Google-fu - Harness the power of Google search 02-05-2013, 06:31 AM
#1
I see people 'round the forums having trouble finding stuff on the internet, so I present this short tutorial on the bits and pieces that make Google so powerful.
"<text>"
You can use quotes to search for exact strings, useful when trying to find people with the exact same error as you.
You can also use quotes with the + sign, so as to look for multiple exact strings
Ex: "<one exact string somewhere>" + "<second exact string, does not have to be consecutive to the first>"
inurl:<part of url>
One of the best ways to look for websites vulnerable to an exploit, use in conjunction with "site:"(later in this tutorial)
You can augment inurl with both parentheses and the bitwise operator (|) to search for different versions of the url. Quotes can also be used here.
Ex: inurl
login.php|login.asp|login.aspx|login.html)
intitle:<part of title>
Looks for a string as part of the page's title, useful for finding site indexes. Quotes, parentheses, and bitwise operators can be used here.
Ex: intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(.txt|.php|.jpg) "c99"
site:<website to filter>
Looks only at a certain website, useful when actually targeting a website and not just doing blind attacks.
Ex: site:www.anarchyforums.net ("Google-fu"|"Expansive E-books"|"ProxyScrapper"|"MirrorMe"|"login")
reminds me of <popular search>
Finds like products, or services to <popular search>. Does nearly the same thing as ~ (later in this tutorial)
Ex: reminds me of mIRC
better than <popular search>
Gives a little insight to Google rankings, finds a website, product, or service similar to <popular search>, but has a higher Google ranking. Useful for finding where to do link backs for search engine optimization.
Ex: better than hackforums
("about 454,000 results" Poor hackforums)
-
This will blow your minds: removes the item, site, title, or url from the search. Useful for finding free stuff, haven't really found much else to do with it...
Ex: Rose -intitle:flower -intext:flower
~
Finds search items related to the search. Useful when you don't know what you're looking for, but know it exists.
Ex: ~Hacking
filetype:<extension minus the .(dot)>
Finds files with the appropriate extension, all of the above still apply. Useful with site: and inurl: to find login pages and the like.
Ex: inurl:website.com filetype:php
*
Wildcard, allows Google to fill in the blank. Useful for when you know about what you're looking for, but it may vary a little.
Ex: "died in a * accident"
(this is also how XKCD came up with this image.)
<number>..<number>
Searches for number ranges. Only hacking-related topic I know for this is finding the vulnrable column on a website, if it has one.
Ex: site:hackforums.net AND inurl:/showthread.php?tid=1..5
allintext:<search tearms>
Finds pages with all the terms in the text of the page. All other operators can also be used here.
Ex: allintext:"anarchy forums is cool!"
(Why does this get 0 hits?
)
That's it for the tutorial! If you have any other bits or peices that I haven't mention AND are related to hacking, please post them in the comments!
"<text>"
You can use quotes to search for exact strings, useful when trying to find people with the exact same error as you.
You can also use quotes with the + sign, so as to look for multiple exact strings
Ex: "<one exact string somewhere>" + "<second exact string, does not have to be consecutive to the first>"
inurl:<part of url>
One of the best ways to look for websites vulnerable to an exploit, use in conjunction with "site:"(later in this tutorial)
You can augment inurl with both parentheses and the bitwise operator (|) to search for different versions of the url. Quotes can also be used here.
Ex: inurl
![Sad Sad](https://sinister.ly/images/smilies/set/sad.png)
intitle:<part of title>
Looks for a string as part of the page's title, useful for finding site indexes. Quotes, parentheses, and bitwise operators can be used here.
Ex: intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(.txt|.php|.jpg) "c99"
site:<website to filter>
Looks only at a certain website, useful when actually targeting a website and not just doing blind attacks.
Ex: site:www.anarchyforums.net ("Google-fu"|"Expansive E-books"|"ProxyScrapper"|"MirrorMe"|"login")
reminds me of <popular search>
Finds like products, or services to <popular search>. Does nearly the same thing as ~ (later in this tutorial)
Ex: reminds me of mIRC
better than <popular search>
Gives a little insight to Google rankings, finds a website, product, or service similar to <popular search>, but has a higher Google ranking. Useful for finding where to do link backs for search engine optimization.
Ex: better than hackforums
("about 454,000 results" Poor hackforums)
-
This will blow your minds: removes the item, site, title, or url from the search. Useful for finding free stuff, haven't really found much else to do with it...
Ex: Rose -intitle:flower -intext:flower
~
Finds search items related to the search. Useful when you don't know what you're looking for, but know it exists.
Ex: ~Hacking
filetype:<extension minus the .(dot)>
Finds files with the appropriate extension, all of the above still apply. Useful with site: and inurl: to find login pages and the like.
Ex: inurl:website.com filetype:php
*
Wildcard, allows Google to fill in the blank. Useful for when you know about what you're looking for, but it may vary a little.
Ex: "died in a * accident"
(this is also how XKCD came up with this image.)
<number>..<number>
Searches for number ranges. Only hacking-related topic I know for this is finding the vulnrable column on a website, if it has one.
Ex: site:hackforums.net AND inurl:/showthread.php?tid=1..5
allintext:<search tearms>
Finds pages with all the terms in the text of the page. All other operators can also be used here.
Ex: allintext:"anarchy forums is cool!"
(Why does this get 0 hits?
![Sad Sad](https://sinister.ly/images/smilies/set/sad.png)
That's it for the tutorial! If you have any other bits or peices that I haven't mention AND are related to hacking, please post them in the comments!