Basic OSINT: How to find out where a picture was taken without geo data (Part 1)

A DigitalOverdose 2021 Autumn CTF Writeup

Credit: Background vector created by rawpixel.com

As a cyber enthusiast, I love CTF (Capture-the-flag) competitions and while I still enjoy solving technical challenges, OSINT challenges are usually the one that intrigue me the most and something that I look forward to in every CTFs. Over the weekend, I joined the 2021 Autumn CTF organized by Digital Overdose and below are some of my learnings, which also serves as writeups for some of the OSINT challenges.

The theme of the OSINT challenges are based in Japan and suitably named as “Tour de Japan”.

OSINT Challenge #1: Dare Enter the mirror world

Credit: Digital Overdose 2021 Autumn CTF

For this challenge, the picture below was provided and we needed to find out where this picture was taken. Below are a few immediate observations I had:

• This is some kind of building with an outdoor escalator and a roof/wall made up of multi-faceted mirrors.
• It is right at some kind of traffic junction and there are a few signboards around.