Overview and Review of Maltego 3

A few weeks ago the fine folks over at Paterva released the next version of their information gathering tool, Maltego 3.  Ever since day one of the product I’ve been a huge fan and have used it in multiple penetration tests and various reconnaissance activities.  I know I’m not alone as many of you in the security community use Maltego and also see the value that it brings.  Maltego 3 is no different.  However: it’s faster, more feature rich and has a damn sexy UI.  I won’t go into a ton of detail in this post but I want to highlight some of the awesome changes that I’ve noticed.

Setup and UI
The first thing you will notice is the startup wizard (Figure 1) that walks you though setting up your license and updating the TAS to download new transforms.  The wizard is a welcome addition especially for new users.


Figure 1. The Maltego 3 startup wizard.

You will notice that the transform manager itself has also gotten a face lift with a column showing you if a disclaimer is required or not (Figure 2).


Figure 2. The transform manager now shows you which transforms have a disclaimer or not.

Another noticeable change is the UI.  It’s sleek and sexy.  I also like how the main menu is grouped into two tabs: Investigate and Manage (Figures 3 and 4).  The Paterva team did a great job grouping items so its easy to select what you need.

Figure 3. Menu items are grouped into two tabs now.  Items are much easier to select.  This is the “Manage” tab.

Figure 4. The “Investigate” tab.

Back to the main UI.  Adding objects is similar to before but it’s faster and more responsive.  Figure 5 is a screen shot of the entire UI.

Figure 5. Simple Twitter search using the new Maltego 3 UI.

Entities connected to each other are easier to view.  When arrows connect to entities they move around other objects. (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Maltego 3 offers some nice UI improvements when moving entities around the screen.

Site Links and Entity Listings
Two other items I want to mention are some improvements on how links to and from a site are shown and the entity listing feature.  The site links transform rocks.  You can now see incoming and outgoing links to a website entity.

Figure 7. Links in and out of a website are easy to obtain in Maltego 3.

Lastly, I found the entity listing view most helpful.  This allows you to search and sort all the entities in your Maltego UI into a nice easy to view list (Figure 8).  Also, the dynamic view is pretty sweet as well.

Figure 8.  The entity list view provides a great way to search for things within the UI.

You can get the commercial version of Maltego now and the Community Edition is right around the corner.  Version 2 users can also use your same license key with Maltego 3.  Win!  Also, if your hesitant about buying a commercial product like this, don’t be.  Maltego is quite affordable for all the power you get and well worth it.  Reconnaissance is fun again! 🙂  More information about Maltego 3 is here.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *