OSINT Exercise #026
Hi, this is Legion Soul I work as an Intelligence Analyst. In this article I solve the OSINT Exercise #026 by Sofia Santos.
Exercise:
The image below shows the contents of a zip file. Inside you will find a 31-second video recorded during a train ride, and four photos of undisclosed locations. They were all taken by the same individual in February 2024. Despite having no useful metadata, they still contain enough information to track down this person’s movements.
Your task is to determine:
a) At which train stations did the person board and alight?
Bonus Questions
- Identify the mode of transportation in each image.
- Determine the type of train they rode.
- Estimate the speed at which the train was travelling when the footage was recorded.
- Calculate approximately how far did the person travel overall.
Initial Analysis
I start the image through reverse searching the images, hoping for some better information to start.
Image 1
Reverse searching the Image with google revealed the location to be Chorsu Bazaar, Tashkent.
Image 2
Reverse searching the image with google revealed the place to be Navruz Park, Tashkent.
Image 3
Reverse searching through Google did no help, so I used Yandex to search the image with changing my location to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Still I wasn’t able to find any information.
Break down
I start by breaking down all the important information from the image
- Chevrolet car
- Samsung galaxy hoarding
- Kapital Bank advertisement on the bus stop.
- Navien Boarding
- A possible quote by a prominent person, in Uzbekistan.
I try searching using the phrases “Samsung Galaxy hoarding” and “Navien Boarding” in Yandex keeping the location as “Tashkent”. Though I wasn't able to get any direct results, I cam across a advertisers’ website which included the Samsung Galaxy building.
The building’s address wasn’t mentioned in the website, but the address of the company was given to be Tashkent.
Knowing that the picture is of Tashkent, I try to employ a different method. I searched with the phrase “Kapital Bank ATM Tashkent” in google maps hoping to find a bank or an ATM near the bus stop.
After going through couple of locations, I was able to find an ATM location of Kapital Bank in Oybek, Tashkent. Using the street view option of the google maps I was able to find the bus stop, no far way from the ATM.
Mapping the route
Before going forward, I wanted to visualize the route the person took, using the help of the pictures’ locations. I use Google Earth to annotate the paths.
This helped me understand the routes the person took while travelling around the city.
Image 4
While reverse searching the image through Google and Yandex didn’t give much information, the huge presence of Chevrolet cars, helped me assure that the place is still in Uzbekistan (Uzbek is the country with almost 95% of Chevrolet cars!)
With help of reverse searching using Yandex, I was able to understand that the design was common to other structures in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan
After spending a lot of time and almost giving up searching for the bridge, I go with the assumption that the person travelled from Samarkand to Tashkent in train.
I start to read about the train from Samarkand to Tashkent, I understood that the train running between Samarkand to Tashkent is bullet train with the name Afrosiyob, named after the Afrosiab Settlement.
I was exploring a hotel named Afrosiyob, where I found a bridge using the satellite view from Google maps. The satellite view of the bridge, was resembling to image 4.
Using street view, I was able to confirm it was the same bridge from Image 4, and the place was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Having the parts of the information, and using the information from the 30 sec clip, I was able to confirm the person travelled from Samarkand to Tashkent in a train.
Stations
Using Google Maps, I was able to confirm that the trains from Samarkand to Tashkent are from Samarkand Railway Station to Stantsiya Tashkent Pass Tsentr. Which gave me my first answer.
Bonus Questions
- Mode of transportation :
Image 1: The higher elevation could be due to many reason, but it’s worth noticing the elevation isn’t high enough for a bus, so I go with the option pedestrian.
Image 2: Pedestrian
Image 3: The image was from a pretty busy street, the possible mode of communication could be a car.
Image 4: The person’s and the seat’s reflection could be seen, the elevation was closer to ground showing us a car. - The only train that runs from Samarkand to Tashkent is the Spanish designed bullet train, Afrosiyob. The type is Talgo 250, as per this website.
- The top speed of the train, Talgo 250, is 250 kmph. Though unsure, I estimate the speed to be 250 kmph.
- The total distance travelled by the person is 316 km ( Samarkand to Tashkent by train is 273 km, Afrosiyob to Samarkand railway station is 7 km, and the total trip in Tashkent was 16 km)
Sooo hard!!!!!!!
Conclusion
This concludes the challenge #026 by Sofia Santos, the final answer is
- Samarkand Railway Station to Stantsiya Tashkent Pass Tsentr
Thank you for reading, while I prepare the answers for our next challenge, be sure to explore my other articles and insights!
