Google Dorking
What Is Google Dorking?
Google Dorking or Google hacking refers to using some custom search
techniques to hack into vulnerable sites or search for information that is not
available in public search results
Google hacking, can return information that is difficult to locate through
simple searching techniques
This includes information that is not intended for public viewing, but that is
inadequately protected and can, therefore the information can be hacked by
a hacker
At the surface level, Google dorking involves using specific modifiers to search
data. For example, instead of searching the entire Web, users can click on tags
like "image" or "site" to collect images or find information about a specific site.
Users can utilize other commands like "filetype" and "datarange" to get other
specific search results.
How it works?
Google dorking is a passive attack or hacking method involving the use of a
custom technques. Using this techniques the hacker can identify websites with
security vulnerabilities and/or sensitive information that attacker can use for
some malicious purpose.
Around since 2002, dorking usually involves using a search engine as a hacking
tool. Google's tremendous web crawling capabilities facilitate dorking. With a
Google dork, attackers can access a lot of information they wouldn't be able to
get with simple queries. This information includes the following:
usernames and passwords
email address lists
sensitive documents
personally identifiable information
personally identifiable financial information
website vulnerabilities
This information is used for many types of illegal activities,
including cybercrime, cyberterrorism, industrial espionage, identity
theft and cyberstalking. Hackers may also sell this data to other criminals on
the dark web for large sums of money
Be aware that Google also knows who we are when we perform such kind of
operations. So, it's advised to use it only with good intentions, whether for
your own research or while looking for ways to defend your website against
this kind of vulnerability.
Intrusion prevention measures proposed was to conduct Google dorking
expeditions using likely attack parameters to discover what type of information
an intruder could access
If we are performing any techniques in Google for hacking we should consider
above nine network security features
Google Dorking Commands
A hacker that gets access to internal documents on a website can potentially
also get additional sensitive information. For example, document
metadata often contains more information than the author may be aware of,
such as name, revision history, deletions, dates, etc
A cache is a metadata that speeds up the page search process.
Google stores some data in its cache, such as current and previous versions of
the websites. This cache holds much useful information that the developers
can use. Some developers use cache to store information for their testing
purpose that can be changed with new changes to the website.
An intruder knowledgeable about Google dorking and armed with hacking
tools can access sensitive information from cache fairly and easily
It's a good practice to remove all metadata from documents before publishing
them on a website. Document sanitization can also ensure that only authorized
users can access the intended information.
The following are some google dorking commands
OPERATOR FUNCTION EXAMPLE
cache: Returns the cached version cache:facebook.com
of a website
Returns a list of all
site: indexed URLs from a site:facebook.com
website or domain
ext: To search for a specific type site:https://www.ford.com/
of document ext:pdf
filetype: Returns various kinds of filetype:sql intext:wp_users
files, depending on the file phpmyadmin
extension provided
inurl: Searches for a specific term inurl:register.php
in the URL
allinurl: Returns results whose URL allinurl:clientarea
contains all the specified
characters
intext: Locates webpages that intext:"Google Dork Query"
contain certain characters
or strings inside their text
allintext: To search for multiple allintext:”Google Dork Query”
keywords. All the keywords “hacking”
will be separated using a
single space between them
intittle: To filter out the documents intitle:”ip camera”
based on HTML page titles
allintittle multiple keywords are used allintittle:”ipcamera” “dvr”
with this query to get more
specific result
inposttitle: To search for a certain term inposttitle:Hacking tips
within the blog. It is useful
for blog search
allintittle: If we run a blog, and want allintittle:how to write content
to research for other blogs for google dorking
that are similar and high-
quality blogs.This command
is helpful
inanchor: Searches for an exact inanchor:”cyber attacks”
anchor text used on any
links
allinanchor: Research on pages that Allinanchor:”what are recent
have all the terms after the top cyber attacks”
“inanchor” in the anchor
text that links back to the
page
Around It provides you the results Vulnerability scanning
with two or more terms AROUND(5) tools
appearing on the page.
@ Search only on the specified Cybersecurity @facebook
social media platform
““ To search for the exact “Cyber attacks”
phrase. The search engine
results will eliminate
unnecessary pages
Related: Search for specific data “Related:facebook.com”
from more than one
website with similar
content
Info: To find the information “Info:facebook.com”
related to a specific domain
name.
Weather To fetch Weather Wing intittle:”Weather Wing WS-2”
device transmissions
| Shows all sites that contain hacking | Google dork
either or both specified
words in the query
+ Concatenates words to hacking + Google dork
detect pages using more
than one specific key
- Used to avoid displaying hacking – dork
results containing certain
words
* To search pages that how to * a website
contain "anything" before
your word
Practical Google Dork examples
¶
Cache Command:
cache:facebook.com
output:
Site Command:
site:facebook.com
output:
Ext Command:
site:https://www.ford.com/ ext:pdf
output:
Filetype Command :
filetype:sql intext:wp_users phpmyadmin
Output:
Inurl Command:
inurl:register.php
Output:
Intitle Command:
intitle:admin
Output:
“ ” Command:
“Cyber Security”
Output:
Allintext Command:
allintext:”username” “password”
output:
Allintitle command:
allintitle:”ip camera” “dvr”
Output:
Inpostitle Command:
inposttitle:weight loss goals
Output:
Allinanchor Command:
allinanchor:"how to scan vulnerabilities"
Output:
Inanchor Cmmand:
inanchor:"vulnerability scanning”
output:
AROUND Command:
vulnerbility scanning AROUND(2) tools
Output:
@ Command:
cybersecurity @facebook
Output:
Related Command:
“Related:facebook.com”
Output:
Info Command:
"Info:facebook.com"
Output:
Weather Command:
Intitle:"Weather Wing WS-2"
Output:
References:
https://www.cybrary.it/blog/0p3n/advanced-google-dorking-commands/
https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/cyber-security-tutorial/google-dorking
https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Google-dork-query
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30938/google-dorking
https://hackr.io/blog/google-dorks-cheat-sheet
