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Appendix A: Tool Reference Guide

This appendix provides a structured reference to the tools discussed throughout the book, organized by function category. For each tool, the reference includes: primary function, access model (free/freemium/paid), API availability, and the chapter(s) where it is discussed.


A.1 Social Media Intelligence Tools

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Sherlock Username search across 300+ platforms Free/OSS N/A (CLI) 5, 15
Maigret Username OSINT with detailed profile reports Free/OSS N/A (CLI) 5, 15
Holehe Check email against platforms Free/OSS N/A (CLI) 5
Instaloader Instagram downloader (public profiles) Free/OSS N/A (CLI) 5, 15
Twint Twitter scraping without API Free/OSS (deprecated) N/A 5
PRAW Python Reddit API wrapper Free Yes (Reddit API) 5, 14
Meltwater Media monitoring and social listening Paid Yes 16
Brandwatch Social analytics and listening Paid Yes 16

A.2 Domain and Network Intelligence

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Shodan Internet-connected device search engine Free tier + Paid Yes 6, 15, 19
Censys Internet scan and certificate data Free tier + Paid Yes 6, 15
SecurityTrails Historical DNS and domain intelligence Free tier + Paid Yes 6, 15
DomainTools WHOIS intelligence and domain history Paid Yes 6, 15
crt.sh Certificate Transparency log search Free JSON endpoint 6, 15, 19
ViewDNS DNS and IP tools Free + Paid Yes 6
Subfinder Passive subdomain discovery Free/OSS N/A (CLI) 15, 19
Amass Attack surface mapping Free/OSS N/A (CLI) 6, 15
dnspython DNS queries in Python Free/OSS Python library 6
ipwhois IP WHOIS in Python Free/OSS Python library 6

A.3 Search and Historical Data

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Google Advanced Search Operator-based web search Free Limited 9
Wayback Machine (CDXAPI) Historical web archive access Free Yes 9, 15
archive.today On-demand web archival Free N/A 9
Intelligence X Deep web and breach data search Free tier + Paid Yes 9
PasteBin / GhostBin Paste site search Free Limited 9
ExifTool Metadata extraction from files Free/OSS CLI / library 9, 15
Maltego Link analysis and data aggregation Free tier + Paid Transform API 15, 16

A.4 Public Records and Corporate Data

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
OpenCorporates Global company registry search Free + Paid Yes 7, 18, 21, 22
SEC EDGAR US public company filings Free Yes (EFTS) 7, 22
UK Companies House UK corporate registry Free Yes 7, 15
PACER US federal court records Paid (per page) Limited 7, 18
CourtListener Federal case law and PACER mirror Free Yes 7, 18, 22
USASpending.gov US federal contracts and grants Free Yes 7
FINRA BrokerCheck Financial services registration Free Unofficial 7, 18, 22
FEC API US campaign finance data Free Yes 7
ICIJ Offshore Leaks Offshore corporate data from leaks Free JSON 21, 22
OpenSanctions Global sanctions and watchlists Free + Paid API Yes 21, 22, 24

A.5 Geospatial and Satellite Intelligence

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Google Earth Pro Satellite imagery (historical) Free N/A 8, 15
Sentinel Hub Copernicus satellite imagery Free + Paid Yes 8, 15
Planet Labs Commercial daily satellite imagery Paid Yes 8, 15
Maxar Sub-meter commercial imagery Paid Yes 8
MarineTraffic AIS vessel tracking Free + Paid Yes 8, 15
FlightAware Flight tracking Free + Paid Yes 8, 15
ADS-B Exchange Unfiltered ADS-B flight data Free Yes 8
OpenSky Network Research-grade ADS-B Free (research) Yes 8
QGIS GIS desktop application Free/OSS Python API 8, 15
astral Solar position calculations Free/OSS Python library 8
Folium Python map visualization Free/OSS Python library 8, 15

A.6 AI and NLP Tools

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Anthropic API (Claude) LLM for analysis, synthesis, coding Paid Yes 10-12, throughout
OpenAI API (GPT-4o) LLM for analysis Paid Yes 10, 25
HuggingFace Transformers NLP models (NER, classification, etc.) Free/OSS Python library 11
spaCy Production NLP pipeline Free/OSS Python library 11, 14
Ollama Local LLM inference Free/OSS Local API 27
Whisper Audio transcription Free/OSS Python library 25
sentence-transformers Text embeddings Free/OSS Python library 11

A.7 Data Storage and Processing

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Elasticsearch Full-text search and analytics Free/OSS + Paid Yes 23, 27
PostgreSQL Relational database Free/OSS SQL 23, 27
Neo4j Graph database Free/OSS (Community) + Paid Cypher / REST 13, 27
Redis Cache, session storage, pub/sub Free/OSS + Paid Yes 23, 27
Celery Distributed task queue Free/OSS Python library 14, 23, 27
Apache Kafka Distributed event streaming Free/OSS Yes 23, 27
Apache Airflow Workflow orchestration Free/OSS Yes 23, 27
SQLite Embedded relational database Free/OSS Python built-in 14, 27

A.8 Visualization and Reporting

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
Plotly Interactive charts and graphs Free/OSS Python library 17, 27
NetworkX Graph analysis (Python) Free/OSS Python library 5, 13, 17
Gephi Graph visualization (desktop) Free/OSS N/A 13, 15
Maltego Link analysis and visualization Free tier + Paid Transform API 15, 16
Hunchly Web investigation capture Paid N/A 4, 15, 18
TimelineJS Browser-based timeline Free/OSS N/A 17

A.9 Security and OPSEC Tools

Tool Primary Function Access API Chapter
VirusTotal File and URL threat intelligence Free + Paid Yes 20, 27
AbuseIPDB IP reputation database Free + Paid Yes 20, 23
URLhaus Malware URL database Free Yes 20
MISP Threat intelligence platform Free/OSS Yes 20
Tor Browser Anonymizing browser Free/OSS N/A 15, 26
VeraCrypt Full-disk and volume encryption Free/OSS N/A 26, 27
Signal End-to-end encrypted messaging Free/OSS N/A 26
Tails OS Amnesic operating system Free/OSS N/A 26
Canarytokens Honeypot/canary tokens Free N/A 24

A.10 API Cost Reference (Approximate, 2024-2025)

Service Free Tier Paid Tier
Shodan 100 results/month $49-149/month
SecurityTrails 50 queries/month $199+/month
Hunter.io 25 searches/month $49+/month
VirusTotal 4 req/min $200+/month (enterprise)
NewsAPI 100 req/day $449/month
Anthropic API None (pay per use) ~$3-15/MTok input (model dependent; output tokens higher)
OpenAI API None (pay per use) ~$2.50-10/MTok input (model dependent; output tokens higher)
OpenCorporates 100 req/month Contact for pricing
Sentinel Hub 30,000 processing units $22+/month

Costs change frequently. Verify current pricing before budgeting.


A.11 Tool Evaluation Checklist

Before adding a tool to your stack, evaluate:

  • [ ] Authorization: Does using this tool comply with relevant ToS, licensing, and applicable law?
  • [ ] Data quality: How fresh is the data? What is the coverage and accuracy rate?
  • [ ] Rate limits: What are the limits and how do they affect workflow design?
  • [ ] API stability: Does the provider have a stable API with versioning and deprecation notice?
  • [ ] Privacy handling: Where does collected data go? Does the tool log your queries?
  • [ ] Cost predictability: Can you bound the cost at expected usage volumes?
  • [ ] Alternatives: Is there a free or open-source alternative that meets the requirement?
  • [ ] Longevity: Is the provider financially stable? What's the shutdown risk?