Google Dorking

Google dorking is also known as

‘Google hacking’. Google is used as one
of the passive reconnaissance tools.
Google contains many information
which are required by the hackers.
Hackers may look into the information
needed by them in google through
specialized google queries, which are
known as google dorks. These dorks are simply used for filtering the search
results in the basic level. Their usage can be extended into evil ways by the
hackers to gain the sensitive information which is knowingly or unknowingly
put up in the internet.
Using this facility of google, people can specifically search the information in a
less time. Some of the google dorks are intitle:, inurl:, site:, book:, link:, and
many more.
For example, an organisation publishes its job requirements in google. Through
this the hacker may get to know the needs of the organization and gain some
information through this as well. Even the organization may post some of the
information which are not done intentionally and by this the hacker will gain
many such information. In this way, Google dorks can be used by the hackers
to gather the information passively.
Some of the dorks, their uses and an example for each are as follows:
 allintext:
This dork searches for occurrences of all the keywords given.
Example, allintext:”keyword”.
The above example will return web pages that specifically contain the
word “keyword” in the body text.
 intext:
This dork searches for the occurrences of keywords all at once or one at
a time.
Example, intext:”keyword”.
 inurl:
This dork searches for a URL matching one of the keywords.
Example, inurl:”keyword”.
The above example will return all the URLs containg “keyword” in it.
 allinurl:
This dork searches for a URL matching all the keywords in the query.
Example, allinurl:”keyword”.
 intitle:
This dork searches for occurrences of keywords in title all or one.
Example, intitle:”keyword”.
 allintitle:
This dork searches for occurrences of keywords all at a time.
Example, allintitle:” keyword”.
 site:
This dork specifically searches that particular site and lists all the results
for that site.
Example, site: www.google.com.
 filetype:
This dork searches for a particular filetype mentioned in the query.
Example, filetype:”pdf”.
 link:
This dork searches for external links to pages.
Example, link:”keyword”.
 numrange:
This dork is used to locate specific numbers in your searches.
Example, numrange:321-325.
 before/after:
This dork is used to search within a particular date range.
Example, filetype:pdf & (before:2000-01-01 after:2001-01-01).
 allinanchor (and also inanchor):
This shows sites which have the key terms in links pointing to them, in
order of the most links.
Example, inanchor:rat.
 allinpostauthor (and also inpostauthor):
This dork is exclusive to blog search, this one picks out blog posts that
are written by specific individuals.
Example, allinpostauthor:"Ram".
  related:
This dork lists the web pages that are “similar” to a specified web page.
Example, related: www.google.com.
 cache:
This dork shows the version of the web page that Google has in its
cache.
Example, cache: www.google.com.
 OR & AND operator:
These operators are combined with other search strings(dorks) to give
out more efficient search results.
Example, “river” AND “cap”, “river” OR “town”
In this way, a hacker may use the google search engine for information
gathering by utilizing the google dorking service.
The sensitive information which can be gained through google dorking include:
 usernames and passwords.
 email address lists.
 sensitive documents.
 personally identifiable information.
 personally identifiable financial information.
 website vulnerabilities.
Some of the methods to prevent dorking include:
 Implement password authentication to protect private files.
 Encrypt all the sensitive data.
 Run vulnerability scans to find and disable google dorks.
 Request the removal of sensitive content using Google Search Console
 Hide sensitive files using robot.txt file and give access as disallow.
Finally, in this report, we got to know about how the google search engine is
used to search specific information required by the hacker using various
commands. We also got to know the uses of the google hacking database
(GHDB). By this service we can get to know the sensitive information that were
knowingly or unknowingly released in the internet by an organization or a
company. This is one of the legal ways of information gathering techniques
through which the hacker can access all the sensitive data present on the
internet.
References:
 https://gist.github.com/sundowndev/283efaddbcf896ab405488330d1bbc06
 https://sansorg.egnyte.com/dl/f4TCYNMgN6
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EdbKbdP3Tfkj1zBQ4NICLwnvzcM-bX9g/view
 The basics of hacking and penetration testing – Patrick Engebretson