Breadcrumbs in the digital forest: Tracing criminals through torrent metadata with OSINT

This work investigates the potential of torrent metadata as a source for open-source intelligence (OSINT), with a focus on user profiling and behavioral analysis. While peer-to-peer (P2P) networks such as BitTorrent are well studied with respect to privacy and performance, their metadata is rarely used for investigative purposes. This work presents a proof of concept demonstrating how tracker responses, torrent index data, and enriched IP metadata can reveal patterns associated with high-risk behavior. The research follows a five-step OSINT process: source identification, data collection, enrichment, behavioral analysis, and presentation of the results. Data were collected from The Pirate Bay and UDP trackers, yielding a dataset of more than 60,000 unique IP addresses across 206 popular torrents. The data were enriched with geolocation, anonymization status, and flags of involvement in child exploitation material (CEM). A focused case study of publicly indexed high-risk instructional books, including titles related to improvised explosives, weapons, drugs, and sabotage, shows how torrent metadata can help detect concentrated interest in clusters of risky content. Network analysis highlights peer clustering, co-download patterns, and the use of privacy tools by suspicious users. The study shows that publicly available torrent metadata can support scalable and automated OSINT profiling. This work adds to digital forensics by proposing a new method to extract useful signals from noisy data, with applications in law enforcement, cybersecurity, and threat analysis.