Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT): Doing GeoOSINT and Finding Locations with Azimut

What it is

Azimut is an open-source GeoOSINT tool, v0.3.3 in this walkthrough, for Linux, Windows and macOS. It keeps each investigation as a case, with all media in one folder on the user's machine. The interface opens in the browser at http://127.0.0.1:8477. The binaries are on the project's GitHub release page (OsintMeThat/azimut).

How it works

Horizon is the main feature. The user picks a point on the map and sees the 3D terrain and skyline visible from there, up to about 150 km. The photo can be overlaid and matched to the peaks by eye or with the Fit tool.

Find mode (beta) works the other way. The user draws the skyline on the photo by hand and marks a search area of at most 10,000 km2. Azimut then ranks places where hills and ridges best match the line and gives a reason for each candidate. The run takes a while. The page says it works best with distant mountains.

Other features: metadata analysis, reverse image search, the sun path and light by hour (to estimate when the photo was taken), peak names on the skyline at the identified spot, and exported proof collages with highlights.

What to do

The page gives this Linux install sequence:

kali > wget https://github.com/OsintMeThat/azimut/releases/download/v0.3.3/azimut-linux-x86_64
kali > azimut-linux-x86_64 azimut
kali > chmod +x azimut
kali > ./azimut

The order is inconsistent. The second line runs the file before it is made executable, and chmod +x azimut names a file the download step does not create (it saves azimut-linux-x86_64). The page does not say to rename it. Making the downloaded file executable and then running it is the likely intent, but the page does not confirm this.

Caveats

• The author's Horizon overlay on the Wikimedia "Yosemite" test photo did not fit. The page says the photo shows a different area in Nevada. The walkthrough therefore does not show a successful match in either mode.
• Find mode is beta. The page says it finds the right spot "often enough to be useful" but not reliably, and that results must be checked by hand.
• Searches over 10,000 km2 are too large to process, as of the article's writing.
• Metadata can sometimes hold the location, but many phones now strip it by default.
• No accuracy figures, timings or hardware requirements are given.