Awesome Obsidian & Cyber

innovating how we work with cyber knowledge

Table of Contents

• Working Group
  • Current Projects, Ideas, Tasks
    • High-Level Projects
• General Obsidian & Workflow
  • 0) Obsidian Starters & Templates
    • Starter Vaults
      • (Starter Vaults) Corporate, Enterprise
      • (Starter Vaults) Personal Branding
      • (Starter Vaults) Community Vault
      • (Starter Vaults) Mobile Vaults
  • 1) Core Activities
    • 1.1) Knowledge Capture
    • 1.2) Knowledge Work
    • 1.3) Knowledge Sharing & Output
  • 2) Organizing Cyber-Related Knowledge & Information
  • 3) Obsidian Plugins
• By Solution
  • Task management
  • GRC
  • IR
  • Awareness
  • SecOps
  • Application Security
  • Red Team
• Obsidian Technicals
• Using Obsidian for...
  • for Corporate, Enterprise
  • for Community
  • for Personal Branding
  • for Family, Personal, Partners, Friends
  • for Education
• Opinionated Additional Tools
  • Obsidian Tools
  • Browser
  • Core Windows
  • Core Mac
• Obsidian Plugin Development
• Other Knowledge Platforms (Wiki, KMS, Notetaking)

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Working Group

• If you would like to join the working group than contact me at https://cal.com/cybersader

• Check out the CONTRIBUTING doc to see how you can contribute to this space

Current Projects, Ideas, Tasks

- current tasks, ideas, etc.

Using Projects board:

• Type at bottom
• Use Ctrl + ENTER to make a draft
• Use ENTER to make an issue/task

High-Level Projects

Projects

Easy:

You should be able to start adding to these now

• Starter vaults for for SecOps, couple/family productivity, personal branding, GRC, and more
• Test Obsidian plugins with application firewall to watch traffic
• Curate Obsidian plugins
• Curate workflows, examples, and user stories

Medium:

With time, you can solve some of these with AI. They just take time.

• github.com > cybersader/obsidian-tag-and-folder-mapper
  • Plugin to map/sync folders and tags (multiple hierarchies so we aren't limited by folders)
• github.com > cybersader/Crosswalker: A tool for crosswalking cybersecurity frameworks and translating them into an Obsidian vault (Other names: LavaLinker
• Frameworker - map evidence to frameworks in one place
  • Obsidian plugin or workflow to define metadata per framework ↔️ obsidian_note connection. This would be step 1 of turning Obsidian into a full-fledged GRC database.
  • Ex:
    • You could have a CIS 1.1.md note generated from the above crosswalker tool and a Evidence_containing_note.md. Linking from one note to another isn't good enough. Instead, we can include metadata above the connection in the link syntax are in an intermediate file.
    • From Evidence_containing_note.md, we would make a link like framework_here:: [CIS 1.1](../CIS 1.1.md) {"reviewer": "Person", "status":"covered"}.

Hard / Seasoned-Developer / Pentester:

These rely on complex technical problems or complete architectures from the ground up

• Test risks of Obsidian application - penetration testing, exploitation
• Fix SMB share and other problems by implementing CRDT-based reconciler for file system like OneNote uses. Conflict handling for multiple user situations like corporate without needing to go to a block-baswd system like Notion
  • This would also apply to using Obsidian in a browser (Obsidian in the web) - more on that topic below
• User management layer on-top of browser-based Obsidian (linuxserver container like what KASM workspaces uses). This would make Enterprise use with Obsidian possible (collaboration and accessibility with security)

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General Obsidian & Workflow

0) Obsidian Starters & Templates

As I build template repos in GitHub, I've been using the below repo template I made to fast-track the process and have consistency

• github.com > cybersader/obsidian-vault-template-template: Obsidian template for vault templates for GitHub

Starter Vaults

(Starter Vaults) Corporate, Enterprise

• github.com > cybersader/obsidian-secops-vault-template - corporate template in progress
• start GRC template repo ➕ 2025-05-04

(Starter Vaults) Personal Branding

• github.com > cybersader/cyberbase: My public and contributable base/wiki/digital garden for cybersecurity - my public vault that I use as a website

• Add "cyberbase" starter (need to make a repo for this) ➕ 2025-05-04

(Starter Vaults) Community Vault

• Develop a community vault repo ➕ 2025-05-04

(Starter Vaults) Mobile Vaults

• Need to do more testing to build a good mobile vault that is performant, has good buttons, etc. ➕ 2025-05-04

1) Core Activities

1.1) Knowledge Capture

• Obsidian web clipper templates
• Useful ancillary tools, platforms, workflows

1.2) Knowledge Work

• Cybersecurity-specific Obsidian plugins
• Knowledge platforms and cyber
  • Organizing knowledge related to cyber - unique problems and solutions for this

1.3) Knowledge Sharing & Output

• Obsidian Publish templates
• Using GitHub for community wiki and contributions

2) Organizing Cyber-Related Knowledge & Information

These are example taxonomies that can be used or modified to organize knowledge or information around particular subjects.

• SEACOW(r) - a meta framework for organizing knowledge platforms
• PARA - a folder structure oriented towards what is actionable vs non-actionable knowledge
• Zettelkasten - writer and research focused workflow or approach
• LATCH
• ACE
• ARCO
• STIR

3) Obsidian Plugins

• obsidianstats.com > Explore New - Best place to explore and bookmark Obsidian plugins

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By Solution

Task management

• do individual task management in obsidian and escalate to longer term tasks and project MGMT tooling when necessary

GRC

• map frameworks as notes in obsidian and turn Obsidian into your core evidence mapping and risk management platform. Store your evidence/knowledge right alongside the frameworks you map to
• set up automations alongside your vault
• Use Obsidian to help other understand how to organize files

IR

• Set up a backup vault using obsidian Publish or sync with a password that the CISO or chief security related officer only has access to
• Give responders access to the vault to help onboard, see playbooks, and quickly become valuable during the event

Awareness

• set up games via the education section below for awareness or training

SecOps

• set up your core working, wiki, and knowledge management environment in Obsidian and collaborate in real time. this part is hard but game changing
• Store tutorials and document
• replace using OneDrive or file explorer for working with knowledge content and notes and docs

Application Security

• make program documentation in Obsidian and format to work with GitHub

Red Team

• streamline test reporting and documentation
• organize pen testing knowledge for easier sharing and collaboration

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Obsidian Technicals

these are relevant to corporate and to threat model the system

• Browser-based Obsidian (Web-based Obsidian?)
  • I posted an answer on this subject on the Obsidian forum
• Collaboration in Obsidian
• Plugin risks and security
• Securing Obsidian Application (network)
• Obsidian vendor philosophy
• Using application firewall with Obsidian

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Using Obsidian for...

for Corporate, Enterprise

• https://cybersader.com/corporate-obsidian
• Obsidian risks in corporate and mitigations
• https://cybersader.com/obsidian-in-browser
• Using Obsidian for IR and knowledge sharing for responders
• Limitations of using SMB shares

for Community

• Using Obsidian for cyber community and knowledge sharing - modern Wikipedia
• Contributable Obsidian wiki

for Personal Branding

• Examples
  • https://cybersader.com/%F0%9F%93%81+51+-+Cyberbase/Cyberbase+Development/Cyberbase+Development
  • cybersader.com - my personal website that uses it
    • https://github.com/cybersader/cyberbase

for Family, Personal, Partners, Friends

• couple vault template

for Education

• cynario builder using obsidian, obsidian Publish, or link compatible platforms
• education templates

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Opinionated Additional Tools

Obsidian Tools

• Obsidian Web Clipper
• Obsidian Sync
• Obsidian Publish

Browser

• Brave Browser
  • IMO Best Option - you can set flags:// to sync Browser tab groups between multiple devices. This is the best way to do research sessions on your phone, then have access to the sessions seamlessly on your computer
• Extensions
  • Obsidian Web Clipper
  • MarkDownload
  • Copy Title and URL as Markdown Style
  • Copy URL to Clipboard

Core Windows

• Sharex
• PowerToys
• OBS Studio
• GitHub Desktop

Core Mac

• Raycast

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Obsidian Plugin Development

• workflow and tooling

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Other Knowledge Platforms (Wiki, KMS, Notetaking)

• Alternative tools - not Obsidian
• Using Notion and Obsidian
  • github.com > cybersader/notion-to-obsidian-github-sync: Backs up Notion workspace to repo to be used for Obsidian KB/KMS. Also gets rid of page IDs and cleans up links.
• Affine, Appflowy, Trillium, etc.
• Comparisons for cyber