Hey everyone, it’s been a while!
I’m back to walk you through an OSINT challenge from Hacktoria. So let’s take up the role of a special Agent.
The Case:
Greetings, Special Agent K.
We’re in a bit of a pickle here, Special Agent. The CIA has requested us to hand over all information regarding Operation Runner. Which I believe was the second ever operation we undertook for SERPENT.
They’re requesting all information regarding our targets. However, it seems the Instagram profile for Maksim’s daughter was omitted from our reports. Would you be helpful and get the profile URL for me?
Objective: Find the Instagram profile URL for Elena Kotova.
The Investigation:
This challenge features a photo associated with Elena Kotova’s Instagram account. So I took my favourite engine and searched with these keywords. As expected, multiple Instagram profiles with the same name showed up. I decided to check them one by one.
The first account didn’t yield the desired results. Then I proceed to check the next account.
While scrolling through the posts, I found the exact image given in the challenge.
After identifying the correct Instagram account, I copied the profile URL.
To get the flag, I downloaded the flag zip file given below the task briefing. Then I extracted it using the Instagram profile URL as a password.
Mission Accomplished!
This is one of the easiest OSINT challenges I have solved. But one thing to keep in mind is that just because one finds something easily doesn’t mean it’s not valuable.
Until next time, happy OSINTing everyone!
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