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2 OSINT 2 Find You: Real-life OSINT Applications in Pentest
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About this session
Patricia Gagnon-Renaud, a pentest analyst at GoSecure, returns with a sequel to an earlier talk on the OSINT sources she now relies on. She surveys geolocation-focused YouTube creators and current AI image models for placing a photo, then works through harder real photos submitted by colleagues to show when landmark recognition is enough and when it is not. The core of the talk covers OpenStreetMap's Overpass API and Overpass Turbo, used to turn a partial civic address into an exact building by combining a house number, a city, and a nearby feature such as a river. She then reframes these techniques around preparing a vishing (voice phishing) engagement against a help-desk target, showing how LinkedIn, graduation dates, public Facebook posts, people-search sites, and reverse face search combine into a target profile, organized by confidence level. She closes with public-record sources such as a government tender portal and a business registry, plus everyday habits — photographed keys, GPS screenshots — that leak more than people realize, arguing that recognizing these source categories is the best personal defence.
Two years ago, I showcased basic OSINT techniques which led me to make the local news, by unlocking the front door of
an overconfident store owner. For my second talk, I want to show more common applications of OSINT in pentesting,
accompanied by new examples and techniques.
These will include the use of the OpenStreetMap Overpass API to find full addresses from partial information, as well as
the use of the many people-search-tools and reverse-image-search-engines to find and collect PII of targeted
individuals.
I believe that understanding how OSINT works is key to better protect ourselves online. I’m aiming to give you the tools
and knowledge to be better cybersecurity professionals, and learn to be more careful and diligent online, all in a fun and
engaging way.
Key takeaways
- Use OpenStreetMap's Overpass API/Overpass Turbo rather than consumer address lookups when you only have a partial civic number and a rough area; filtering by a nearby feature like a waterway narrows results fast.
- Treat LinkedIn education end-dates as an age-estimation vector: the end of high school and the end of a degree both bracket a target's likely birth year.
- Audit your own open social profiles, tagged photos and public reviews left under your real name, since these are exactly what people-search sites and reverse face search cross-reference.
- Before posting photos of keys or GPS device screenshots, assume visible details such as a bitting code or coordinates are usable, not just decorative.
- When preparing a vishing pretext, log OSINT findings with a confidence rating per item so the caller knows what to assert versus what to verify live.
Speakers
Patricia Gagnon-Renaud
Patricia Gagnon-Renaud is a Cybersecurity Analyst in the Ethical Hacking team at GoSecure. She has a bachelor's degrees in IT engineering, is a licensed engineer, and more recently, has become a Certified Information Systems Security Professional… Read moreRead less
Patricia Gagnon-Renaud is a Cybersecurity Analyst in the Ethical Hacking team at GoSecure. She has a bachelor's degrees in IT engineering, is a licensed engineer, and more recently, has become a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). Her interests include social engineering, physical security, lockpicking and urbanism.
