RE: Website search engine is a hacking tool..

[Amal Mohammad Al Hajeri <amal () nis etisalat ae>]

Hello List,
Thank you all for the valuable inputs. Am aware of the subject of using
Google as a hacking tool, However, how is it different than using a
local website search engine? will it give the same results? is it
possible that a local engine may give extra juicy stuff?  and how can we
mitigate the risk of using such techniques? did anyone succeed in using
the local search engine as a proxy to attack other targets?

Have a good day :)


On Sat, 2004-07-24 at 07:16, Charles Gillman wrote:
> The folks at Foundstone have already created a tool to do exactly as Amal
> suggests using the Google API's.   It's called SiteDigger
> http://www.foundstone.com/index.htm?subnav=resources/navigation.htm&subconte
> nt=/resources/information_gathering_tools.htm
>
> I have found it to be a bit buggy, returning results to an unrelated site
> occasionally but that could also be the Google API's.
>
> CG
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Drew Copley [mailto:dcopley () eEye com]
> > Sent: Friday, 23 July 2004 8:01 AM
> > To: Gerry Eisenhaur; Amal Mohammad Al Hajeri
> > Cc: pen-test () securityfocus com
> > Subject: RE: Website search engine is a hacking tool..
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Gerry Eisenhaur [mailto:GEisenhaur () cisco com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 12:54 PM
> > > To: Amal Mohammad Al Hajeri
> > > Cc: pen-test () securityfocus com
> > > Subject: Re: Website search engine is a hacking tool..
> > >
> > > There have been many articles written about using google as a hacking
> > > tool. All you really though need is an imagination.
> > >
> > > Here are some google modifiers that you might not know of:
> > > http://www.google.com/help/operators.html
> > >
> > > and here are some ideas to get you started:
> > > http://johnny.ihackstuff.com/index.php?module=prodreviews
> > >
> > > You would be amazed at whats out there, I've found everything
> > > from VNC
> > > passwords for entire domains, WEP keys, to pictures of peoples family.
> >
> > Not sure how "pictures of people's family" is relevant.
> >
> > I have had to track back some people sometimes through the years, and
> > at least once found "pictures of their family".
> >
> > The most successful examples have been for tracking back entirely
> > "anonymous" people through their fingerprint of writing to their
> > real identities. Identidity in the plural, because often the only
> > identity online is multiple psuedo-anonymous ones that give real
> > details in various forums.
> >
> > In one example we thought a troll was a pedophile because he was
> > found trying to pick up fifteen year old girls. Turns out, surprise
> > surprise, he was fifteen. His terrified mom told us when we called
> > her up.
> >
> > In another case, a neo-nazi troll was caught because of his unusual
> > fascination with a certain vulgar phrase he had the unfortunate luck
> > to coin.
> >
> > This trace back gave his home address and the highly vulnerable
> > information that he actually kept gold bars under his baseboards.
> >
> > Being confronted with this information he promptly repented and never
> > returned.
> >
> > Their "fingerprint" is derived by breaking up their sentences and
> > finding specific phrases and misspellings. Then, these are put into
> > search engines and return counts and possible identities are put
> > against these. If lucky, one can whittle down the suspect list
> > to some positive proof. I am not aware of this method being used
> > or documented anywhere, though it works on basic forensic science
> > principles used in physical criminology and utilizes well known
> > linguistic forensics...
> >
> > So that is a more unusual example of "google hacking" [sic]...
> >
> > While the methods I specified are useful for tracking back
> > scum bags they also could be used to find hackable targets in
> > a weak link target scenario.
> >
> > There are few corporate or governmental targets better then
> > an "executive" at home on his take home laptop. Search engines
> > are instrumental in finding that kind of identity. FYI.
> >
> >
> > > --gerry
> > >
> > >
> > > Amal Mohammad Al Hajeri wrote:
> > > > Hi List,
> > > >
> > > > Did you ever thought of the website search engine as a hacking tool?
> > > > During one of the pen-tests, The website search engine, was
> > > a valuable
> > > > tool to discover interesting directories within the website itself,
> > > > these directories were not detected by famous website scanners like
> > > > nikto or SPI dynamics,i managed to get documentation pages
> > > about the API
> > > > application implemented, management login pages, backup
> > > files and much
> > > > more.
> > > > I leave it to your imagination to search for words like:
> > > > password,login,oracle,database,administrator, backup...etc
> > > >
> > > > Best Regards,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > -----------------------------------
> > > > Amal M. Al-Hajeri
> > > > E/Network & Information Security
> > > > Etisalat
> > >
> > > --
> > > Gerald Eisenhaur
> > > Cisco Systems, Inc.
> > > 1414 Massachusetts Ave.
> > > Boxborough, MASSACHUSETTS 01719
> > > tel:      978.936.0465
> > > geisenhaur () cisco com
-- 
-----------------------------------
Amal M. Al-Hajeri
E/Network & Information Security
HO-B 12th Floor
Etisalat
P.O.Box:3838
Tel(office):00971206182584
Tel(cel):00971506677061