Data about data: Metadata

Hey guys, how are you doing?

Today i would like to touch on Metadata.

What is metadata? This is data/information about data. Example: A photo is taken, maybe a family portrait taken by a smartphone. One could use an Exif Metadata Viewer to find out the smartphone/camera used, when the photo was taken, even where it was taken(location).

Metadata describes other data. It provides information about a certain item’s content. For example, an image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document’s metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.

Web pages often include metadata in the form of meta tags. Description and keywords meta tags are commonly used to describe the Web page’s content. Most search engines use this data when adding pages to their search index.

This info is vital but in the wrong hands could lead to issues in privacy and security. Hackers love these info because they are specific. And with the current information generation, people are oversharing. Someone post 15 pictures a day, all geotagged(location).

A motivated hacker(even script kiddie) could triangulate your actual location just based on geotagged photos. Thieves could tell by the smartphone being used, your style and your location then determine if you are a worthy target.

Anyway enough with the negatives, let’s dive into positives. 4 cases of kidnapping were solved thanks to metadata. Where the kidnappers took a geotagged photo of the victim then sent it to the family in order to demand ransom. They didn’t know the photo had their precise location until the cops arrived and took them in cuffs.

Metadata is everywhere. Every file be it video, audio, pictures, bin, archive etc. And I’ll show you how to view, manipulate, create and erase metadata in Android, Windows and Linux.

Kali Linux

Kali linux already has an exif viewer, if you don’t just open a terminal and type “apt install exif viewer” It should be the same for any other linux distribution. Just search for one that supports your distro and install it.

Android

For android, go to the Playstore.

Search for Exif Viewer and/or Editor. Download any you find.

Once installed, go to the app and search for your photo or go to your gallery, select your photo then share with the app to view it’s metadata. Some may come with the capability to manipulate/edit the photo/media’s metadata. So you could erase sensitive data e.g. location and so on.

Windows

For Windows, there is a command-line exif viewer and editor i use. It’s called Exiftool.

MAC OS

That’s it for today. Have a Blessed Afternoon/Morning.