update docs

README.md

@@ -3,12 +3,6 @@ OSINT Tool: Generate username lists from companies on LinkedIn.
 
 This is a pure web-scraper, no API key required. You use your valid LinkedIn username and password to login, it will create several lists of possible username formats for all employees of a company you point it at.
 
-Login is done with Selenium in a spawned browser window. Maintaining a working CLI login flow was a lot of work, and this resolves many issues while supporting login challenges and 2FA.
-
-Use an account with a lot of connections, otherwise you'll get crappy results. Adding a couple connections at the target company should help - this tool will work up to third degree connections. Note that [LinkedIn will cap search results](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/129/what-you-get-when-you-search-on-linkedin?lang=en) to 1000 employees max. You can use the features '--geoblast' or '--keywords' to bypass this limit. Look at help below for more details.
-
-**WARNING**: LinkedIn has recently (Sept 2020) been hitting li2u users with the monthly commercial search limit. It's a bit mysterious as to when/why this happens. When you hit the limit, you won't be able to search again until the 1st of the month. If you know of a workaround, please let me know.
-
 Here's what you get:
 - first.last.txt: Usernames like Joe.Schmoe
 - f.last.txt:     Usernames like J.Schmoe
@@ -21,20 +15,23 @@ Here's what you get:
 
 Optionally, the tool will append @domain.xxx to the usernames.
 
-# Example
-You'll need to provide the tool with LinkedIn's company name. You can find that by looking at the URL for the company's page. It should look something like `https://linkedin.com/company/uber-com`. It may or may not be as simple as the exact name of the company.
+![](drawing.jpeg)
 
-Here's an example to pull all employees of Uber:
-```
-$ python linkedin2username.py -c uber-com
-```
+## Warnings
 
-Here's an example to pull a shorter list and append the domain name @uber.com to them:
-```
-$ python linkedin2username.py -c uber-com -d 5 -n 'uber.com'
-```
+Do not blame me if your LinkedIn account gets rate limited, or even banned. This is a security research tool - use it only after reading the code and fully understanding what it is doing.
+
+I have not heard of any account bans since the tool was written, but rate limiting does occasionally kick in when the "commercial search limit" is hit. That has been temporary so far (measured monthly).
 
-# Full Help
+## Using the tool
+
+### Pre-requisites
+
+Install the Python dependencies with `pip3 install -r ./requirements.txt`.
+
+You'll also need Chrome, Chromium, or Firefox installed in typical paths that can be discovered by Selenium. A web browser will be spawned temporarily to handle the login.
+
+### Full usage
 ```
 usage: linkedin2username.py [-h] -c COMPANY [-n DOMAIN] [-d DEPTH]
   [-s SLEEP] [-x PROXY] [-k KEYWORDS] [-g] [-o OUTPUT]
@@ -48,8 +45,8 @@ optional arguments:
   -c COMPANY, --company COMPANY
                         Company name exactly as typed in the company linkedin profile page URL.
   -n DOMAIN, --domain DOMAIN
-                        Append a domain name to username output. [example: "-n uber.com" would
-                        output jschmoe@uber.com]
+                        Append a domain name to username output.
+                        [example: "-n targetco.com" would output jschmoe@targetco.com]
   -d DEPTH, --depth DEPTH
                         Search depth (how many loops of 25). If unset, will try to grab them
                         all.
@@ -69,7 +66,40 @@ optional arguments:
                         Output Directory, defaults to li2u-output
 ```
 
-# Toubleshooting
-Sometimes LinkedIn does weird stuff or returns weird results. Sometimes it doesn't like you logging in from new locations. If something looks off, run the tool once or twice more. If it still isn't working, please open an issue.
+
+### Examples
+You'll need to provide the tool with LinkedIn's company name. You can find that by looking at the URL for the company's page. It should look something like `https://linkedin.com/company/targetco`. It may or may not be as simple as the exact name of the company.
+
+Here's an example to pull all employees of targetco:
+
+```
+$ python linkedin2username.py -c targetco
+```
+
+Here's an example to pull a shorter list and append the domain name @targetco.com to them:
+
+```
+$ python linkedin2username.py -c targetco -d 5 -n 'targetco.com'
+```
+
+### Tips
+
+Use an account with a lot of connections, otherwise you'll get crappy results. Adding a couple connections at the target company should help - this tool will work up to third degree connections. Note that [LinkedIn will cap search results](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/129/what-you-get-when-you-search-on-linkedin?lang=en) to 1000 employees max. You can use the features '--geoblast' or '--keywords' to bypass this limit. Look at help below for more details.
+
+## Toubleshooting
+
+When LinkedIn changes things, the tool may break. The API used here is not documented, and it may take some fiddling around to get it working again. Please open issues if you notice something weird.
+
+You can verify Selenium works on your machine like this:
+
+```
+$ python3
+
+from selenium import webdriver
+driver = webdriver.Firefox() # or webdriver.Chrome()
+driver.get("https://linkedin.com/login")
+```
+
+You can try the `--proxy` flag to inspect traffic with Burp. Right now, it is not inspecting the logins from the Selenium browser as you can see pretty clearly what is happening there.
 
 *This is a security research tool. Use only where granted explicit permission from the network owner.*