holehe
holehe allows you to check if the mail is used on different sites like twitter, instagram and will retrieve information on sites with the forgotten password function.
Python OSINT tool that checks whether a given email address has accounts on 120+ websites by using each site's password-reset flow, without alerting the account owner.
Holehe is a Python command-line tool for open-source intelligence work (OSINT). Given an email address, it checks whether that address is linked to accounts on more than 120 websites, including social platforms, forums, and commercial services. The check uses each site's own "forgot password" flow rather than a login attempt, and the README notes this does not send any alert to the owner of the email being investigated.
Running it is straightforward: install via pip, Docker, or by cloning the repository, then pass an email address as an argument on the command line. For each site, the tool reports back whether an account exists, and in some cases returns partially obfuscated recovery emails or phone numbers that the target site exposes through its password recovery page. It can also be imported as a Python library and called from within your own scripts.
The list of supported services spans a wide range: social networks, e-commerce sites, developer platforms, forums, and more. The module table in the README flags which services frequently rate-limit requests. If rate limiting is hit, the README suggests changing your IP address.
Holehe also integrates with Maltego, a visual link-analysis tool commonly used in investigations, via a separate companion repository. The project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 and the README states it was built for educational purposes only.
The primary audience is security researchers, journalists, and investigators doing account enumeration on a known email address as part of a legal investigation or research task.
Where it fits
- Check which online services are registered to a specific email address as part of a security investigation or bug bounty.
- Enumerate accounts for a target email during penetration testing when the email is in scope.
- Write a Python script that calls the holehe library to process multiple email addresses and export results to CSV.
- Visualize account relationships discovered by holehe using its Maltego integration for link-analysis work.