Google Dorking, also known as Google hacking, is the practice of using advanced search operators and keywords to find information that is not readily available on a website or through a search engine’s normal search functionality. These advanced search operators and keywords can be used to find sensitive information such as login credentials, email addresses, and financial data, as well as information that may be of use to an attacker, such as the technology a website is built with or any open-source code.
Google Dorking involves using a combination of search operators and keywords to narrow down search results and find specific information. Some common search operators include filetype: (to search for specific file types), site: (to search a specific website), and inurl: (to search for specific keywords in a URL). By combining these operators with keywords, it is possible to find information that is not easily accessible through a normal search.
For example, using the operator “site:example.com inurl:admin” will return any pages on the example.com website that contain “admin” in the URL. This could potentially lead to pages such as the login page for an administrative interface.
Google dorking can be used for both legal and illegal activities. Some use it for legitimate reasons such as security research, but others may use it for illegal activities such as stealing sensitive information or hacking into systems. Because of this, it is important to use google dorking responsibly and not to access any information or systems without the proper authorization.
Also It is important to note that Google and other Search engines are regularly working on detecting and preventing such malicious dorking, so it could be possible that some dorks are not working anymore, or that the process is more complicated than it used to be
Here are a few basic examples of Google dorks that can be used to find different types of information:
“inurl:admin” – This dork can be used to find pages that contain “admin” in the URL, potentially leading to login pages for administrative interfaces.
“intext:password filetype:txt” – This dork can be used to find text files that contain the word “password” in the file.
“site:example.com inurl:login” – This dork can be used to find pages on the website “example.com” that contain the word “login” in the URL, potentially leading to login pages.
“filetype:pdf inurl:cv” – This dork can be used to find PDF files containing the word “CV” (Curriculum Vitae)
“inurl:index.php?id=” – This dork can be used to find pages that have a vulnerable URL parameter, “id=” which could lead to a SQL injection vulnerabili
“inurl:ftp” – This dork can be used to find pages that contain “ftp” in the URL, potentially leading to open FTP servers.
“inurl:backup” – This dork can be used to find pages that contain “backup” in the URL, potentially leading to backup files or directories.
“inurl:wp-content” – This dork can be used to find pages that contain “wp-content” in the URL, potentially leading to WordPress sites, which could have vulnerabilities.
“site:.edu filetype:xls” – This dork can be used to find Excel spreadsheets on .edu websites.
“intext:@gmail.com filetype:txt” – This dork can be used to find text files that contain Gmail addresses.
“inurl:config site:.gov” – This dork can be used to find configuration files on government websites.
It’s important to note that Google and other search engines are regularly working on detecting and preventing malicious dorking, and the process of dorking may be more complicated than it used to be, or some dorks may not work anymore. Also, using dorking for illegal activities is prohibited and could lead to severe consequences.
