Sherlock is an open-source OSINT tool that searches for a username across more than 400 social networks and websites, helping users identify publicly available accounts associated with the same handle.
Sherlock is an open-source OSINT tool designed to search for a given username across hundreds of social networks and websites. Instead of checking each platform individually, users can provide a username to Sherlock and receive results showing the platforms where that username is found. The project currently supports more than 400 platforms.
Sherlock uses a technique called username enumeration to check whether a particular username exists on its supported websites. It can search for one or several usernames and return the corresponding profile URLs when matches are found. The searches are based on publicly accessible information rather than attempts to access private accounts.
Sherlock is developed in Python and can be installed using Python package-management tools. Users can also restrict searches to specific websites and search for multiple usernames at once. Search results can be exported in different formats, including text, CSV and XLSX.
As an open-source project, Sherlock allows users and developers to review its source code and contribute improvements, including support for additional websites. Sherlock is released under the MIT licence. Its list of supported websites is maintained separately, allowing the project to adapt as websites and their username-search mechanisms change.
By combining username enumeration with support for hundreds of websites and multiple output formats, Sherlock provides an open-source workflow for cross-platform username discovery.
