Ghost Raptor

MediumOpen Source Cyber Intelligence

Overview

Operative, An official U.S. military account posted an image of an F-22 Raptor in the USCENTCOM AOR but kept the location secret. OSINT analysts later geolocated the base, media exposed it, and the post was deleted and reissued without the location hint. Your task: Identify the military base where the F-22 was stationed. Use any OSINT method—image forensics, terrain analysis, or media reports. We need the name. Get it flag format: flag{XX-Xxxxxx_Xxx_Xxxx}

Lab Details

Prerequisites & Requirements

  • Basic familiarity with reverse image search techniques
  • Understanding of how military media distribution platforms work
  • Ability to evaluate source credibility and cross-reference findings
  • Awareness that deleted or scrubbed social media posts often leave traces elsewhere on the web

What Will You Learn?

  • Reverse image searching with TinEye: How to use TinEye as an alternative to Google Lens or Yandex Images, and why different engines surface different results for the same image
  • Persistence past the first page: How OSINT investigations often reward patience; the critical lead in this challenge was buried on the second page of results, reinforcing the habit of never stopping at the first wall
  • Military open-source media: How to navigate DVIDS Hub, the U.S. military's official media distribution platform, which publicly hosts a wealth of imagery that can inadvertently expose operational details
  • Image chaining: How to take one image as a starting point, locate related images of the same subject from different angles on DVIDS, and then reverse-search those images to surface even more revealing sources
  • Exploiting digital persistence: How deleted social media posts rarely vanish completely; cached versions, third-party reposts, and media archives frequently preserve the original content long after the source removes it
  • Geo-attribution through open media: How a classified military deployment location can be independently confirmed through civilian news outlets and defense journalism that pick up and report on official imagery

Tools

  • Web Browser.

Job Positions

Cybercrime Investigator

Tags

Reverse Image SearchGeolocationImage AnalysisDigital FootprintingPivot