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https://github.com/soxoj/username-generation-guide
A definitive guide to generating usernames for OSINT purposes
https://github.com/soxoj/username-generation-guide
generator generators guide osint pentesting permutations permutations-and-combinations socmint transformations username-checker username-generator
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A definitive guide to generating usernames for OSINT purposes
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/soxoj/username-generation-guide
- Owner: soxoj
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2021-12-05T20:16:58.000Z (about 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-06-08T17:12:44.000Z (7 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-12-17T02:32:13.091Z (9 days ago)
- Topics: generator, generators, guide, osint, pentesting, permutations, permutations-and-combinations, socmint, transformations, username-checker, username-generator
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 279 KB
- Stars: 155
- Watchers: 6
- Forks: 13
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# OSINT Username generation guide
A definitive guide to generating usernames for OSINT/SOCMINT/Pentesting purposes.
## Table of Contents
- [Start](#start)
- [Combining Primary Info](#combining-primary-info)
- [Addition of Personal Information](#addition-of-personal-information)
- [Primary Info Mining](#primary-info-mining)
- [Username Transformations](#username-transformations)
- [Addition of Mail Domain](#addition-of-mail-domain)
- [Covered SOWEL Techniques](#covered-sowel-techniques)
- [Other](#other)
## Start
Let's identify your goals.
If I understand correctly, **you have some information about people**, and you want to **get a list of usernames** (nicknames, just names), that may be used to search for those people.
Am I right? So, you're in the right place.
Below, you can find information on how to gather clues for a new search based on the data you already have, as well as how to automate the process and which tools to use.
### What do you have?
If you only have some information as a first name, a last name, a birthday (and, maybe some extra info), you should take a look at the section [“Combining primary info"](#combining-primary-info).
Do you need extra help to extend the number of likely usernames? For learning methods to get variants of first names and so on, check section [“Primary info mining”](#primary-info-mining).
If you have a username and want to guess similar usernames, jump to the [“Username transformations”](#username-transformations) section.
**Important!** Clone this repository with `git` or [download it](https://github.com/soxoj/username-generation-guide/archive/refs/heads/main.zip) to use the Python scripts mentioned below.
## Combining primary info
Usernames/logins commonly consist of a combination of a first name, a last name, and, a little less often, a middle name (patronymic). Only the first letters can be left, and some characters can separate parts (`_`, `.` and so on).
Of course, there can be many such combinations, so automation tools are needed. A good example is a very useful interactive [Google spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17URMtNmXfEZEW9oUL_taLpGaqTDcMkA79J8TRw4xnz8/edit#gid=0) for email permutations from Rob Ousbey, from Distilled.net.
Here is an example of Email Permutator usage for `rob ousbey`:
```sh
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
...
```
A very useful service [NAMINT](https://seintpl.github.io/NAMINT/) offers various links for combinations of first, last and middle name (nickname):
- search engines (including photo search with Yandex)
- possible login patterns
- most popular social platforms search and supposed profile links
- Gravatars for logins at common email providers (great feature 🔥)
Also, you can find it convenient to use [Email Permutator](http://metricsparrow.com/toolkit/email-permutator/) from Metric Sparrow Toolkit or [analyzeid permutator](https://analyzeid.com/email-permutator/) with batch processing support.
For fans of a console, there are some specialized tools:
- Script [python-email-permutator](https://github.com/Satys/python-email-permutator) based on spreadsheet mentioned above.
- [Logins generator](https://github.com/c0rv4x/logins-generator) supporting flexible ways to combine first, last and middle names.
- [emailGuesser](https://github.com/WhiteHatInspector/emailGuesser) is a customizable permutator with the support of checks if an address is valid in Skype and in breach databases.
Looking ahead, I will tell you that from lists of names you can [quickly make](#addition-of-mail-domain) a list of emails.
### Addition of personal information
If you have any other additional information, you can significantly expand the number of candidates for usernames. It can be a year of birth, city, country, profession, and... literally anything.
What can be used in this case?
- My own script based on ProtOSINT combination methods:
```sh
$ python3 generate_by_real_info.py
First name: john
Last name: smith
Year of birth: 1980
Username (optional):
Zip code (optional):
johnsmith1980
smith
johnsmith80
jsmith1980
smithjohn
...
```
- Great alias generator mode of [OSRFramebork](https://github.com/i3visio/osrframework):
```sh
$ osrf alias_generator
Insert a name: john
Insert the first surname: smith
Insert the second surname:
Insert a year (e. g.: birthyear): 1980
Insert a city:
Insert a country:
Additional transformations to be added
--------------------------------------
Extra words to add (',' separated):
Input data:
-----------
Name: john
First Surname: smith
Year: 1980
Generated nicks:
[
"j.smith",
"j.smith.1980",
"j.smith.80",
"j_smith",
...
Up to 41 nicks generated.
Writing the results onto the file:
./output.txt
```
[↑ Back to the start](#table-of-contents)
## Primary info mining
It can be very important to check all the variants of non-English usernames. For example, a person with the common name *Aleksandr* may have a passport with the name `Alexandr` (letter `x`) and a working login starting with `alexsandr` (letters `xs`) because of the different transliteration rules.
This is a source of variability for us, so let's use it.
- [BabelStrike](https://github.com/t3l3machus/BabelStrike) - a very powerful tool for normalization and generation of possible usernames out of a full names list. It supports romanization for Greek, Hindi, Spanish, French and Polish.
- [BehindTheName](https://www.behindthename.com/name/john) - excellent site about names. There are common name variants, diminutives (very useful for personal logins), and other languages alternatives.
You can use a simple script from this repo to scrape such data:
```sh
$ python3 behind_the_names.py john diminutives
Johnie
Johnnie
Johnny
```
- [WeRelate](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Special:Names) - Variant names project, a comprehensive database of name variants with the ability to search. Gives much more results than BehindTheNames, but there are also many irrelevant results. Also, see [GitHub repo](https://github.com/tfmorris/Names) with project data.
[↑ Back to the start](#table-of-contents)
## Username transformations
When you sign up on the site it may turn out that your username is taken. Then you use a variant of a name - with characters replacement or additions.
Thus, making assumptions about the transformations and knowing the original name, you can check "neighbouring" accounts (for example, with [maigret](https://github.com/soxoj/maigret)).
I propose for this my own simple tool that allows you to make transformations by rules.
```sh
$ python3 transform_username.py --username soxoj rules/printable-leetspeak.rule
soxoj
s0xoj
5ox0j
50xoj
...
```
Rules for transformation are located in the directory `rules` and consist of the following:
- `printable-leetspeak.rule` - common leetspeak transformations such as `e => 3`, `a => 4`, etc.
- `printable-leetspeak-two-ways.rule` - the same conversions from letters to numbers, but also vice versa
- `impersonation.rule` - common mutations used by scammers-impersonators such as `l => I`, `O => 0`, etc.
- `additions.rule` - common additions to the username: underscores and numbers
- `toggle-letter-case.rule` - changing case of letters, what is needed not so often, but maybe useful
- `add_email.rule` - custom rule to add mail domain after usernames
You can use a file with a list of usernames:
```sh
$ cat usernames.txt
john
jack
$ python3 transform_username.py rules/impersonation.rule --username-list soxoj
jack
iack
john
iohn
```
And even use a pipe to use the output of other tools and itself, combining transformations:
```sh
$ python3 transform_username.py rules/printable-leetspeak.rule --username soxoj | python3 transform_username.py rules/impersonation.rule -I
s0xOj
sOx0j
5OxOi
soxOj
sox0i
...
```
### Addition of mail domain
You can use `add_email.rule` and easily edit it to add needed mail domains to check emails in tools such as [mailcat](https://github.com/sharsil/mailcat), [holehe](https://github.com/megadose/holehe), or [GHunt](https://github.com/mxrch/GHunt).
```sh
$ python3 transform_username.py rules/printable-leetspeak.rule --username soxoj | python3 transform_username.py rules/add_email.rule --remove-known -I
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
...
```
[↑ Back to the start](#table-of-contents)
## Covered SOWEL techniques
- [SOTL-8.2. Use Names Permutations](https://sowel.soxoj.com/names-permutations)
- [SOTL-8.3. Use Personal-Info-Based Identifiers](https://sowel.soxoj.com/personal-info-based-identifiers)
[↑ Back to the start](#table-of-contents)
## Other
- [Good random names generator](https://github.com/epidemics-scepticism/NickGenerator)
[↑ Back to the start](#table-of-contents)