DeadSwitch Ethical Hacking – Signals in the Static

~ Tom's IT Cafe

The blade waits. The ghost listens.

You listen before you strike.

Every network hums. Every domain leaks. You don’t touch the system – you listen.
Passive recon is the art of silence. No scans. No log entries. No alerts.
Just eyes, logic, and open signals bleeding into the void.

OSINT – Open Source Intelligence

  • What – Everything already public.
  • Why – The internet forgets nothing. Every tweet, GitHub push, CV, press release – it’s all signal.
  • How – Start wide. Work in. Cross-reference names, emails, subdomains.
  • Tools:
    • SpiderFoot
    • Maltego CE
    • theHarvester
    • Google dorking

Metadata Extraction

  • What – Hidden data in files and documents
  • Why – Leaks usernames, software, internal IPs, sometimes even credentials
  • How – Download public PDFs, images, docs. Dig in.
  • Tools:
    • ExifTool
    • FOCA
    • strings + binwalk

WHOIS and DNS Intel

  • What – Domain ownership, DNS structure, registration fingerprints
  • Why – Tells you who runs it, where it’s hosted, and what connects to what
  • How – WHOIS to identify ownership. DNS to map records: A, MX, TXT, SPF
  • Tools:
    • whois
    • dig
    • nslookup
    • SecurityTrails
    • crt.sh

Social Traces

  • What – Digital footprints of humans behind the system
  • Why – People leak more than systems. Names, roles, email patterns, tools in use
  • How – LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, forums, Slack leaks, breach dumps
  • Tools:
    • Sherlock
    • GHunt
    • GitHub dorks

Mapping the Surface Without Noise

  • What – Build a profile of the target without making a sound
  • Why – The more you know, the less you guess
  • How – Create a threat map: assets, people, software stack, exposed data
  • Tools:
    • Recon-ng
    • Amass (in passive mode)
    • SpiderFoot HX
    • draw.io or Obsidian canvas for diagramming
    • Emacs Org mode for journaling

Final Whisper

You don’t knock on the door.
You learn who built it, what color the hinges are, and where they bought the lock – without ever walking up the driveway.

The static is never silent.
You just have to know how to listen.

DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost
“In silence, we rise. In the switch, we fade.”

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