What is Google hacking?

Google hacking is the term used when a hacker tries to find exploitable targets and sensitive data by using search engines. The Google Hacking Database (GHDB) is a database of queries that identify sensitive data. Although Google blocks some of the better known Google hacking queries, nothing stops a hacker from crawling your site and launching the Google Hacking Database queries directly onto the crawled content.

What a hacker can do if your site is vulnerable

Information that the Google Hacking Database identifies:

• Advisories and server vulnerabilities
• Error messages that contain too much information
• Files containing passwords
• Sensitive directories
• Pages containing logon portals
• Pages containing network or vulnerability data such as firewall logs.

How to check for Google hacking vulnerabilities

The easiest way to check whether your web site & applications have Google hacking vulnerabilities, is to use a Web Vulnerability Scanner. A Web Vulnerability Scanner scans your entire website and automatically checks for pages that are identified by Google hacking queries. (Note: Your web vulnerability scanner must be able to launch Google hacking queries).

Preventing Google hacking attacks

Remove all pages identified by Google hacking queries

Check if your website is vulnerable to attack

Get a free security audit performed by Acunetix staff using Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner. Acunetix will scan your website simulating numerous hacking techniques such as SQL injection, cross site scripting, Google hacking and more, in order to identify vulnerabilities in your website. After the scan has completed, you will receive a summary report indicating what - if any - vulnerabilities exist on your site.