GDE-051 |
Maigret OSINT | |||||||
Username and identity correlation | ||||||||
September 2026 | ||||||||
01
What it is
Maigret OSINT is the practice of using the open-source Maigret tool to check a single username against thousands of sites at once and compile a dossier of confirmed profiles, extracted personal details and recursively discovered usernames, rather than checking each platform by hand.
Maigret takes one or more usernames and checks them against a large, auto-updated site database, parsing each confirmed profile page for personal details such as a display name, bio, location, avatar and follower counts. Where a profile links to another username or platform, Maigret's recursive mode follows the pivot automatically. It ships as a Python package, a Docker image, standalone Windows binaries and an official Telegram bot.
It is the natural next step after Sherlock, which answers the faster question of where a username exists across a broad site list; Maigret answers the deeper question of what each confirmed profile actually contains, and turns the result into a shareable HTML, PDF, JSON or graph report.
| When to use this guide
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02
How do you run a Maigret username investigation?
Six steps from a fast existence check through to a corroborated, exportable dossier.
The following tools are used across the steps below.
Sherlock: Free, open-source. A faster existence-only check across a broad site list, useful as a first pass before a deeper Maigret run.
Maigret: Free, open-source (MIT licence). Installed via pip, Docker, or run from the cloned repository; standalone Windows binaries are also available. Checks thousands of sites, parses profile pages for personal data, and follows recursive pivots by default.
Maigret Telegram bot (@osint_maigret_bot): Free, no installation. The official bot for running a quick Maigret search without setting up a local Python environment.
| Before you begin Stop at the login. Maigret only queries public profile pages and public site APIs; it does not log into any platform, and no credentials are required for the target account or the investigator. The Telegram bot works the same way, simply as a hosted front end. Legal considerations. Extracted personal details, such as a name, location or bio, are personal data under GDPR and equivalent frameworks. Document a lawful basis before running an extraction and do not retain results beyond the active investigation period. Maigret's site database auto-updates from GitHub roughly once every 24 hours, so an identical search run on a later date can return different results. |
Run Sherlock against the username as a first pass, since it checks a broad site list faster than Maigret's full parsing run. Use the confirmed hits to focus the Maigret pass that follows.
Run python3 -m maigret username, which checks the top 500 sites by default, or add the full-list flag for complete coverage. Maigret extracts bio, location, avatar and follower counts where a platform exposes them.
Recursive mode is enabled by default and follows any new username or ID found in a profile's links. Review each newly surfaced account manually rather than accepting it as confirmed, since a shared username fragment does not guarantee the same person.
Use Maigret's tag filtering to narrow the search by site category or country when the investigation has a known regional or platform-type focus, rather than checking every site in the database.
Export the results as an HTML or PDF report. PDF output needs additional system-level graphics libraries on Linux and macOS; the HTML report and JSON export need no extra dependencies.
A hit surfaced only by Maigret's page parsing, without corroboration from Sherlock or a manual visit, should be checked directly on the platform before it goes into a report.
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03
What are the pitfalls of a Maigret dossier?
Recursive pivots, generic usernames and a community-maintained site database all create room for false attribution.
Recursive pivot mistaken for confirmed same-person: Maigret's recursion follows any username or ID it finds in a profile's links, which can chain into an account belonging to someone else who happens to share a handle fragment or display name. Verifying check: manually review any account surfaced through recursion before adding it to the dossier.
Generic username collisions: a common or short username is frequently registered independently by unrelated people across different platforms. Verifying check: cross-reference extracted profile details, such as bio, photo and location, across hits rather than assuming consistent ownership from the username alone.
Stale site-check logic: the site database auto-updates roughly daily, but a platform can change its profile-page structure or privacy defaults faster than a corresponding Maigret module is updated, producing an occasional false positive or negative. Verifying check: manually confirm any hit material to the investigation directly on the platform.
Chain of custody: both the confirmed-account list and the extracted personal data behind it can change as platforms update privacy settings or the underlying site database is revised.
Export the HTML or PDF report with its generation timestamp, not just the console output.
Save the raw JSON export alongside the human-readable report for reproducibility.
Note which extracted fields were manually verified against the live platform, and which were taken from Maigret's output as is.
Record the approximate date of the site database used, since a later re-run may surface a different result set.
04
Go deeper
The Sherlock and email-enumeration guides Maigret pairs with directly.
GUIDE · GDE-010
Sherlock OSINT: username pivoting beyond WhatsMyName
The faster existence check to run before a deeper Maigret dossier.
GUIDE · GDE-009
Email account enumeration: tools beyond Holehe
Maigret's use from an email-derived username, alongside Blackbird and GHunt.
Evidentiary standard
Signal & Shadow operates to the LST-001 evidentiary standard. All claims are graded against the LST-001 v1.0.3 confidence tiers (Confirmed, Corroborated, Reported, Alleged) per the canonical voice and structural specification.
About Signal & Shadow
Signal & Shadow is an independent forensic investigation and methodology practice publishing tutorials, reference cards, and forensic dossiers for working practitioners. Founded by Derek Bowler.