GHunt: The OSINT Tool That Turns Google Into an Investigation Engine

Ever wondered how much information is tied to a single Google account? We’re not just talking about Gmail and Drive. We’re talking about Maps reviews, YouTube comments, profile pictures, and potentially even location data—all linked to that one email address. For developers, security researchers, and the OSINT-curious, digging into this can be a manual, time-consuming chore.

Enter GHunt. This isn't just another tool; it's a powerful command-line interface that automates the process of investigating Google accounts and objects. It turns the vast ecosystem of Google services into a structured source of intelligence, and it does it all from your terminal.

What It Does

GHunt is a Python-based OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) tool designed to extract and analyze information from Google services. You feed it a target, which could be a Gmail address or a Google Docs ID, and it goes to work. It queries various Google endpoints—many of which are public but not easily accessible—to gather a comprehensive profile. It can recover information associated with a Google account, including the owner's name, connected photos (and their metadata), YouTube channel, and any publicly visible Google Maps reviews.

Why It's Cool

The cleverness of GHunt lies in its automation and its deep understanding of Google's architecture. Manually checking a dozen different Google services for traces of a single account is inefficient. GHunt does it programmatically, saving you hours of tedious work. It’s also constantly evolving. The maintainer, mxrch, actively updates it to work with changes in Google's APIs, making it a reliable tool in a shifting landscape.

For developers, the use cases are fascinating. Think about it for security auditing your own digital footprint, or for legitimate investigative research. It’s a potent reminder of the data we leave behind and how it can be connected. It’s not about "hacking"; it’s about understanding the visibility of public data at scale.

How to Try It

Getting started with GHunt is straightforward, but it requires a few setup steps. You'll need Python 3.10+ and a Google account to generate the necessary authentication tokens.

1. Install it from PyPI:

   pip install ghunt
   

2. Run the initialization command to set up authentication:

   ghunt login
   

   This will guide you through the process of generating cookies and tokens from your Google account, which GHunt uses to make its queries.

3. Start investigating! The main commands are:

   # To analyze a Google email
   ghunt email [email protected]
   
   # To analyze a Google Docs ID
   ghunt docs 1ZQ-document-id-goes-here-9Fm4
   

For full installation details, troubleshooting, and advanced usage, the project's GitHub repository is the best source of truth.

Final Thoughts

GHunt is a seriously impressive tool that showcases the power of automating OSINT. It turns a complex, manual process into a simple CLI command. For developers, it's a great example of a practical Python project that interacts with real-world APIs. You could use it to audit your own online presence, contribute to its development, or simply learn from its codebase. It’s a powerful reminder that in the right hands, even the most common platforms can become sources of insightful data.

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