Electronic methods for obtaining IP addresses through webmail and social networks

Abstract

Obtaining data is a fundamental stage in a computer security process both to identify violators or to detect vulnerabilities in a certain system. For tasks such as investigation or intelligence, among the most important information that can be collected from an entity are the IP addresses of important people, suspects or investigation targets. Obtaining this information for legal and ethical purposes is currently more complex because service providers mask this data in order to protect the identity of their users. In order to obtain the IP address, it is intended to apply different electronic and automated techniques that serve to modify documents and cover them up so that, when opened by the recipient, they reveal their IP address, which will be automatically registered in the logs of the web server that is implemented in this research. These approaches will be considered: sending an invitation HTTP link directly and sending an Office document with invisible characters. The scope of the work described is important, since it covers proposed techniques for detecting an IP address using various methods evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of each test. This will allow the forensic analyst or investigator to obtain a person's possible location by consulting with internet providers.