OSINT in TikTok 09-23-2024, 07:39 AM
#1
An exhaustive guide for a quick start of OSINT in TikTok.
TikTok does not lose its popularity even in the current situation in the world, although it is an undesirable resource for use in the Russian Federation.
This guide is written to work with the PC version. It is not necessary to have an account - everything works without registration on the platform. Since the mobile version of the application gives a little less opportunities, and in terms of OSINT is a little inconvenient, the choice of PC for work is obvious.
User Profile
The user profile is where most of the information gathering and analysis for the investigation will take place, as it contains all publicly available information about the account. A TikTok user profile can be viewed in a web browser by adding their username at the end of the following URL: TikTok. The user profile page may include several items for use, including but not limited to: a profile picture, an alias, a unique identifier (Username), a verification mark, a description, and the total number of followers, subscriptions, and likes on the account. A user's profile also contains videos posted from the user's account, which may also be useful in an investigation.
Profile: profile picture
Unlike some social networks where users may try to hide their face, many TikTok users have no problem at all with using real photos in their accounts. According to the analysis, such actions are common on platforms where users are trying to go viral and/or gain a large number of followers. In general, TikTok likes to ‘trade on their face’. As always, one of the first things to do is to run a user's profile picture through a reverse image search tool such as Google, Bing, Yandex or Tineye. You can get the URL of the photo by right-clicking the photo and selecting ‘Inspect Item’. You will see a code snippet similar to the one below, containing the full-size URL of the photo in brackets:
background-image:url
very quickly found the owner of this account on many other social networks, as the same photo was published there.
In addition to using the profile picture URL for reverse image search, you can also add that link to the URL string and view a full-size image, such as the one shown below. This makes a big difference when you are trying to see details in a photo that may not be visible from the thumbnail of the image displayed in the profile.
Profile: nickname
A user's nickname is the top line in the account profile, which is bold and written in large letters. Multiple accounts can have the same nickname, so they are unlikely to be unique. Because of this, there is a discrepancy in how users treat this field. Sometimes they will use it as their username, while others may add their full name or part of it there. In the example above, this user probably chooses the second option and uses it to display their name (Sam). This comes in handy when the account owner needs to be fully identified.
Profile: unique identifier (@)
Directly below a user's nickname will be their unique identifier, always starting with the @ symbol. Unlike a nickname, this is a unique identifier that cannot be used across multiple accounts. It should be treated as a username, so you should try to find that user's accounts on other websites using this unique identifier. You can use one of the many services to search for username, or you can search for username through various citation search engines (e.g. ‘kingjomanji’). You should use more than one tool here, as each has its own drawbacks.
But the first thing to do is to check the user's unique nickname on WhatsMyName.
Using the example above, the username was checked via Google, which found an Instagram account but didn't see anything similar on other platforms.
TikTok does not lose its popularity even in the current situation in the world, although it is an undesirable resource for use in the Russian Federation.
This guide is written to work with the PC version. It is not necessary to have an account - everything works without registration on the platform. Since the mobile version of the application gives a little less opportunities, and in terms of OSINT is a little inconvenient, the choice of PC for work is obvious.
User Profile
The user profile is where most of the information gathering and analysis for the investigation will take place, as it contains all publicly available information about the account. A TikTok user profile can be viewed in a web browser by adding their username at the end of the following URL: TikTok. The user profile page may include several items for use, including but not limited to: a profile picture, an alias, a unique identifier (Username), a verification mark, a description, and the total number of followers, subscriptions, and likes on the account. A user's profile also contains videos posted from the user's account, which may also be useful in an investigation.
Profile: profile picture
Unlike some social networks where users may try to hide their face, many TikTok users have no problem at all with using real photos in their accounts. According to the analysis, such actions are common on platforms where users are trying to go viral and/or gain a large number of followers. In general, TikTok likes to ‘trade on their face’. As always, one of the first things to do is to run a user's profile picture through a reverse image search tool such as Google, Bing, Yandex or Tineye. You can get the URL of the photo by right-clicking the photo and selecting ‘Inspect Item’. You will see a code snippet similar to the one below, containing the full-size URL of the photo in brackets:
background-image:url
very quickly found the owner of this account on many other social networks, as the same photo was published there.
In addition to using the profile picture URL for reverse image search, you can also add that link to the URL string and view a full-size image, such as the one shown below. This makes a big difference when you are trying to see details in a photo that may not be visible from the thumbnail of the image displayed in the profile.
Profile: nickname
A user's nickname is the top line in the account profile, which is bold and written in large letters. Multiple accounts can have the same nickname, so they are unlikely to be unique. Because of this, there is a discrepancy in how users treat this field. Sometimes they will use it as their username, while others may add their full name or part of it there. In the example above, this user probably chooses the second option and uses it to display their name (Sam). This comes in handy when the account owner needs to be fully identified.
Profile: unique identifier (@)
Directly below a user's nickname will be their unique identifier, always starting with the @ symbol. Unlike a nickname, this is a unique identifier that cannot be used across multiple accounts. It should be treated as a username, so you should try to find that user's accounts on other websites using this unique identifier. You can use one of the many services to search for username, or you can search for username through various citation search engines (e.g. ‘kingjomanji’). You should use more than one tool here, as each has its own drawbacks.
But the first thing to do is to check the user's unique nickname on WhatsMyName.
Using the example above, the username was checked via Google, which found an Instagram account but didn't see anything similar on other platforms.
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