MetaDetective 2.0.3

Metadata extraction and web scraping for OSINT and pentesting.

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MetaDetective

Metadata extraction and web scraping for OSINT and pentesting.

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Table of Contents

• About
• Installation
• Usage
• License
• Contact

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About

MetaDetective is a single-file Python 3 tool for metadata extraction and web scraping, built for OSINT and pentesting workflows.

It has no Python dependencies beyond exiftool. One curl and you're operational.

What it extracts: authors, software versions, GPS coordinates, creation/modification dates, internal hostnames, serial numbers, hyperlinks, camera models - across documents, images, and email files.

What it does beyond extraction:

• Direct web scraping of target sites (no search engine dependency, no IP blocks)
• GPS reverse geocoding with OpenStreetMap, map link generation
• Export to HTML, TXT, or JSON
• Selective field extraction with --parse-only
• Deduplication across multiple files

It was built as a replacement for Metagoofil, which dropped native metadata analysis and relied on Google search (rate limiting, CAPTCHAs, proxy overhead).

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Installation

Requirements: Python 3, exiftool.

# Debian / Ubuntu / Kali
sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl

# macOS
brew install exiftool

# Windows
winget install OliverBetz.ExifTool

Direct download (recommended for field use)

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/franckferman/MetaDetective/stable/src/MetaDetective/MetaDetective.py
python3 MetaDetective.py -h

pip

pip install MetaDetective
metadetective -h

git clone

git clone https://github.com/franckferman/MetaDetective.git
cd MetaDetective
python3 src/MetaDetective/MetaDetective.py -h

Docker

docker pull franckferman/metadetective
docker run --rm franckferman/metadetective -h

# Mount a local directory
docker run --rm -v $(pwd)/loot:/data franckferman/metadetective -d /data

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Usage

File analysis

# Analyze a directory (deduplicated singular view by default)
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/

# Specific file types, filter noise
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ -t pdf docx -i admin anonymous

# Per-file display
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ --display all

# Formatted output (singular/default display)
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ --format formatted

# Single file
python3 MetaDetective.py -f report.pdf

# Multiple files
python3 MetaDetective.py -f report.pdf photo.heic

Selective parsing

--parse-only limits extraction to specific fields. Useful to cut noise or target a specific data point.

# Extract only Author and Creator fields
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ --parse-only Author Creator

# Extract GPS data only from iPhone photos
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./photos/ -t heic heif --parse-only 'GPS Position' 'Map Link'

Export

# HTML report (default)
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ -e

# TXT
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ -e txt

# JSON - singular (deduplicated values per field)
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ -e json

# JSON - per file
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ --display all -e json

# Custom filename suffix and output directory
python3 MetaDetective.py -d ./loot/ -e json -c pentest-corp -o ~/results/

JSON singular output structure:

{
  "tool": "MetaDetective",
  "generated": "2026-03-21T...",
  "unique": {
    "Author": ["Alice Martin", "Bob Dupont"],
    "Creator Tool": ["Microsoft Word 16.0"]
  }
}

Pivot with jq:

jq '.unique.Author' MetaDetective_Export-*.json

Web scraping

# Scan target site, list files found
python3 MetaDetective.py --scraping --scan --url https://target.com/

# Filter by extension
python3 MetaDetective.py --scraping --scan --url https://target.com/ --extensions pdf docx xlsx

# Download files (depth 2, 8 threads)
python3 MetaDetective.py --scraping --url https://target.com/ \
  --download-dir ~/loot/ --extensions pdf docx --depth 2 --threads 8

# Control request rate (requests/sec)
python3 MetaDetective.py --scraping --url https://target.com/ \
  --download-dir ~/loot/ --rate 5

# Follow external links
python3 MetaDetective.py --scraping --url https://target.com/ \
  --download-dir ~/loot/ --follow-extern

Filtering and display options

Flag	Description
-t pdf docx	Restrict to file types
-i admin anonymous	Ignore values matching pattern (regex supported)
--parse-only Author Creator	Extract only specified fields
--display all	Show metadata per file
--display singular	Deduplicated view across all files (default)
--format formatted	Decorated output
--format concise	Compact output

Supported formats

Documents: PDF, DOCX, ODT, XLS, XLSX, PPTX, ODP, RTF, CSV, XML Images: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, SVG, PSD, HEIC, HEIF Email: EML, MSG, PST, OST Video: MP4, MOV

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License

AGPL-3.0. See LICENSE.

MetaDetective is provided for educational and authorized security testing purposes. You are responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable laws.

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Contact

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