Google as Application FireWall

[Andrey Bayora <andrey () hiddenbit org>]

Hi list,
As you know, Google blocks some keywords in the search query like
"viewtopic.php" to stop worms attacking vulnerable sites.
Debasis Mohanty in his post
(http://seclists.org/lists/fulldisclosure/2005/Feb/0534.html) explained
how this block could be bypassed, by searching for:
"view" + "topic" + ".php"
Or
Viewtopic.php

Now these "tweaks" doesn't work any more, they are also blocked by
Google.
The world is saved from the Sanity Worm!!!........?

First, the results from the competitors:

search.msn.com
1-10 of 709,394 containing "viewtopic.php"
1-10 of 39,532 containing "phpBB/viewtopic.php"

A9.com
Search for "viewtopic.php" - Web Service temporarily unavailable.
Search for ""phpBB/viewtopic" - Showing 1 - 10 of about 261,000

search.yahoo.com
Results 1 - 100 of about 14,400,000 for inurl viewtopic php

And now the GOOGLE results:
Results 1 - 100 of about 5,890,000 for allinurl:view topic php
Results 1 - 100 of about 228,000 for inurl:view+phpBB+topic + php
Results 1 - 100 of about 1,550,000 for inurl:topic+view+php
Search for inurl:".php" – BLOCKED.

Conclusion:
1. If google blocks (sanitize) search results – the google users must
know the rules (what blocked, when and why).
The rules now (at least):
- inurl:".php" – BLOCKED
- inurl:viewtopic – BLOCKED

2. Why inurl:".php" query is blocked?
- if this is a "bug", it need to be fixed
- if not a "bug", please BLOCK .asp .asa .vbs …get the list from
antivirus vendors :)

3. OK, it's a good intention to help to reduce the impact of worm's
attacks, BUT…
think about the next move of virus writers…as you see from above search
results, you  can't effectively block the "bad" results, so the LONG
TERM impact can be that virus writers will develop some fuzzy engine
and will still get the desired results.
For example: query for -- allinurl:view topic php -- and then passing
over ALL search results (5,890,000) and filtering for "viewtopic.php"
string in URL. The service will be overloaded much more.
This is worse problem, then the initial one!!!

Regards,
Andrey Bayora
CISSP, GCIH

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