OSINT › Module 9 › Lesson 1
Metadata Is Data You Forgot You Published
Photos and PDFs carry leftover fields — YOUR media only. GATE then
Visual · exif_metadata_published
EXIF/GPS/author fields ride along in files YOU export.
Opening
The picture is what you posted. The GPS tag is what you did not mean to post.
Cameras, phones, and office suites embed metadata: time, GPS, camera model, author, software. That is useful for YOUR own archives and dangerous when YOU publish a file that still contains a home coordinate. Cyberlium teaches you to notice leftover fields on media YOU own. FOCA is named as a historical document-metadata concept — NEVER “harvest PDFs from the internet.” Never strip someone else's photos. Never stalk. Original Cyberlium.
1. Published bytes include fields humans forget to look at
A JPEG can carry GPSLatitude. A PDF can carry Author and a filesystem path. A video can carry creation time and encoder. Viewers show the pixels. Defenders also show the sidecar. If YOU uploaded a file, those fields became someone else's OSINT — including yours, which is why this module is self-OSINT.
FOCA is named as the old idea of mining document metadata in a pentest. Cyberlium's rule is absolute: do not harvest PDFs from the internet. If you have YOUR own PDF, you may inspect it locally later. Classmate photo dumps are stalking.
2. GPS is the field people regret
A beach photo with GPS is a map pin. Cyberlium will teach strip-on-a-practice-copy in later lessons. Do not strip originals you still need. Do not strip a partner's camera roll “as a favor” without their ask. Do not geolocate strangers.
3. What you will not call “document OSINT homework”
Downloading a company's public PDF library to mine authors and internal paths is the FOCA-shaped hunt we refuse here. Your job is YOUR exports: resume PDF you created, photo you took, sample you generate in the lab.
Dump sites, dark-web markets, and webcam dorks stay refused even when someone says “the metadata is public.”
4. What you ship: a leftover-fields sentence plus FOCA-as-concept-not-hunt
Metadata = extra fields in files YOU publish. ExifTool/TinEye/Lens/FOCA named with ethics. chmod 600. DEMO GATE. No PDF harvest from the internet.
5. What you record before the next lesson
Date. Metadata is forgotten sidecar data. NEVER harvest stranger PDFs. File t12-m09-l01-metadata.txt.
6. Wrong vs right: strangers vs identifiers YOU own
Worked failure — same OSINT word, opposite target. Right never needs a classmate or a dump site.
Wrong
FOCA a government PDF library. Strip a classmate's photos. Geolocate a stranger with Google Lens.
Right
Name leftover fields on YOUR media. Next: ExifTool file strings and mediainfo.
Mission: admit that YOUR files talk behind your back
1) / STOP if router. 2) Bookmark https://exiftool.org/. 3) Write: FOCA is a concept — I will not harvest PDFs from the internet. Never stalk. Never nmap a NAS “for photos.”
Stuck? Ask Cyberlium AI Mentor
If you have no photos, the lab will create a practice file — do not download strangers' media to “have something to scan.”
Knowledge Check
APPLY: FOCA in Cyberlium is:
Multiple choice
Knowledge Check
APPLY: True or False: GPS EXIF on a photo YOU posted can reveal a location you did not type into the caption.
True or False
Knowledge Check
APPLY: curl http://192.168.0.1/ is Router Admin. You:
Multiple choice