19. Information Gathering and Scanning
19.4 Maltego Introduction
Maltego is a graphical link-analysis tool. You drop an entity (a domain, person, email, IP) on a graph and run transforms – small queries that return related entities. The result is a picture of how things connect: domain → DNS names → IPs → netblocks → organisation. Investigators and threat-intelligence teams love it because relationships are much easier to see as a graph than as a list.
| Maltego term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Entity | One object: Domain, DNS Name, IP Address, Email, Person, etc. |
| Transform | A query that takes one entity and returns related ones |
| Graph | The canvas where entities and links appear |
| Transform Hub | Where transform packs (free and commercial) are enabled |
On Kali, Maltego asks you to sign in and choose an edition (the free Community Edition has limits on results). Most transforms query internet services, so on a real target they are OSINT and must be in scope. The UI and edition details may vary – follow the current screens.
Why this matters for security
Blue teams use exactly the same graph idea to map their own attack surface: which subdomains point where, which old servers are still in DNS, which staff emails are public. Doing this for your own organisation before an attacker does is a normal defensive task.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
As soon as they open Maltego, students hit "Run All" on every transform at once – the graph fills with hundreds of entities and nothing makes sense. One entity, one transform, then think: "What is this telling me?" And remember, transforms go out to the internet – start with a hand-made graph in the lab.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
Maltego उघडल्या-उघडल्या students सगळे transforms एकदम "Run All" करतात – graph शेकडो entities नी भरतो आणि काहीच समजत नाही. एक entity, एक transform, मग विचार करा "हे काय सांगतंय?". आणि लक्षात ठेवा, transforms internet वर जातात – lab मध्ये hand-made graph ने सुरुवात करा.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
Maltego खोलते ही students सारे transforms एक साथ "Run All" कर देते हैं – graph सैकड़ों entities से भर जाता है और कुछ समझ नहीं आता. एक entity, एक transform, फिर सोचो "यह क्या बता रहा है?". और याद रखो, transforms internet पर जाते हैं – lab में hand-made graph से शुरुआत करो.
Lab
Open Maltego and create a new blank graph (no transforms against real domains). Manually add a Domain entity lab.local, DNS Name entities for each host from your 19.2 AXFR file, and an IP Address entity 192.168.56.20; link them. Add a note on the dev and vpn nodes: "should this be in public DNS?". Export the graph as an image for your notes.