Reddit is one of the world’s most popular internet forum communities if not, the biggest internet forum community a least within the Western Hemisphere. It’s nicknamed “the front page of the internet” for a reason.
Reddit consists of subreddits, which consist of posts and comments by users based on the theme of the subreddit. Which can be pretty much anything from woodworking to fashion to memes to subreddits for specific regions and groups the list goes on and on. Currently, there are more than 2.8 million subreddits and 50-plus million daily active users. Which makes it a treasure trove of information for OSINT.
In this article, I’m going to explore and guide you through various OSINT Techniques that can be used within Reddit so you can conduct user investigations more streamlined and efficient. Let begin!
Profile Components:
For user investigations, the first starting point we work with within Reddit is a profile. Which is made up of these components:
- Profile image
- Username (begins with u/)
- Display name (optional)
- Karma(Reactions)
- Cake day
- Trophy Case
- On the upper middle left side of the user profile page, you’ll find links to the user’s “Comments” and “Posts” across Reddit.
Now that we have expectations on what we can expect on a profile, Let’s explore them and their various applications in a user investigation.
Usernames
A username will be one of the first data points you come across on a Reddit profile. They will appear above every post on the site and every profile page. It’s important to take note of any identifiable characteristics found within the username such as Hobbies/likes, Ethnicity, Age, Notable Numbers (birth year/date(1982), historic events, etc.), or locational Information Etc.
As you probably already know people on the internet tend to reuse usernames across multiple platforms as we are creatures of habit after all. For this characteristic is natural to us, it is good practice to look for the Reddit username across other social media platforms, in search engines. Or on other web forums that are related to the clues you gathered from their presence on Reddit. But please be aware to not make baseless assumptions that will limit your accuracy.
For example the image above provides a locational data point “London”
For in-depth examples on username analysis suggest that you check out my article on username analysis.
Profile Picture and Banners
Profile and banner pictures often give out key information, especially if they are not default. The first thing I like to do is to conduct a reverse image search either by utilizing Google Images, Yandex, TinEyes, Bing, etc. etc. I recommend utilizing multiple as you may get different results you otherwise wouldn’t get if you stuck with one.
A reverse image search will uncover additional user accounts across the web if the user reuses the same profile picture and or banner across multiple platforms. This will give you greater insight into the user footprint across the internet.
Now with Reddit to get a full high resolution image of either the banner or the profile picture. There are some extra step you need to take.
First you need to right-click and Inspect element(inspect)
This will allow you to see the skeleton of the webpage(html, CSS JavaScript, etc.) Now you need follow the steps displayed in the image below.
Additionally, it’s important to take into account clues within the profile picture/banner which can hint to the user’s location, hobbies, group affiliation, etc. etc. Anything that can be a possible pivot point.
About Section
Just like pretty much every social media platform, Reddit allows users to have a about section. And as we see in the About section on this user’s profile. it gives quite a bit of information, we can see that this user is a fan of Linkin Park, SOAD(System of A Down) Limp Bizkit Etc. Etc. And likes gaming(Titanfall 2, No Mans Sky, Etc.)
These would all be possible data points to explore on and off the platform to gain more information on the user. For example, since the user likes gaming they probably post on gaming subreddits, and have a Steam or Xbox Live account. It’s the same with the music preference you may find the user on an off-platform forum/community associated with that genre of music.
Karma & Cake Day
Next to every Reddit post or comment are options to upvote and downvote. By clicking one of these, you are giving either a positive or negative karma(reaction) to the post. Which will cumulate and populate the user’s profile. So as they make more posts and comments throughout Reddit the higher or lower the number of their Karma will be. If the user has a lot of karma that hints to the user spending a lot of time on Reddit or partaking in karma farming. And Negative Karma also hints that the user partakes in a lot of “Hot takes” or trolling on the platform.
“Cake Day”, is the day in which a user created their Reddit account. As we see in the image above the above users’ “Cake Day” is all the way back to May 3, 2013. This hints that this account is a legitimate account and not a newly created sock puppet or Bot account.
Links
If enabled, Redditors have the option to have links to other platforms where they can be found. This makes finding additional accounts easier than having to search around for them.
moderator section
Users who moderate one or more subreddits will have them listed on their profile. These subreddits are likely those that the user either created themselves or something that the user is really passionate about as being a moderator doesn’t come with payment. This list is great for building a profile of interests and beliefs on your target as the subreddits they moderate are likely subjects and topics they practice and conduct in their time off of Reddit as well.
In the above image, we can quickly determine that the user likes True Crime based on the subreddits he moderates.
TROPHY CASE
Reddit Trophies can be obtained by Redditors from a number of different things, such as contributions on Reddit, creating popular posts, having an account of a certain age, Etc. And will be displayed on the user profile in a Trophy case.
There is even a subreddit just for Reddit Trophies(TrophyWiki)
In the example above image, there is an Xbox Live Trophy which is for users who Downloaded the Xbox Beta App for Windows and linked their Reddit accounts. And what this tells you from an investigative standpoint is that the user has an Xbox Live account which you can look for.
Post/Comment History
Reddit has a built-in search/filter engine on users’ profiles to search their posts and comments across Reddit and all its different subreddits. You can filter on Top, Hot, and New posts and comments. And by simply reading through their posts/comments you can gain a lot of information on the person behind the profile.
Now It’s important to pay attention to all of the different subreddits the user is posting & commenting on as well as the post contents. As it allows you to build a picture of who the user is and what their interests are. And help you fish out any new clues the pivot off of.
For example, lets take a look at the below user’s posts & comments:
this user frequently comments and posts of Vietnamese and biking related subreddits. This indicates that this user has a connection to Vietnam and biking as a hobby or even “business”.
And just from one of his posts we now know where one of his connections to Vietnam comes from. In the above screenshot, he states that “my wife is a is a vietnamese tour guide”.
With this post, it is revealed that he even has a website to sell his art related to his biking interests as a graphic artist. And all this key information was gained from just his Reddit posts.
Deleted Content:
Just like any other social media platform posts and comments can be deleted. Either by the users themselves, moderators, or the platform. Deleted content can be valuable source information as they could contain information to assist in moving forward your investigation or assist in its conclusion.
So here are some third-party tools to assist in retrieving this deleted information:
Reveddit:
Revedit is a service for finding deleted content on Reddit. It can retrieve deleted content for both users and subreddits.
Waybackmachine:
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive. It allows the user to go “back in time” and see how websites looked in the past. The same can be done with Reddit and going “back in time” within Reddit often give key clues.
For example this user is listed as a moderator of r/CulturalCityVadodara this doesn’t exist on their current profile.
Redditmetis
Redditmetis is another tool for analyzing Reddit users’ profiles. All you need to do is provide the target Reddit username and Redditmetis will provide a visual analysis of the last 1000 comments and 1000 submissions.
In conclusion,
Reddit can be a very valuable source of information for user investigations and a key resource for OSINT investigations in general, presenting a treasure trove of information for all types of intelligence gathering with its millions of active users and vast archives of information.
Hopefully, by Reading this guide you will be equipped to explore Reddit’s vast amount of user-generated content. And be able to create new techniques and methods to create valuable intelligence. See you on the next one! :)
