Last updated on August 28, 2022
This blog is simply a placeholder for the links and related content for a talk of mine at the 2022 National Child Protection Task Force conference about the many different OSINT approaches you can take to Telegram without needing to be logged in. Many investigators are unable to join Telegram for one reason or another, but there’s still plenty of clues that might be found if you know how to look.
This post will make sense if you saw the talk, and if you haven’t it might seem a bit cryptic but you can still probably pick a thing or two up.
Telegram OSINT From The Outside
Links List!
Basic Telegram Dorks:
site:t.me
site:telegram.me
inurl:[usergroupchannelbotname]
Bio/Description Search Examples:
Website URL
Crypto Wallet
Phone/WhatsApp
Other Socials
Real Name
Email
Affiliations
Emojis
Username Search Tool Site:
https://whatsmyname.app
Seeing “Hidden” Description/Bio Content:
Right Click, Inspect
Find the: “tgme_page_description” element
Expand to see all content
OR use a bookmarklet! (s/o Webbreacher)
Copy & Paste This Text As a Bookmark In Your Browser, Click When You Have a Telegram Profile Page Open:
javascript:(function()%7Bvar a %3D document.getElementsByClassName('tgme_page_description')%5B0%5D%3B alert(a.innerText)%7D)()Group/Channel Join Links:
Format: t.me/joinchat/******** and telegram.me/joinchat/*******
Add to your search operators to make:
site:t.me/joinchat OR site:telegram.me/joinchat
Finding Exact Time/Date From Message:
Click on time element in lower right corner to open message solo
Right click on the date/time, Inspect
Find the “tgme_widget_message_date” element
Displays 2 times – First: UTC, Second: Your Timezone
Channel Preview URL Edits:
Edit # at the end of a message URL to visit different messages specifically
OR
add ?before=100 to view the first 100 messages in a channel
OR
add ?q=[searchterm] to search a channel – can search any text including file names & even extension types like PDF, XLS, etc
Archived Versions For Changed or Newly Hidden Content:
https://archive.org (Internet Archive – Wayback Machine)
https://archive.today (or archive.is or archive.ph)
Google Cache via cache:https://t.me/[userchannelgroupbotname]
Telegram CSEs To Leverage:
CSE Telegago:
https://cse.google.com/cse?q=%2B&cx=006368593537057042503%3Aefxu7xprihg
CSE by Francesco Poldi:
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=004805129374225513871%3Ap8lhfo0g3hg
CSE Commentgram:
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=006368593537057042503:ig4r3rz35qi#gsc.tab=0
CSE by Bosintblanc:
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=f22644e7cf7c34e97
Both Francesco’s & Telegago at IntelX:
https://intelx.io/tools?tab=telegram
CSE by WeVerify:
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=006976128084956795641:ad1xj14zfap
Telegram Search Sites – Warning! Privacy/Safety Concerns
TGStat – tgstat.com
Telegram Channels – telegramchannels.me
Telegram Group Search – tg-me.com
Telegram Group Link – hottg.com
Telegram Discovery Search – tlgrm.eu
Telegram Directory – tdirectory.me
About Telegra.ph
site:telegra.ph
telegcrack.com – Warning! Privacy/Safety Concerns
Reverse Image Searches:
Browser Extension: https://github.com/dessant/search-by-image
Telegram Learning Resources I’ve Enjoyed:
Nico Dekens (@dutch_OSINTguy) video from SANS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aXQYq2l6U
Micah Hoffman (@webbreacher) myosint.training course: https://www.myosint.training/courses/telegram
@Cyb_detective resource page: https://cipher387.github.io/osint_stuff_tool_collection/#telegram
Ginger T (@cqcore) blog:
https://www.cqcore.uk/telegram-fundamentals/
Reddit’s r/telegram subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Telegram/