Phone numbers often contain clues to the owner's identity and can bring up a lot of data during an OSINT investigation. Starting with a phone number, we can search through a large number of online databases with only a few clicks to discover information about a phone number. It can include the carrier, the owner's name and address, and even connected online accounts.
For a hacker, the ability to turn a phone number into multiple connected online accounts, email addresses, or screen names makes it a perfect starting point for bigger things to come. A quick scan to discover the carrier of a phone number can provide everything a hacker needs for a well-crafted phishing email pretending to be from the carrier.
- PhoneInfoga
Today, we'll be using a tool called Phoneinfoga to quickly determine if the number is associated with a disposable phone number.
- Installing Phoneinfoga
To use Phoneinfoga, open a terminal window and enter the following four commands one by one or at the same time.
~$ git clone https://github.com/sundowndev/PhoneInfoga
~$ cd PhoneInfoga/
~$ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
~$ cp config.example.py config.py
Next, you can run the program and see the Help options.
~$ python3 phoneinfoga.py -h
- Search a Phone Number with Phoneinfoga
To search for a phone number, we just need to add the -n flag and then whatever number we want to search for. If you use the --recon argument, it will perform an advanced search.
~$ python3 phoneinfoga.py -n 8947███9435 --recon
After executing the command you can see , there are lots of links to dive into, and right away the name and business associated with the phone number are available in the output.
With tools like Phoneinfoga, you can quickly discover whether a phone number is a throwaway or a legitimate number. If the number is real, the IntelTecniques website tools can piece together clues to build a picture of the person behind the phone number, sometimes quite literally.
With the right tools, a single phone number can lead you from clue to clue, piecing together everything you need to learn about a target.
I hope you enjoyed this guide to using phone numbers in an OSINT investigation! If you have any questions about this tutorial on phone number recon, or if you have a comment, ask below or feel free to reach me on Twitter
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