A TraceLabs endorsed list of awesome OSINT frameworks, libraries and software.
Note that there are great OSINT tools out there, but this list consists of tools that apply specifically to missing-persons searches.
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If you see a package or project here that is no longer maintained or is not a good fit, please submit a pull request to improve this file. Thank you!
- Email Search
- Multi Search
- Username Search
- Social Media
- Phone Numbers
- People Search
- Images & Video Analysis
- Documentation & Capture
- Geolocation & Mapping
- Domain/IP/Infrastructure
- Wireless
- Translation
Tools for performing email searches via social media, breach info, and other sources.
- Buster – Advanced tool for email reconnaissance.
- Have I Been Pwned – Check if an email address has been exposed in a data breach.
Tools that perform searches over multiple sources (social media, domains, IPs, phone numbers, etc).
- Maltego – Provides a library of transforms for OSINT discovery and visualizes information in graph format for link analysis.
- SpiderFoot – Automates the collection of OSINT to find everything possible about a target.
Tools to check username availability across multiple platforms.
- WhatsMyName – Search usernames across hundreds of websites.
- Sherlock – Search usernames across social networks from the command line.
Tools for gathering OSINT from popular social media platforms.
- Instaloader – Download Instagram photos, videos, captions, and metadata.
Frameworks and services for investigating phone numbers.
- PhoneInfoga – Information gathering framework for phone numbers.
- Truecaller – Caller ID and spam lookup service (commercial).
Tools for reverse image search, metadata extraction, and video analysis.
- Google Images – Reverse image search.
- Yandex Images – Alternative reverse image search with strong face-recognition capabilities.
- ExifTool – Extract metadata (EXIF, GPS, timestamps) from photos and videos.
- Jimpl EXIF Viewer – Simple online tool for checking image metadata (no install required).
- FFmpeg – Multimedia framework for extracting and processing video/audio.
Tools to preserve findings during an investigation.
- GoWitness – CLI tool to take screenshots of web pages for evidence collection.
- Wayback Machine – Browse historical snapshots of websites.
Resources for geolocation and map-based OSINT.
- Google Maps – Street view and satellite imagery.
- Mapillary – Crowdsourced street-level imagery.
Search engines and tools for investigating internet infrastructure.
- Shodan – Search engine for internet-connected devices.
- Censys – Internet-wide scanning and intelligence platform.
Tools for wireless network mapping and signals intelligence.
- WiGLE – Wireless network mapping database.
Tools to help translate and understand foreign-language content.
- Translate Shell – Command-line translator powered by Google, Bing, Yandex, and more.
- DeepL – High-quality translation service with strong support for European and Asian languages.