Season 1 · free OSINT investigations

Every trace
tells a story.

TraceHunt is an OSINT training ground: geolocation, username searches, website and social media analysis. On 100% fictional targets.

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OSINT disciplines

How it works

Think like an investigator

01

Pick an investigation

A fictional target, a starting point, a goal. It's up to you to follow the trail.

02

Pivot from clue to clue

Source code, usernames, social media, metadata, maps: every trace leads to the next.

03

Submit and climb

A correct answer earns leaderboard points and credits for what comes next.

Disciplines

Every facet of OSINT

All challenges →

OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) is intelligence gathered from open sources: everything that is publicly available. It is split into disciplines depending on the kind of trace you work with. On TraceHunt, every investigation belongs to one of them.

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Recon

12 challenges

Reconnaissance

Map an organisation from what it exposes publicly: its website, its team, its domain names, its documents. It is often the first step of any investigation.

The kind of question

  • Who works at this company?
  • Which email address does this department use?
  • Which subdomains does this website have?
Source codeWHOIS / DNSWeb archivesDocument metadata

SOCMINT

10 challenges

Social Media Intelligence

Exploit what people post on social media. Start from a name or a username and pivot from profile to profile to rebuild an online identity.

The kind of question

  • Is this username used elsewhere?
  • Who are their close friends and family?
  • What did they post during their holidays?
Username searchPivoting between accountsPost analysisTimeline
lat ??.???? · lng ?.????

GEOINT

4 challenges

Geospatial Intelligence

Find where a photo was taken or where a place is, from visual or written clues: architecture, signs, vegetation, shadows, terrain.

The kind of question

  • In which city was this photo taken?
  • What is this building?
  • What are the exact coordinates?
Reverse image searchMaps and satellite viewEXIF / GPS dataVisual clues
01101001010011010110100101001101
LSB · 0x00

Steganography

6 challenges

Steganography

Uncover messages hidden where nobody looks: in the pixels of an image, the spectrum of a sound or the extra bytes of a file. The art of seeing what is meant to go unnoticed.

The kind of question

  • Does this image hide some text?
  • What does this sound draw when you look at it?
  • What does this file contain after its official end?
Least significant bit (LSB)SpectrogramStringsDecoding (base64, ciphers)

Stuck?

Your wins pay for your hints

Every solved investigation earns you leaderboard points and credits. When you are stuck, spend them to unlock a hint: from a subtle nudge to an almost fully traced lead. The first 3 to solve get a first blood.

🔍 Hint 1subtle10% of the points
🧭 Hint 2guided25% of the points
🎯 Hint 3almost the answer50% of the points

Ready to follow the trail?

Create your account in 30 seconds and start your first investigation.

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