Image metadata is text information that is pertaining to an image file, that is embedded into the file.

This data includes details relevant to the image itself as well as the information about its production. For example, if you take a photo in the park, your smartphone will attach GPS location metadata to the image. Back in the day, social networks wouldn't strip an images metadata, which mean't a celebrity could take a photo at home and upload it, revealing their location.. Creepy right?

Image Metadata can also include camera details, such as aperture, shutter speed and DPI.. it can also include the creator (author) or the individual taking the image.

Exiftool is a free and open-source program for reading metadata on files. Lets use this program to read a photo's metadata. If you don't have exiftool installed, you can download it here or you can deploy and access your own Kali machine with it pre-installed here.

Run the following command: exiftool <image file>

The output will look similar to below: