NORTHERN TRACE

MediumOpen Source Cyber Intelligence

Overview

In this challenge, you are provided with a photograph of a car taken from the rear. The license plate is visible, but some characters are obscured with red coloring. The car is located in the UK. Your task is to determine the full license plate and identify the correct vehicle model. X: Identify the full license plate number.  Y: Identify the correct vehicle model.  Submit the flag in the format `Flag{X_Y}`

Lab Details

Prerequisites & Requirements

  • Basic familiarity with OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) methodology
  • Ability to identify car makes and models from visual inspection
  • Understanding of UK license plate formatting conventions
  • Basic knowledge of how to use vehicle registration lookup databases

What Will You Learn?

  • Partial data reconstruction: How to work with incomplete or obscured information (a partially redacted license plate) and use publicly available databases to enumerate possible matches
  • Iterative filtering: How to take a broad result set (283 entries) and progressively narrow it down using multiple observable attributes such as make, color, and model, simulating real investigative triage
  • Vehicle identification from visual cues: How to distinguish between similar car models based on specific physical features like taillight geometry and rear panel design, using video references and manufacturer imagery as comparison sources
  • Open-source vehicle databases: How to leverage tools like the Partial Number Plate Search and the Motor Insurance Database (MID) Enquiry to extract registered vehicle details from a license plate alone
  • Cross-referencing sources: How to combine information from multiple independent sources (plate lookup + MID + video footage) to converge on a single, verified answer with confidence
  • Visual forensics: How to critically compare photographic evidence against reference material to eliminate false positives and confirm the correct match

Tools

  • Web Browser.

Job Positions

Threat Hunter

Tags

Image AnalysisPublic RecordsVerificationOpen Source ToolReconnaissance