Using Search Engines
One of the first step in the process of foot-printing tends to be using a search engine. Search engines such as Google and Bing can easily provide a wealth of information that the client may have wished to have kept hidden or may have just plain forgotten about. The same information may readily show up on a search engine results page (SERP).
Using a search engine, you can find a lot of information, some of it completely unexpected or something a defender never considered, such as technology platforms, employee details, login pages, intranet portals, and so on. A search can easily provide even more details such as names of security personnel, brand and type of firewall, and antivirus protection, and it is not unheard of to find network diagrams and other information.
Of course, the best known and most dominant search engine today is Google, so let’s start there. Google, like any search engine, allows you to type in things to look for on the internet. While I won’t go through how to do basic searches in this book, it is safe to say that anyone who has used one knows that sometimes getting the correct information can be tough. Typing in terms to a search engine will results. But are they results, but are they results that you need? Let’s see how to unleash the real power with Google; now is the time to learn the process known as Google Hacking.
Google Hacking is not anything new and has been around for a long time; it just isn’t widely known by public. The process involves using advanced operators to fine-tune your results to get what you want instead of being left at the whim of the search engine. With Google hacking it is possible to obtain items such as passwords, certain file types, sensitive folders, logon portals, configurations data, and other data.
Before you perform any Google hacking you need to be familiar with the operators that make it possible.
NOTE: – Each of the operators mentioned here is entered directly into the search box on the Google.com home page. You don’t have to go to a special page to use these commands.
Cache Displays the version of web page that Google contains in its cache instead of displaying the current version. Syntax: cache:<website name>
Link lists any web pages that contain links to the page or site specified in the query Syntax: link:<website name?
Info Presents information about the listed page. Syntax: info:<website name>
Site Restricts the search to the location specified. Syntax: <keyword> site:<website name>
Allintitle Returns page with specified keywords in their title. Syntax: allintitle:<keywords>
Allinurl Returns only results with the specific query in the URL. Syntax: allinurl:<keywords>
Using Google Hacking
The exercise demonstrates how to use Google hacking to uncover information about a target. To do this exercise, you can use any browser and just go to www.google.com.
- In the search box enter the phrase Site:www.techytalk.online Hacking. This will search the Techytalk website and return any reference that include the name Hacking.
- In the search box enter the phrase Allinurl: network camera. This will return a list of web-enabled cameras that are attached to the internet.
- In the search box enter the phrase Link: itpro.tv. This will return a list of websites that link to the website itpro.tv.
This is just an example of three operators available to you for Google Hacking. This is only for our techytalk website lovers you must gain further knowledge regarding this.
If you are still a little confused about how these special queries and operators work, a very good resource is the Google hacking Database (GHDB). This website (www.exploit-db.com/google/dorks/) has been maintained for a very long time; there you will find the operators described here along with the plenty of new ones.