camera as ITA Lounge Piazza Venezia.
Source links:
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