Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: Google and Yahoo search engine zero-day code


From: "Dave \"No, not that one\" Korn" <davek_throwaway () hotmail com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 14:27:06 +0100

Denis Jedig wrote:
n3td3v wrote:

Today's disclosure involves Google and Yahoo search engines:

All you need to do is put in the code to a web page, when Google and
Yahoo visit it, then the code exploits the software they use and
makes them start caching 'other' pages. Including 'no index' pages,
where sites have setup a robot text file on their server to protect
corporate and consumer interests.

I think you missed the concept here. Whatever is on the webservers and
is available to the public is... well... available to the public.

It does not help security matters to introduce a robots.txt - the
purpose of this directives file is not to secure something but to
reduce traffic and keep irrelevant content out of search engines.

If you need security, you introduce some kind of authentication
*before* access is allowed to sensitive data. You will find that a
sign reading "Do not enter and do not steal any gold" will not help
much at the Fort Knox entrance if it is the only security measure.


  Also, Google and Yahoo *do* respect the robots.txt file and do check it
for every server they fetch files from, and the whole thing is garbage.  His
so-called 'example' is a fraud because it shows yahoo caching a page from
the site mtf.news.yahoo.com, which DOES NOT HAVE A ROBOTS.TXT FILE.

    cheers,
      DaveK
-- 
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....





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