Google hacking exposes a world of security flaws

Using a technique popularized by security researcher Johnny Long, the Google search engine is used to send specially crafted queries to websites, which often oblige by returning information that most security administrators would prefer remain hidden or fixed.

A typical example of such "Google hacking" would be to search for a particular PHP script used during development, but not removed from an operational system: inputting the phrase filetype:php inurl:"viewfile" -"index.php" -"idfil into Google unsurprisingly reveals a fair number of websites that fail to prevent such files from being viewed. This is but one of literally hundreds of security gaffes that Google can be used to uncover.

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For those who have misgivings about installing software created by clever hackers, the cDc has published the full source code of Goolag; for the brave, simply download the executable and you can be Google hacking in mere minutes.

Running Goolag is simplicity itself, so resist the temptation to examine anything for which you don't have direct security responsibility. Then take the output of Goolag and get your Web developers busy fixing the flaws you will most likely find.

About the author:
Scott Sidel is an ISSO with Lockheed Martin.

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