Birdwatcher is a Ruby-based OSINT framework that harvests and analyzes Twitter data for offline threat intelligence and social engineering research.
Data analysis and OSINT framework for Twitter
Birdwatcher is designed for security analysts, threat intelligence researchers, and OSINT practitioners who need to collect, store, and analyze Twitter user data and their tweets. It enables users to create workspaces, harvest tweets via the Twitter API, and enrich data with social graphs and influence metrics for offline analysis.
Birdwatcher requires a valid Twitter API access to harvest tweets and depends on PostgreSQL for data storage. Proper setup of PostgreSQL user and database is essential. Additional dependencies like Graphviz and ImageMagick enhance visualization capabilities but are optional depending on module usage. Users should ensure Ruby environment compatibility and manage versions with RVM if necessary.
Ensure Ruby version 1.9.3 or above is installed (`ruby --version`)
Install Ruby Version Manager (RVM) if Ruby upgrade or version management is needed
Verify RubyGems is installed and updated (`gem update --system`)
Install PostgreSQL and start the service (`service postgresql start`)
Create PostgreSQL user and database for Birdwatcher (`createuser -s birdwatcher --pwprompt` and `createdb -O birdwatcher birdwatcher`)
Install Graphviz for graph generation (`brew install graphviz` on Mac or `sudo apt-get install graphviz` on Debian-based Linux)
Install ImageMagick for image generation (`brew install imagemagick` on Mac or `sudo apt-get install libmagickwand-dev imagemagick` on Debian-based Linux)
Install Birdwatcher gem via RubyGems (`gem install birdwatcher`)gem install birdwatcher
Installs the Birdwatcher framework and its dependencies
service postgresql start
Starts the PostgreSQL database service required by Birdwatcher
createuser -s birdwatcher --pwprompt
Creates a PostgreSQL superuser named 'birdwatcher' with a password prompt
createdb -O birdwatcher birdwatcher
Creates a PostgreSQL database named 'birdwatcher' owned by the 'birdwatcher' user
brew install graphviz
Installs Graphviz on Mac for generating visual graphs
brew install imagemagick
Installs ImageMagick on Mac for image generation modules