Skip to main content

theharvester

Theharvester is an OSINT tool that gathers intelligence on emails, subdomains, hosts, employee names, open ports, and banners. It is designed to be integrated into automated security workflows to enhance the reconnaissance phase, leveraging multiple data sources for comprehensive information gathering.

Ideal Use Cases & Fit​

Theharvester is highly effective in scenarios where organizations need to compile security profiles of targets quickly. Common inputs include newline-separated domains, enabling the tool to perform extensive searches based on various data sources like Bing and Yahoo. It excels at identifying potential vulnerabilities and information leakage from publicly available data. However, it may not be suitable for environments where high-frequency requests could lead to IP blocking or rate limiting.

Value in Workflows​

Integrating theharvester into security workflows enriches preliminary reconnaissance efforts by systematically aggregating data from various sources. It is beneficial in early stages of assessments, supporting teams in identifying potential security weaknesses before applying further testing tools. Additionally, it can serve as a foundation for later phases of security evaluations, such as vulnerability assessments and penetration tests.

Input Data​

Theharvester requires input data in the form of a newline-separated file containing domains. For example:

example.com
example.org
test.com

This input acts as the target for intelligence gathering and is a required field for the tool's operation.

Configuration​

  • source: Specifies the data source to use for gathering intelligence. Default is 'yahoo'.
  • limit: Sets the maximum number of search results to return, with a default of 500.
  • shodan: Enables querying discovered hosts through Shodan if set to true.
  • take-over: Checks for potential domain takeovers.
  • dns-resolve: Performs DNS resolution on subdomains.
  • api-scan: Initiates a scan for API endpoints.
  • quiet: Suppresses warnings related to missing API keys, defaulting to true.

These parameters allow for flexible configurations tailored to specific operational needs within automated workflows.