Unleashing the Power of Google Sheets for Threat Hunting and OSINT: Quickly Analyze Bad Domains with Ease

In the world of cybersecurity and OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), speed and efficiency are crucial. Whether you’re tracking down malicious domains or gathering intelligence on potential threats, having the right tools at your fingertips can make all the difference. Imagine having a tool that allows you to gather essential information about a domain directly within a spreadsheet — no need to switch between multiple platforms or manually sift through raw data. With Google Sheets, this dream can become a reality. In this blog, we’ll explore how you can use Google Sheets to automate threat hunting and OSINT processes, and why having a pre-configured spreadsheet with powerful scripts is a game-changer.

The Utility of Google Sheets for Rapid Domain Information Retrieval

When dealing with cybersecurity and OSINT tasks, the ability to quickly retrieve and analyze information about domains is invaluable. Google Sheets, a tool you might already be familiar with, can be transformed into a powerful OSINT platform by integrating it with various APIs. Imagine entering a domain into a cell and instantly getting its VirusTotal report, WHOIS information, breach history, and HTTP status — right there in your spreadsheet. This level of integration allows you to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently.

Automating OSINT and Intelligence Processes

Manual research can be time-consuming and error-prone. By automating the collection of domain information, you can focus on analyzing the data rather than gathering it. Google Sheets, combined with Google Apps Script, allows you to automate the retrieval of essential domain data, saving time and reducing the risk of human error.

Here’s how automation can benefit your OSINT and threat hunting processes:

• Centralized Data Collection: All relevant information is collected and displayed in a single spreadsheet, making it easier to compare and analyze.
• Real-Time Updates: With a simple refresh, your Google Sheets can pull the latest data, ensuring that you’re always working with the most up-to-date information.
• Customizable Workflows: Scripts can be tailored to your specific needs, allowing you to automate almost any task related to domain analysis.

The Power of a Pre-Built Spreadsheet

Having a Google Sheets document ready to go with integrated scripts for OSINT and threat hunting tasks can save countless hours. Instead of manually checking domain information across multiple platforms, you can automate these processes and have all the data you need in one place. This approach is not just about saving time — it’s about improving the accuracy and efficiency of your threat hunting and intelligence operations.

Imagine a scenario where you’re monitoring several domains over time. With a pre-built spreadsheet, you can:

• Track Changes: Easily monitor changes in WHOIS information or detect new breaches.
• Visualize Data: Use Google Sheets’ built-in tools to create charts or graphs, making it easier to spot trends or anomalies.
• Collaborate with Teams: Share the spreadsheet with your team, allowing for real-time collaboration and collective intelligence gathering.

Practical Example: Analyzing a Real Scam Domain with Google Sheets

To demonstrate the power of Google Sheets in threat hunting and OSINT intelligence, let’s take a real-world example. We identified a suspicious domain, solcolventa.com, which is known to be associated with a scam operation in our country. Using our Google Sheets setup with automated scripts, we decided to analyze this domain.

Upon entering the domain into our spreadsheet, we instantly received the following results:

1. VirusTotal: The domain is not flagged as malicious, as there are no URLs detected as dangerous.
2. WHOIS Information: We retrieved the domain’s registration details, including the name, email address, and physical address of the registrant. This information can be crucial for identifying the actor behind the scam.
3. Have I Been Pwned: No data breaches are associated with this domain, indicating that it has not been involved in any known security breaches.
4. Page Status: The domain is active and responds with an HTTP status code 200, showing that it is online and operational.

All of this information was retrieved in less than a second, providing valuable insights quickly and efficiently. This rapid analysis enables us to act swiftly in identifying and addressing potential threats.

This example highlights how a well-configured Google Sheets document can serve as a powerful tool for threat hunting and cybersecurity intelligence, allowing for real-time analysis of malicious domains.

In addition to analyzing suspicious domains, Google Sheets can also be used to gather valuable intelligence on legitimate websites. Let’s take facebook.com as an example to demonstrate how our scripts can provide crucial insights even for well-known and widely-used domains.

Upon entering facebook.com into our Google Sheets setup, we quickly gathered the following information:

1. VirusTotal: The domain facebook.com shows a significant number of URLs flagged as malicious (100), and an equal number of URLs that were not detected as malicious (100). This highlights that even major platforms like Facebook are constantly targeted by malicious entities, emphasizing the need for vigilant monitoring.
2. WHOIS Information: The WHOIS data reveals detailed contact information for the domain’s registrant, which is Meta Platforms, Inc. This includes the administrative and technical contact details such as email addresses and physical addresses. This data can be crucial for contacting the right entities in case of security incidents or for understanding the ownership structure of a major domain.
3. Have I Been Pwned: The domain facebook.com has been associated with several breaches, including Facebook and Facebook Marketplace. This highlights the scale at which even major platforms can be affected by data breaches, underlining the importance of robust security measures.
4. Page Status: The domain is active and responds with an HTTP status code 200, indicating that it is online and fully operational.

This example demonstrates that our Google Sheets setup is not only useful for analyzing suspicious domains but also for gathering important intelligence on legitimate and major websites. By using these scripts, you can efficiently monitor and collect data that might be critical for your security assessments or OSINT research, all within a single spreadsheet.

Set up your own Google Sheets OSINT toolkit

Inspired by this real-world scenario, we’ve created a public GitHub repository where anyone can access and use the same powerful scripts we’ve demonstrated. If you’re ready to elevate your OSINT and threat hunting efforts, explore our project, Using Google Sheets to Hunt Bad Domains. This repository provides all the scripts you need, along with step-by-step instructions to help you set up your own Google Sheets OSINT toolkit.

This repository will help you work smarter, not harder.

Conclusion

Google Sheets is more than just a spreadsheet tool; it can be transformed into a powerful platform for threat hunting and OSINT. By integrating scripts that automatically pull vital domain information, you can streamline your workflow, improve accuracy, and save valuable time.