As a digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) professional, I’m always looking for ways to streamline my workflow. Today I’m sharing a simple but powerful utility I created: the SpiderFoot Quick Launcher – a batch script that automates launching SpiderFoot and its web interface with a single click.
Why This Exists
SpiderFoot is an incredible open-source reconnaissance tool that gathers OSINT from hundreds of sources. While incredibly powerful, I found myself repeatedly:
Opening a terminal
Navigating to the SpiderFoot directory
Launching the Python script
Waiting for initialization
Finally opening Chrome to localhost:5001
This script eliminates those manual steps with a one-click solution.
Features
✅ Single-click launch of both SpiderFoot CLI and web interface ✅ Automatic Chrome opening after initialization ✅ Configurable paths for both SpiderFoot and Chrome installations ✅ Lightweight batch script with no external dependencies ✅ 5-second delay ensures SpiderFoot is ready before browser opens
Install dependencies: cd C:\Tools\SpiderFoot pip install -r requirements.txt
Usage
Simply run the batch file:
It launches SpiderFoot on 127.0.0.1:5001
Waits 5 seconds for initialization
Opens Chrome to the SpiderFoot web interface
Customization
Edit these variables in the batch script as needed: set SPIDERFOOT_PATH=C:\Tools\SpiderFoot\sf.py set CHROME_PATH=”C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
Troubleshooting
Chrome won’t open?
Verify Chrome’s installation path
Check if SpiderFoot is running by visiting http://127.0.0.1:5001 manually
Ensure port 5001 isn’t in use by another service
Python errors?
Verify requirements are installed: pip install -r requirements.txt
Check your Python version: python3 --version
For Headless Servers
Simply remove or comment out the Chrome launch line if running on servers without GUI.
Final Thoughts
This simple utility has saved me countless clicks and seconds that add up during long DFIR investigations. The batch script approach makes it easy to modify for your specific environment or extend with additional functionality.