Last updated on October 28, 2021
Welcome to the 18th most interesting OSINT blog about bookmarkets of 2021. A very quick DIY “tool” share here, guaranteed* to contain at least 40% less of my stupid metaphors & 20 year old pop culture references.
(*not guaranteed)
Unless you’re brand new to the world of Open Source Intelligence (and if you are, welcome!), you’ve probably noticed that one very trendy topic lately has been creating and using bookmarklets to speed up your searches! I’ve posted a few things this year highlighting the fantastic work of Sinwindie, Jake Creps, & Chris Poulter who deserve plenty of credit for fueling the trend, as well as inspiring me to create a few that I use regularly in my investigations. (Jake & Bosintblanc also have a GitHub repo of some great ones, as does Sin)
If you’d like a more technical understanding of how these are made, I suggest you check out their work, which I’ll link at the end. If you just want copy and paste instructions to make a few for yourself, well then you came to the right link!
If you’re already groaning with annoyance because “bookmarklets are sooooo 2020, Griffin”, well then I encourage you to skip right to the part where I give you the code for a few of my faves.
If you find yourself running to the same sites over and over to conduct searches, you may be able to automate that process by way of bookmarklet. So how does it work? What manner of sorcery is this?
Very briefly and non-technically… we’re using a bit of javascript to automate searches on various sites by recreating the search URL for each site with our search term in it, and opening all those searches in separate tabs at the push of a button.
Depending on your background, a bunch of you probably had one of these two reactions to reading the word “javascript”:
Either…
“Oh god, javascript?? You mean the Dane Cook of programming languages??”
Or…
“The coffee icon thing? I always wondered what that did”.
Well, either way, you’re in luck, because like I said, I’m not actually going to tell you how to write them.
Let’s be honest here, no one actually reads blogs, everyone just skips to the links & tools to check them out, and MAYBE clicks that little star button to send it off to the great bookmark junkyard in the sky. You probably didn’t even read that sentence. Most likely, I’m talking to myself right now.
Like I said earlier, I’ll link the resources at the end that I referenced while learning how to make these.
If you are still reading, 2 notes of warning… sites that do not allow you to visit them while on a VPN will still operate that way when you’re searching via bookmarklet, and if you have a pop up blocker, you’re going to have to allow pop ups from whatever website you have open when you click the bookmarklet link because they pop up a window for you to type your search terms in.
Ok so here’s what you need to do to make the 4 examples below…
Open up a bookmarklet maker site (preferably one that does not capture and store the information you put in), I like one recommended by Jake: https://mrcoles.com/bookmarklet/
Copy and paste the below “minified” javascripts (for more on that, refer to the guides at the end) into the box.
In the name box type whatever name you’d like your link to have (examples provided).
Hit the “convert to bookmarklet” button.
Your screen will look something like this:
Once you’ve created the bookmarklet, you can drag and drop that blue icon right into your own bookmarks bar and you’re all set!
To use it, click on the bookmark link you’ve just created, input your search terms in the box or boxes that pop up, and forget about all the years you wasted doing these searches manually!
The first bookmarklet is for searching US phone numbers. It pops up 3 windows in succession asking you to input the area code, then prefix, then the last 4 of the number you’re searching. It queries 14 different phone search sites in one click. (some sites default to the search page when no result is found)
Name: US PHONE SEARCH
Script to copy/paste into creator:
var AREACODE=prompt(“Enter 3 DIGIT AREACODE ONLY: “),PREFIX=prompt(“Enter 3 DIGIT PREFIX ONLY: “),LAST4=prompt(“Enter LAST4 ONLY: var AREACODE=prompt(“Enter 3 DIGIT AREACODE ONLY: “),PREFIX=prompt(“Enter 3 DIGIT PREFIX ONLY: “),LAST4=prompt(“Enter LAST4 ONLY: “),TP=”https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/results?phoneno=(“+AREACODE+”)”+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,FPS=”https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,NUW=”https://nuwber.com/search/phone?phone=”+AREACODE+PREFIX+LAST4,WHO=”https://www.whoseno.com/US/”+AREACODE+PREFIX+LAST4,PSN=”https://www.peoplesearchnow.com/phone/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,RN=”https://www.revealname.com/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,SPF=”https://www.searchpeoplefree.com/phone-lookup/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,SM=”https://sync.me/search/?number=1″+AREACODE+PREFIX+LAST4,TT=”https://thatsthem.com/phone/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,SPY=”https://www.spytox.com/reverse-phone-lookup/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,ADV=”https://www.advancedbackgroundchecks.com/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,USP=”https://www.usphonebook.com/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4,CBC=”https://www.cyberbackgroundchecks.com/phone/”+AREACODE+”-“+PREFIX+”-“+LAST4;window.open(TP,”_blank”),window.open(FPS,”_blank”),window.open(NUW,”_blank”),window.open(WHO,”_blank”),window.open(PSN,”_blank”),window.open(RN,”_blank”),window.open(SPF,”_blank”),window.open(SM,”_blank”),window.open(TT,”_blank”),window.open(SPY,”_blank”),window.open(ADV,”_blank”),window.open(USP,”_blank”),window.open(CBC,”_blank”);
The next bookmarklet is for searching US name & State. It pops up 3 windows in succession asking you to input the first name, then last name, then a US State you’re searching. It queries 9 different people search sites in one click.
Name: US NAME & STATE SEARCH
Script to copy/paste into creator:
var FIRSTNAME=prompt(“Enter FIRSTNAME: “),LASTNAME=prompt(“Enter LASTNAME: “),STATE=prompt(“Enter STATE: “),TP=”https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/results?name=”+FIRSTNAME+” “+LASTNAME+”&citystatezip=”+STATE,FPS=”https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/name/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME+”_”+STATE,FTN=”https://www.familytreenow.com/search/genealogy/results?first=”+FIRSTNAME+”&last=”+LASTNAME+”&citystatezip=”+STATE,SPF=”https://www.searchpeoplefree.com/find/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME+”/”+STATE,SPKO=”https://www.spokeo.com/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME+”/”+STATE,WP=”https://www.whitepages.com/name/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME+”/”+STATE,TT=”https://thatsthem.com/name/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME+”/”+STATE,SPY=”https://www.spytox.com/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME,CBC=”https://www.cyberbackgroundchecks.com/people/”+FIRSTNAME+”-“+LASTNAME+”/”+STATE;window.open(TP,”_blank”),window.open(FPS,”_blank”),window.open(FTN,”_blank”),window.open(SPF,”_blank”),window.open(SPKO,”_blank”),window.open(WP,”_blank”),window.open(TT,”_blank”),window.open(SPY,”_blank”),window.open(CBC,”_blank”);
The next bookmarklet is for searching for the owner of an email. It pops up 1 window asking you to input the email (include the @domain.com portion in your search). It queries 5 different email search sites in one click.
Name: EMAIL SEARCH
Script to copy/paste into creator:
var EMAIL=prompt(“Enter EMAIL: “),TT=”https://thatsthem.com/email/”+EMAIL,SPY=”https://www.spytox.com/email-search/”+EMAIL,GOOG=”https://www.google.com/search?q=%22″+EMAIL+”%22″,EMREP=”https://emailrep.io/query/”+EMAIL,TRUM=”https://api.trumail.io/v2/lookups/json?email=”+EMAIL;window.open(TT,”_blank”),window.open(SPY,”_blank”),window.open(GOOG,”_blank”),window.open(EMREP,”_blank”),window.open(TRUM,”_blank”);
The last bookmarklet is for searching for domain information. It pops up 1 window asking you to input the domain (do not include the www or https in your search). It queries 10 different domain info search sites in one click.
Name: DOMAIN SEARCH
Script to copy/paste into creator:
var DOMAIN=prompt(“Enter DOMAIN- no www: “),DBD=”https://domainbigdata.com/”+DOMAIN,WHO=”https://whoisology.com/”+DOMAIN,BW=”https://builtwith.com/”+DOMAIN,SPY=”https://spyse.com/target/domain/”+DOMAIN,DNSL=”https://dnslytics.com/domain/”+DOMAIN,HOST=”https://host.io/”+DOMAIN,DT=”https://whois.domaintools.com/”+DOMAIN,VDNS=”https://viewdns.info/whois/?domain=”+DOMAIN,REVIP=”https://viewdns.info/reverseip/?host=”+DOMAIN+”&t=1″,IPHIS=”https://viewdns.info/iphistory/?domain=”+DOMAIN;window.open(DBD,”_blank”),window.open(WHO,”_blank”),window.open(BW,”_blank”),window.open(SPY,”_blank”),window.open(DNSL,”_blank”),window.open(HOST,”_blank”),window.open(DT,”_blank”),window.open(VDNS,”_blank”),window.open(REVIP,”_blank”),window.open(IPHIS,”_blank”);
Remember, these examples only incorporate sites that generate a unique URL based on your search terms, think: non-influencersoftwitter.com/hatless1der. There are lots of use cases out there, but the important thing is to find what’s relevant to your needs and realize you can make your own!
Bottom line here is that YOU CAN DO THIS.
I managed to follow the instructions and make these myself, and my wife tells me sometimes she wonders how I ever got so far into adulthood while being so completely incapable of listening. At least, I think that’s what she was saying.
If this inspired you with some ideas of your own, then I highly encourage you to go read the guides below and give it a shot. Don’t be intimidated by fancy words and pictures of code, this is not over your head, trust me! No matter what your proficiency level, you can recreate exactly what you see here and go on to make even more. Learn from these folks! Copy this technique! Find ways to automate some work! Save time! Use that saved time to watch Corgi videos on YouTube!
If you’re interested in the how-to, these fine people I mentioned in the beginning have done a great job of outlining it. Here are the links to their how-to guides:
Sinwindie: Pt1: https://www.secjuice.com/osint-bookmarklet-tools &
Pt 2: https://www.secjuice.com/make-your-own-custom-osint-bookmarklet-tools-part-ii/
Jake Creps step-by-step: https://twitter.com/jakecreps/status/1359637077361590279
Chris Poulter at SANS OSINT Summit 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpnVjE8bSvQ