Sherlock
Command-line tool that checks a username against hundreds of social networks and reports where an account with that name exists.
- Categories
- Username OSINT
- Type
- CLI
- Price
- Free
- Setup
- Some setup
Sherlock is a Python command-line tool. You give it a username. It checks hundreds of social networks and prints the ones where that exact handle appears to exist. The GitHub repo is sherlock-project/sherlock. It is widely used and one of the first tools people install.
It does not enrich a profile, follow outbound links, or tell you the four GitHub hits are the same person. It answers “does this string exist as an account on this site.”
Why it is still listed
Everyone already has it, and it is the right tool when you cannot send a handle to a third-party website. You run it on your own machine. You see the requests. You can fork the site list.
It is also the example I use when I talk about free tools that cost time. You need a working Python environment. Sites break their HTML and Sherlock’s checkers go stale until someone merges a fix. A common first name will return a wall of hits you then have to open by hand. Fingerprint.to charges money and does that collection step in one search. That is why Sherlock is in the directory and Fingerprint.to is a Gem.
When I still run it
On an air-gapped habit, or when I want a local CSV I control, or when I am teaching someone how username enumeration works. I do not run it first on a paid case unless the client has forbidden commercial lookup tools.
Install from the project’s current instructions, not from a random gist. The site list changes. Old pip packages lie.
