Discover / Data & Research
theHarvester
by laramiesPython
Reconnaissance tool for gathering public information about domains and competitors.
Maturity: stable because 16y old, 4.11.1 released 61d ago. Derived from release and commit history, not a rating.
- Stars
- 17k
- Forks
- 2.5k
- Downloads / mo
- 18k
- Last commit
- 2026-08-02
- License
- —
- Open issues
- 12
Market and trust evidence
Edition not yet matchedNo exact skills.sh identity match is available for this repository. Repository adoption and freshness remain visible above; install momentum is not inferred.
Trust analysis is a screening signal, not a security warranty. Read the ranking and trust methodology.
In practice
Written by AI from this repository’s README · high confidenceMapping a domain's external footprint means querying search engines, certificate logs and breach databases one by one.
Use it when
Use it early in a penetration test or red team assessment to enumerate a target's public exposure.
Not the right pick when
Many of its passive modules point at third party services that need their own API keys or accounts.
Capabilities
- gathers names, emails, IPs, subdomains and URLs
- dozens of passive modules including crtsh, certspotter and haveibeenpwned
- search engine modules such as baidu, brave, duckduckgo and mojeek
- attack surface sources including shodan, netlas, fullhunt and censys
- optional REST API routes protected by THEHARVESTER_API_KEY
- uv based environment setup and test tooling
Requirements
- Python 3.12 or higher
- uv for the documented clone based setup
- API keys for many of the passive modules
Cost: Cost not stated
Install
Derived from the published package name in the repository, not from a model.
Video walkthroughs
How to Use theHarvester Tool in Kali Linux (You’re Being Watched!)
theHarvester in Kali Linux 🔎 | OSINT Made Easy❗
Third-party YouTube uploads matched to this tool by title, channel and repository name on 2026-08-03. Not made, reviewed or endorsed by SkillPilot. View counts and publish months are as of the match date and the month is approximate. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
What the repository ships
Detected from the actual files in the repository root.
Latest release 4.11.1
Published 2026-06-03
[4.11.1] - 2026-06-03
Added
- Add Sherlockeye as an API-key source module by @A1S0N in https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester/pull/2347
Changed
- Updated runtime dependencies:
aiohttpto3.14.0,fastapito0.136.3, anduvicornto0.48.0. - Updated development dependencies:
pytest-asyncioto1.4.0,ruffto0.15.15, andtyto0.0.42. - Updated CI and container maintenance pins, including
actions/checkout,github/codeql-action, Docker build/login/metadata actions, and the Python Docker base image digest. - Updated the package version to
4.11.1.
New Contributors
- @A1S0N made their first contribution in https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester/pull/2347
Full Changelog: https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester/compare/4.11.0...4.11.1
Tags
README
TheHarvester CI TheHarvester Docker Image CI
Rawsec's CyberSecurity Inventory
About
theHarvester is a simple to use, yet powerful tool designed to be used during the reconnaissance stage of a red
team assessment or penetration test. It performs open source intelligence (OSINT) gathering to help determine
a domain's external threat landscape. The tool gathers names, emails, IPs, subdomains, and URLs by using
multiple public resources that include:
Package versions
Install and dependencies
- Python 3.12 or higher.
- https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester/wiki/Installation
Install uv:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester
cd theHarvester
Install dependencies and create a virtual environment:
uv sync
Run theHarvester:
uv run theHarvester
Development
To install development dependencies:
uv sync --all-groups
To run tests:
uv run pytest
To run linting and formatting:
uv run ruff check
uv run ruff format
To protect the optional /additional/* REST API routes, set THEHARVESTER_API_KEY and pass the same value in the X-API-Key header. Those routes return 503 when the key is not configured.
Passive modules
- baidu: Baidu search engine (https://www.baidu.com)
- bevigil: CloudSEK BeVigil scans mobile application for OSINT assets (https://bevigil.com/osint-api)
- brave: Brave search engine - now uses official Brave Search API (https://api-dashboard.search.brave.com)
- bufferoverun: Fast domain name lookups for TLS certificates in IPv4 space (https://tls.bufferover.run)
- builtwith: Find out what websites are built with (https://builtwith.com)
- censys: Uses certificates searches to enumerate subdomains and gather emails (https://censys.io)
- certspotter: Cert Spotter monitors Certificate Transparency logs (https://sslmate.com/certspotter)
- criminalip: Specialized Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) search engine (https://www.criminalip.io)
- crtsh: Comodo Certificate search (https://crt.sh)
- dehashed: Take your data security to the next level is (https://dehashed.com)
- dnsdumpster: Domain research tool that can discover hosts related to a domain (https://dnsdumpster.com)
- duckduckgo: DuckDuckGo search engine (https://duckduckgo.com)
- dymo: Dymo API data verifier - confirms domains, surfaces typo suggestions and MX/fraud signals (https://dymo.tpeoficial.com)
- fofa: FOFA search eingine (https://en.fofa.info)
- fullhunt: Next-generation attack surface security platform (https://fullhunt.io)
- github-code: GitHub code search engine (https://www.github.com)
- hackertarget: Online vulnerability scanners and network intelligence to help organizations (https://hackertarget.com)
- haveibeenpwned: Check if your email address is in a data breach (https://haveibeenpwned.com)
- hunter: Hunter search engine (https://hunter.io)
- hunterhow: Internet search engines for security researchers (https://hunter.how)
- intelx: Intelx search engine (https://intelx.io)
- leakix: LeakIX search engine (https://leakix.net)
- leaklookup: Data breach search engine (https://leak-lookup.com)
- mojeek: Mojeek search engine (https://www.mojeek.com)
- netlas: A Shodan or Censys competitor (https://app.netlas.io)
- onyphe: Cyber defense search engine (https://www.onyphe.io)
- otx: AlienVault open threat exchange (https://otx.alienvault.com)
- pentesttools: Cloud-based toolkit for offensive security testing, focused on web applications and network penetration testing (https://pentest-tools.com)
- projecdiscovery: Actively collects and maintains internet-wide assets data, to enhance research and analyse changes around DNS for better insights (https://chaos.projectdiscovery.io)
- rapiddns: DNS query tool which make querying subdomains or sites of a same IP easy (https://rapiddns.io)
- rocketreach: Access real-time verified personal/professional emails, phone numbers, and social media links (https://rocketreach.co)
- securityscorecard: helps TPRM and SOC teams detect, prioritize, and remediate vendor risk across their entire supplier ecosystem at scale (https://securityscorecard.com)
- securityTrails: Security Trails search engine, the world's largest repository of historical DNS data (https://securitytrails.com)
- sherlockeye: Reverse Lookup & AI-Powered OSINT (https://sherlockeye.io)
- -s, --shodan: Shodan search engine will search for ports and banners from discovered hosts (https://shodan.io)
- subdomaincenter: A subdomain finder tool used to find subdomains of a given domain (https://www.subdomain.center)
- subdomainfinderc99: A subdomain finder is a tool used to find the subdomains of a given domain (https://subdomainfinder.c99.nl)
- thc: Free subdomain enumeration service with no API key required (https://ip.thc.org)
- threatminer: Data mining for threat intelligence (https://www.threatminer.org)
- tomba: Tomba search engine (https://tomba.io)
- urlscan: A sandbox for the web that is a URL and website scanner (https://urlscan.io)
- venacus: Venacus search engine (https://venacus.com)
- virustotal: Domain search (https://www.virustotal.com)
- whoisxml: Subdomain search (https://subdomains.whoisxmlapi.com/api/pricing)
- yahoo: Yahoo search engine (https://www.yahoo.com)
- windvane: Windvane search engine (https://windvane.lichoin.com)
- zoomeye: China's version of Shodan (https://www.zoomeye.org)
Active modules
- DNS brute force: dictionary brute force enumeration
- Screenshots: Take screenshots of subdomains that were found
Modules that require an API key
Documentation to setup API keys can be found at - https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester/wiki/Installation#api-keys
- bevigil - 50 free queries/month. 1k queries/month $50
- brave - free plan available. Pro plans for higher limits
- bufferoverun - 100 free queries/month. 10k/month $25
- builtwith - 50 free queries ever. $2950/yr
- censys - 500 credits $100
- criminalip - 100 free queries/month. 700k/month $59
- dehashed - 500 credts $15, 5k credits $150
- dnsdumpster - 50 free querries/day, $49
- dymo - free tier available, paid plans for higher limits
- fofa - query credits 10,000/month. 100k results/month $25
- fullhunt - 50 free queries. 200 queries $29/month, 500 queries $59
- github-code
- haveibeenpwned - 10 email searches/min $4.50, 50 email searches/min $22
- hunter - 50 free credits/month. 12k credits/yr $34
- hunterhow - 10k free API results per 30 days. 50k API results per 30 days $10
- intelx - free account is very limited. Business acount $2900
- leakix - free 25 results pages, 3000 API requests/month. Bounty Hunter $29
- leaklookup - 20 credits $10, 50 credits $20, 140 credits $50, 300 credits $100
- mojeek - 5000 free credits $6.50, $1.30 CPM (Personal), $2.60 CPM (Startup), $3.90 CPM (Business)
- netlas - 50 free requests/day. 1k requests $49, 10k requests $249
- onyphe - 10M results/month $587
- pentesttools - 5 assets netsec $95/month, 5 assets webnetsec $140/month
- projecdiscovery - requires work email. Free monthly discovery and vulnerability scans on sign-up email domain, enterprise $
- rocketreach - 100 email lookups/month $48, 250 email lookups/month $108
- securityscorecard - requires a work email
- securityTrails - 50 free queries/month. 20k queries/month $500
- sherlockeye - Intermediate $46 month, Advanced $120 month. Enterprise available.
- shodan - Freelancer $69 month, Small Business $359 month
- tomba - 25 free searches/month. 1k searches/month $39, 5k searches/month $89
- venacus - 1 free search/day. 10 searches/day $12, 30 searches/day $36
- virustotal - 500 free lookups/day, 15.5k lookups/month. Busines accounts requires a work email
- whoisxml - 2k queries $50, 5k queries $105
- windvane - 100 free queries
- zoomeye - 5 free results/day. 30/results/day $190/yr
Comments, bugs, and requests
- Twitter Follow Christian Martorella @laramies
cmartorella@edge-security.com
- Twitter Follow Matthew Brown @NotoriousRebel1
- Twitter Follow Jay "L1ghtn1ng" Townsend @jay_townsend1
Main contributors
- Twitter Follow Matthew Brown @NotoriousRebel1
- Twitter Follow Jay "L1ghtn1ng" Townsend @jay_townsend1
- Twitter Follow Lee Baird @discoverscripts
Thanks
- John Matherly - Shodan project
- Ahmed Aboul Ela - subdomain names dictionaries (big and small)