ARGOS

WARNING: BETA VERSION This script has been updated for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS. It is under active testing. Always run it on a clean VM before using it in production. Report any problems by opening an issue.

Argos automatically configures an open-source OSINT workstation from a clean Ubuntu 24.04 LTS virtual machine.

Best practice recommends using a dedicated VM for each OSINT investigation. This script follows the methods described by Michael Bazzell in Open Source Intelligence Techniques.

Contents

• Requirements
• Tools
• Installation
• Installation Log
• To Do
• Resources
• Credits
• Licences
• Version History
• OSINT Analysis Guidelines
• FAQ

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Requirements

• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS (VM or workstation)
• Any Linux username (the previous requirement to use osint has been removed)
• System language: English
• Active internet connection during installation
• VirtualBox Guest Additions already installed — the script does not install them. Install Guest Additions before running setup.sh to enable clipboard sharing, drag-and-drop, and fullscreen support.

The script is optimised for VirtualBox. Code for VMware Tools is available in the comments.

Tested on:

• Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS (VM)
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (VM)

No longer supported:

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (some dependencies are incompatible)
• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

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Tools

OSINT

Tool	Status	Notes
Amass	Active	Subdomain enumeration
blackbird	Active	Username and email search across 600+ platforms
ExifTool	Active	Metadata from documents and images
Exploratores	Active	Browser-based OSINT toolkit (search tools, PII redactor, IBAN analysis, CyberChef)
EyeWitness	Active	Website screenshots
HTTrack	Active	Web crawling and mirroring
Instaloader	Active	Instagram OSINT
linkook	Active	Linked social accounts and emails from username
maigret	Active	Username search across 3000+ sites
Maltego	Manual	Link analysis; not auto-installed (requires paid account), install manually if needed
MediaInfo	Active	Media metadata analysis
Metagoofil	Active	Metadata from public documents
PhoneInfoga	Stable	Phone number intelligence (stable, unmaintained)
recon-ng	Limited	Modular OSINT framework; maintenance reduced
Sherlock	Active	Username search across 400+ sites
Shodan CLI	Active	Internet-exposed host search (requires API key)
socialscan	Active	Accurate email and username availability checks
SpiderFoot	Active	OSINT automation (200+ modules)
The Harvester	Active	Email and domain recon
Toutatis	Limited	Requires Instagram session ID
user-scanner	Active	Email and username OSINT, 195+ scan vectors
yt-dlp	Active	Video downloader (replaces youtube-dl)

Removed tools (abandoned or discontinued):

• Instalooter: use Instaloader
• Sublist3r: use Amass
• Photon: use Katana or GoSpider
• youtube-dl: replaced by yt-dlp
• Moriarty-Project: replaced by PhoneInfoga
• Elasticsearch-Crawler: use Shodan CLI
• Atom Editor (discontinued December 2022): replaced by VSCodium
• holehe: abandoned, replaced by user-scanner

General Tools

Tool	Status
Audacity	Active
CherryTree	Active
Google Earth Pro	Active
Kazam	Active
KeePassXC	Active
Obsidian	Active (latest version fetched dynamically)
OpenShot	Active
Ripgrep	Active
Threat Intelligence Resources	Active
Tor Browser	Active
VLC	Active
VSCodium	Active (replaces Atom)

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Installation

1. Open a terminal.

2. Install Git if it is not already present:

   sudo apt install -y git
   

3. Clone the repository into the Downloads directory:

   git clone https://github.com/SOsintOps/Argos ~/Downloads/Argos
   

4. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x ~/Downloads/Argos/setup.sh
   

5. Run the script:

   ~/Downloads/Argos/setup.sh
   

   Firefox does not need to be closed or opened manually. The script deploys an enterprise policies.json (privacy hardening, OSINT extensions, managed bookmarks) to the Firefox distribution directory; it is applied automatically on the next Firefox launch. Firefox opens the local Exploratores toolkit as its homepage.

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Installation Log

The script automatically generates a log file in the Downloads directory:

~/Downloads/argos_install_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.log

The log contains the full installation output with timestamps. If an error occurs, the exact line number is recorded in the log.

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To Do

• Add Katana or GoSpider as a replacement for Photon
• Update LibreOffice report templates for OSINT investigations
• Complete end-to-end testing on Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS VM
• Add shortcuts for maigret standalone and blackbird standalone

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Resources

• OSIntOps website
• The Argos Project: an OSINT-ready VM in minutes
• Argos is back, and it's not alone!
• OSInt Daily News
• Open Source Intelligence Techniques by Michael Bazzell
• Deep Dive: Exploring the Real-world Value of Open Source Intelligence by Rae Baker

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Credits

• Skykn0t for the original OSINT_VM_Setup script
• oh6hay for the script name
• pinkevilpimp for the wallpaper script

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Licences

See the licence files included in the repository.