RoboBack: Time-Travel OSINT Tool to Retrieve Historical robots.txt from archive.org

RoboBack is a command-line tool that helps you travel back in time to pull historical robots.txt files for any target domain from archive.org. It is designed for security researchers, bug hunters, and OSINT practitioners who want to see how a site’s crawling policies looked in the past. The tool fetches archived robots.txt records, aggregates them, and presents results in a clean, usable format.

If you want to explore the project’s release artifacts, you can visit the Releases page. The Releases page hosts the binaries and other assets for RoboBack. See the link again in the later section dedicated to obtaining the software.

• Link to downloads and releases: https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases
• Link to downloads and releases (second mention): https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases

Note: From the Releases page, download the appropriate artifact for your operating system and run it. The page contains the files you need to get RoboBack up and running.

Table of Contents

• Why RoboBack
• How RoboBack Works
• Key Features
• What You Can Do with RoboBack
• Getting Started
• Installation and Setup
• Quick Start Guide
• Input and Output
• Advanced Usage
• Data Handling and Output Formats
• Release Artifacts and Getting Versions
• Troubleshooting
• Security and Ethics
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License
• FAQ

Why RoboBack RoboBack fills a niche in time-based web reconnaissance. It lets you see how a site’s robots.txt policy changed over time. Archive.org stores snapshots of robots.txt across dates. By examining those snapshots, you can learn about:

• When a site changed its crawling rules
• How search engines may have interpreted those rules over time
• Potential differences between current and historical access policies
• Patterns that appear across a set of domains

This tool helps you build a richer historical context around domain behavior. It is a research aid, not a replacement for current policy checks. It supports careful, informed testing and analysis in bug bounty and security assessment workflows.

How RoboBack Works RoboBack follows a clear, repeatable process:

1. Accept a target domain as input from the user.
2. Query archive.org for archived robots.txt files associated with that domain.
3. Collect and unify the historical records across dates.
4. Present results in a readable format and optionally save them to a file.
5. Provide a structured summary of findings to help you compare periods.

The workflow is designed to be deterministic. Each run returns the same results for the same inputs, assuming archive.org data has not changed. The tool focuses on robustness and simplicity. It avoids heavy dependencies and aims for predictable behavior across platforms.

Key Features

• Historical retrieval: Pulls archived robots.txt files from archive.org for any domain.
• Time-series view: Shows changes in robots.txt across dates, not just the latest version.
• Lightweight: Minimal dependencies; runs in a typical command-line environment.
• Cross-platform: Intended to work on major operating systems with standard shells.
• Local output: Save results to a file for later analysis or reporting.
• Simple interface: Straightforward commands that do not require deep configuration.
• Clear results: Outputs are easy to read and export to common formats.

What You Can Do with RoboBack

• Compare past crawling rules across different dates for a single domain.
• Identify when robots.txt began to restrict or relax access.
• Detect shifts in allowed user agents or disallowed paths over time.
• Build a historical context around a domain’s web governance as part of a pentest or OSINT project.
• Document findings for bug bounty reports or security reviews.

Getting Started To begin, you need access to the RoboBack release artifact. The Releases page contains the binaries and assets you need to run RoboBack. Download the appropriate file for your system, extract it if needed, and run the executable. For convenience, the link to the releases is provided here again: https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases

From the Releases page, download the appropriate artifact and run it. The page hosts the files you need to start using RoboBack right away.

Installation and Setup

• Prerequisites: RoboBack is built to work with common operating environments. Ensure you have a modern shell and sufficient permissions to run binaries on your system.
• Download: Head to the Releases page and fetch the binary or package that matches your platform.
• Prepare: If the artifact comes in an archive, extract it to a working directory.
• Run: Execute the RoboBack binary. The exact command depends on the artifact you downloaded, but you will typically run something that invokes the tool with a target domain.

Note: The Releases page is the primary source for the latest builds. It also includes release notes that describe changes, fixes, and improvements.

Quick Start Guide

• Step 1: Find the Releases page and download the right artifact for your OS.
• Step 2: Extract the artifact if needed.
• Step 3: Open a terminal and run the RoboBack binary.
• Step 4: Provide a target domain when prompted or via the command line, depending on the interface.
• Step 5: Review the results on the screen. If you want a record, save the output to a file.
• Step 6: Open the saved file to analyze the historical robots.txt content across dates.

Input and Output

• Input: The primary input is a domain name (for example, example.com). RoboBack uses that domain to locate archived robots.txt entries on archive.org.

• Output: The tool prints a timeline of robots.txt versions. Each entry shows:

  • Date of the snapshot
  • The robots.txt content or a summary of its rules
  • The URL of the archived snapshot
  • Any notable changes in user-agent blocks or path restrictions

• Output formats: The tool can present data on-screen and optional output files may be used for offline work. If a file path is provided, RoboBack saves the data there in a structured format suitable for reporting.

Advanced Usage

• Batch mode: Investigate multiple domains in a single run. Use a list file with one domain per line.
• Filter and sort: Focus on specific dates or specific sections inside robots.txt, such as allow/deny rules for certain paths.
• Output customization: Choose a different output format or a summary view to suit your workflow.
• Integration: RoboBack can be integrated into larger OSINT pipelines. Export data in a standard format and feed it into other tools for correlation and visualization.

Data Handling and Output Formats

• Historic data: RoboBack stores dates and content snapshots as they existed in archive.org. It does not alter these sources.
• Export options: Save to text, JSON, or CSV, depending on the artifact features. JSON is useful for programmatic analysis. CSV makes it easy to import into spreadsheets.
• Privacy: The data you retrieve is publicly accessible on archive.org. RoboBack only fetches what archive.org hosts and presents it to you for analysis.

Release Artifacts and Getting Versions

• The primary place to obtain RoboBack is the Releases page. There you will find binaries, libraries, and documentation for each version.
• If you encounter a link that has a path part, you can download the release asset and run it. The path part indicates an artifact you should download and execute to use RoboBack.
• Link to the releases page: https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases
• Second mention of the link for easy access: https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases

Troubleshooting

• If RoboBack does not start: Ensure you downloaded the correct binary for your operating system. Re-check the artifact’s compatibility.
• If no data is returned: Confirm that archive.org has snapshots for the domain and that your network can reach archive.org. Some domains may have limited or no archived robots.txt entries.
• If the output is empty or incomplete: Check for rate limits or temporary issues with archive.org. Try a later time or a different domain for validation.
• If the tool fails during extraction: Make sure you have the required permissions and that the archive was properly downloaded. Re-download if necessary.

Security and Ethics

• Use RoboBack responsibly. Access historical robots.txt data in line with your project goals and applicable laws.
• Respect the rights and terms of service for target domains and data sources.
• Treat past data as historical context. Do not rely on it for real-time access decisions.

Roadmap

• Improve data resolution: Increase the fidelity of historical snapshots and capture more metadata.
• Enhance reporting: Provide richer reports with visuals, charts, and comparative analytics across dates.
• Expand sources: Add support for other archives or data sources to broaden historical coverage.
• Improve performance: Optimize the fetch and parse pipeline to handle large domain lists quickly.
• Integrations: Build connectors to common pentest and security tooling for seamless workflows.

Contributing

• If you want to contribute, start by forking the repository and opening a pull request with a clear description of changes.
• Propose new features or bug fixes with tests and documentation updates.
• Share ideas for improvements in issues to get feedback from the project maintainers.

License

• RoboBack is distributed under a permissive license. The project aims to be useful to researchers and practitioners while respecting the rights of data sources and the community.

Glossary

• robots.txt: A file used by websites to indicate which parts of the site should not be accessed by automated agents.
• archive.org: The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which stores snapshots of web pages, including robots.txt over time.
• OSINT: Open Source Intelligence. It means gathering information from public sources.
• CLI: Command Line Interface. It refers to the text-based way to interact with a program.

FAQs

• Is RoboBack safe to use on any domain? RoboBack is designed to read archived robots.txt data. It does not modify the original data and does not bypass access controls. Use it for legitimate research and testing.

• Do I need Python or Go to run RoboBack? The releases page provides prebuilt binaries for common platforms. You do not need to build from source to use the tool.

• Can I use RoboBack in an automated pipeline? Yes. RoboBack is designed to fit into scripts and CI/CD workflows. You can integrate it into OSINT pipelines and reporting systems.

• How up-to-date are the historical robots.txt results? The results depend on the data stored by archive.org. RoboBack fetches existing snapshots and presents them in a time-ordered view.

• How do I report issues? Create an issue on the RoboBack repository with a clear description of the problem and steps to reproduce.

• Where can I learn more about robots.txt? The robots.txt standard is public and widely documented. Reading the canonical sources helps interpret the results accurately.

Appendix: Examples and Snippets to Illustrate Concepts

• Example scenario: You want to study how a domain changed its disallow rules over time.

  • Step 1: Download the appropriate release from the Releases page.
  • Step 2: Run RoboBack with the domain as input.
  • Step 3: Review the time-series of robots.txt content to identify dates when certain paths became disallowed or allowed.
  • Step 4: Save the results to JSON for integration with a reporting tool.

• Example output concept:

  • Date: 2008-07-15
    • User-agent: *
      • Disallow: /admin/
  • Date: 2010-11-02
    • User-agent: *
      • Disallow: /private/
  • Date: 2015-03-20
    • User-agent: *
      • Allow: /public/
      • Disallow: /private/

• Example workflow integration:

  • Use a script to feed a list of domains to RoboBack in batch mode.
  • Pipe results into a data lake or a reporting system.
  • Generate charts that visualize the evolution of disallowed paths.

Visual Elements

• Emoji accents: Use simple emojis to underscore sections and create a friendly feel.
  • Overview: 🤖
  • History: 🗂️
  • Output: 📦
  • Commands: ⌘

Note on the Release Link

• The link to the releases page is present at two points in this document for quick access. It is the primary source for binaries and artifacts. The path component in the URL indicates a specific release page where assets live. If you see a path, download the release artifact and execute it to run RoboBack.

• Reiterate the release link for convenience:

  • https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases
  • https://github.com/hanyshehata1510/RoboBack/releases

End of document.