Search Engine Hacking – Manual and Automation Introduction: We are all aware of Google/Yahoo/Bing Search engines; they need no introduction. We use them every now and then to solve our day-to-day queries. Google and other search engines use automated programs called spiders or crawlers. Also, these search engines have a large index of keywords, and where those words can be found. Powerful crawling and indexing features make these search engines not only powerful but also opens doors for hackers to use for identifying vulnerable targets over the internet. This is called Search Engine Hacking. Search Engine Hacking involves using advanced operator-based searching to identify exploitable targets and sensitive data using the search engines. In this article, we learn to use various Google search operators to identify vulnerable targets over the Internet and also check out a new tool that can be used to automate this process. Special Search Characters: Google search engine provides its users with various special search characters for advanced searching. See a partial list below: 1. Quotes ["search query"]: Quotes are used to search for specific phrase or set of words. E.g. The query ["The monk who sold his Ferrari"] will search for the specific phrase —The monk who sold his Ferrari. 2. Minus Sign [-]: The minus sign tells Google search engine to exclude the word that follows the minus operator. E.g. [-red apple] will display the search results which will exclude the word red. 3. Tilde operator [~]: Adding a tilde operator in front of a word will search for results containing that word as well as even more synonyms. E.g. [~jokes] will display search results which will include the word jokes as well as its synonyms like funny, humor, etc. 4. OR operator or vertical bar [|]: Using OR (in uppercase) or the vertical bar with two or more keywords, tells Google to search for pages that contain either of the words. E.g. [Android OR Apple] will display search results containing either of the words. 5. Asterisk operator [*]: The asterisk is a computer symbol for a wildcard, which allows the search engine, such as Google, to fill in that space with any text string. You can also use it within double quotes for more precise searches. E.g. The query ["today is * day"] will display search results like “today is a good day” or “today is mother’s day”, etc
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:31:23 +0000