Check account existence across 400+ social networks with a single nickname
This open-source tool automates the process of determining what traces a specific nickname has left across multiple platforms. By entering a nickname, it scans over 400 social networks to verify if an account exists. The results can be saved as text, CSV, or Excel files, or opened directly in a browser, making it useful for digital forensics and information gathering tasks.
Nickname-based account search
The tool searches over 400 social networks based on the nickname entered by the user. It supports entering multiple nicknames at once, not just a single one. Once the search is complete, the list of discovered accounts is saved to a text file with the same name as the nickname. Using the --csv or --xlsx options allows exporting the investigation results in spreadsheet format, which facilitates subsequent analysis. Adding the --browse option automatically opens the discovered links in the default browser.
Installation and execution
As a Python-based tool, it can be installed using one of pipx, pip, or uv. If you prefer Docker, you can run the container with the docker run -it --rm sherlock/sherlock command. On ParrotOS and Ubuntu 24.04, third-party managed packages may be broken, so using uv, pipx, pip, or Docker is recommended on these systems. Community-maintained packages exist for Debian, Ubuntu, Homebrew, Kali, and BlackArch, but they are not directly supported by the project team.
Search scope and result control
By default, it searches all registered sites, but the --site option allows investigating specific sites only. Enabling the --nsfw option includes sites containing adult content in the search targets. Using --print-all outputs sites where no account was found, while --print-found displays only the sites where accounts were discovered. The --ignore-exclusions option searches sites that the project has configured to exclude, though this may increase false positives. In environments where requests must be sent through a proxy, the --proxy option can be used to specify a proxy address such as socks5.
Pre-use considerations
Since this tool is based on publicly available nickname information, additional verification is required to confirm whether the subject actually used that nickname. It should be noted that false positives may increase when using --ignore-exclusions. Additionally, users of ParrotOS and Ubuntu 24.04 must choose different installation methods depending on the package status. Distributed under the MIT license, it can be used freely and, as of version 0.16.0, supports various output formats and debugging options.
