SocialScan – Check Email Address and Username Availability in Kali Linux
OSINT is the process of gathering information about the person or the organization through open source means. We can collect lots of information only from a single username or email address. All the linked profile URLs can be collected by running an automated script. SocialScan is the tool that helps the tester to collect information about the individual from publicly available data. SocialScan tool is an automated script or tool developed in the python language. SocialScan tool finds the associated URLs list of the victim linked with popular platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, GitHub, etc. This collected information can be used to study the victim more closely and perform a Social Engineering attack. SocialScan tool is an open-source script and free-to-use.
Note: Make Sure You have Python Installed on your System, as this is a python-based tool. Click to check the Installation process: Python Installation Steps on Linux
Installation of SocialScan Tool on Kali Linux OS
Step 1: Check whether Python Environment is Established or not, use the following command.
python3
Step 2: Open up your Kali Linux terminal and move to Desktop using the following command.
cd Desktop
Step 3: You are on Desktop now create a new directory called SocialScan using the following command. In this directory, we will complete the installation of the SocialScan tool.
mkdir SocialScan
Step 4: Now switch to the SocialScan directory using the following command.
cd SocialScan
Step 5: Now you have to install the tool. You have to clone the tool from GitHub.
git clone https://github.com/iojw/socialscan.git
Step 6: The tool has been downloaded successfully in the SocialScan directory. Now list out the contents of the tool by using the below command.
ls
Step 7: You can observe that there is a new directory created of the SocialScan tool that has been generated while we were installing the tool. Now move to that directory using the below command:
cd socialscan
Step 8: Once again to discover the contents of the tool, use the below command.
ls
Step 9: Run the setup.py file to complete the installation.
sudo python3 setup.py install
Step 10: Now we are done with our installation, Use the below command to view the help (gives a better understanding of the tool) index of the tool.
socialscan --help
Working with SocialScan Tool on Kali Linux OS
Example 1: Checking User
socialscan w3wiki
1. In this example, We will be checking the availability of users on popular platforms. We are checking for the w3wiki user.
2. In the below Screenshot, We have got the platforms list on which w3wiki user has their identity.
Example 2: Checking Email Address
socialscan gauravgandal@gmail.com
1. In the below Screenshot, We are checking the email address available on the internet.
2. In the below Screenshot, We have got the list of platforms on which the specifies email address is active.
Example 3: Show program’s version number
socialscan --version
In this example, We are printing the version of the SocialScan tool. –version tag is used to print the version.
Example 4: Display profile URLs for usernames on supported platforms
socialscan w3wiki --show-urls
1. In this example, We will be printing the associated URLs of users active on various popular platforms. –show-urls tag is used to print the URLs.
2. In the below Screenshot, We have got the URLs of w3wiki User active in listed platforms.
3. In the below Screenshot, We have visited the Twitter profile of w3wiki.
Example 5: Verbose
socialscan w3wiki --show-urls -v
In this example, We are printing the results in a more detailed way. -v is the tag used for verbose mode.