🔍 InstaOSINT

Passive Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) & Digital Footprint Reconnaissance for Instagram

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|   |   |  \\___ \  |  |  / __ \_/    |    \/        \|   /    |    \    |   
|___|___|  /____  > |__| (____  /\_______  /_______  /|___\____|__  /____|   
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Overview • Features • Prerequisites • Installation • Usage • Generated Artifacts • Legal Disclaimer • License

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📌 Overview

InstaOSINT is a command-line intelligence framework built to collect, extract, and analyze publicly available data from Instagram profiles for ethical investigation, cybersecurity research, threat analysis, and digital forensics.

Engineered on top of the robust instaloader engine and terminal presentation via colorama, InstaOSINT focuses strictly on passive data reconnaissance. It gathers publicly exposed endpoints, metadata structures, and media assets without triggering active engagement events (such as direct interactions, follows, likes, or authenticated session alerts). This enables security auditors and OSINT analysts to preserve operational integrity and discreetly audit public footprints.

All harvested intelligence is summarized in real-time within the terminal and can be exported into structured formats (JSON for programmatic analysis or HTML for visual reporting), alongside optional automated local archival of published media.

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⚡ Features

• Profile Metadata & Identity Profiling

  • Extracts canonical handle (username), unique identifier (user_id), and declared name (full_name).
  • Harvests biographical description (biography) and external profile links (external_url).
  • Identifies trust indicators: verified badge status (is_verified) and account privacy state (is_private).
  • Retrieves total publication volume (media_count) and high-resolution profile avatar URLs (profile_pic_url).

• Audience & Social Network Metrics

  • Enumerates audience scale via public follower count (followers).
  • Records outbound interest via following count (followees).

• Post Telemetry & Activity Tracking

  • Iterates across recent public posts, capturing timestamp records in standardized ISO-8601 format (date).
  • Identifies chronological publication patterns and last active post timestamps (last_post_date).
  • Extracts engagement metrics per post: like counts (likes) and comment tallies (comments).
  • Ingests raw caption strings (caption) and direct CDN image resource endpoints (image_url).

• Automated Local Media Archiving

  • Automatically provisions a dedicated directory (<username>_posts/) to download and archive public post media for offline forensic custody and evidentiary review.

• Multi-Format Structured Export

  • JSON (<username>_info.json): Generates UTF-8 encoded, 4-space indented structured data ready for ingestion into SIEM pipelines, graph analysis software, or custom Python tooling.
  • HTML (<username>_info.html): Generates an accessible, clean HTML forensic dossier with hyperlinked image resources and structured tables.

• Resilient CLI Feedback & Exception Handling

  • Integrated terminal color coding (colorama) with dedicated handling for ProfileNotExistsException and connection dropouts.

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🛠️ Prerequisites

Before installing and executing InstaOSINT, ensure your host environment meets the following specifications:

• Python Runtime: Python >= 3.8 (Tested on Python 3.8 through 3.12).
• Package Manager: pip (Python package manager).
• Core Dependencies:
  • instaloader: High-level wrapper for Instagram public API & web endpoints.
  • colorama: Cross-platform colored terminal text formatting.
  • Standard library modules utilized: json, os, datetime.

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🚀 Installation

1. Clone the Repository

Clone the InstaOSINT repository from GitHub and navigate into the project directory:

git clone https://github.com/skelegamerYT11/InstaOSINT.git
cd InstaOSINT

2. Set Up a Virtual Environment (Recommended)

Creating an isolated Python virtual environment avoids package version conflicts:

• Linux / macOS:

  python3 -m venv venv
  source venv/bin/activate

• Windows (PowerShell):

  python -m venv venv
  .\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

• Windows (Command Prompt):

  python -m venv venv
  .\venv\Scripts\activate.bat

3. Install Dependencies

Install all required packages using pip:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note: If requirements.txt is not yet present, you can install the dependencies directly:

pip install instaloader colorama

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💻 Usage

InstaOSINT features an interactive, guided command-line workflow:

Launching the Tool

Execute the primary script:

python instaOSINT.py

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Target Specification: The tool will render the ASCII logo and prompt for the target username:

   Inserisci il nome utente dell'account Instagram da analizzare: target_account
   

2. Reconnaissance & Display: InstaOSINT queries public profile attributes and outputs key identity fields directly to your terminal.
3. Data Export Prompt: Choose whether and how to export the collected metadata:

   Vuoi salvare le informazioni? (JSON/HTML/N)
   

   • Enter json to generate <username>_info.json.
   • Enter html to generate an audit dossier <username>_info.html.
   • Enter n to bypass file export.
4. Media Archival Prompt: Decide if post images should be downloaded locally:

   Vuoi scaricare i post dell'account? (Y/N)
   

   • Enter y to download published post images into <username>_posts/.
   • Enter n to finish without downloading media files.

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📁 Generated Artifacts

Depending on your export choices, InstaOSINT produces the following structured artifacts:

1. JSON Export (<username>_info.json)

{
    "username": "target_account",
    "user_id": 1234567890,
    "full_name": "Target Full Name",
    "biography": "Public bio information and links",
    "external_url": "https://example.org",
    "followers": 1540,
    "followees": 320,
    "is_private": false,
    "is_verified": false,
    "media_count": 28,
    "profile_pic_url": "https://instagram.fcgn.../profile.jpg",
    "last_post_date": "2026-08-14T18:42:01",
    "posts": [
        {
            "caption": "Sample post caption #osint #research",
            "likes": 112,
            "comments": 14,
            "date": "2026-08-14T18:42:01",
            "image_url": "https://instagram.fcgn.../post_1.jpg"
        }
    ]
}

2. HTML Dossier (<username>_info.html)

An accessible HTML report summarizing profile attributes and post records with direct resource links, labeled with the footer:

<p style='text-align: center;'>Creato con <strong>InstaOSINT</strong> by <strong>SKELETONita</strong></p>

3. Media Directory (<username>_posts/)

When media archival is selected, individual post images are stored sequentially:

target_account_posts/
├── post_1.jpg
├── post_2.jpg
└── ...

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⚖️ Legal Disclaimer

Caution

IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SOFTWARE.

1. Authorized Research & Ethical Inquiries Only
   InstaOSINT is developed strictly for educational purposes, academic research, authorized digital forensics investigations, and ethical security auditing. It must only be deployed on accounts you own, accounts for which you possess explicit authorization to audit, or strictly within the boundaries of legal, non-intrusive open-source intelligence gathering.

2. Compliance with Terms of Service
   Automated access, scraping, or mass data extraction may violate Meta / Instagram’s Terms of Use and community policies. The user assumes 100% of the responsibility for reviewing and adhering to all applicable terms, conditions, and rate limits governing the target platform.

3. Data Protection & Privacy Regulations
   The acquisition and processing of personal data originating from public profiles must comply with jurisdictional privacy frameworks, including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR - EU 2016/679), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other regional data sovereignty laws. Do not store or process personal data without a legitimate legal basis.

4. Limitation of Liability
   Under no circumstances shall the author, contributors, or copyright holders be held liable for any claim, damage, account ban, IP block, legal sanction, or other liability arising from the installation, execution, or misuse of this tool. This software is provided "AS IS", without warranty of any kind, express or implied.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).
See the LICENSE file in the repository for details.