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Application & OT Security · Foundational

Google Dorking

Using advanced search engine operators to find sensitive information or vulnerable systems indexed by search engines.

Definition

Operators such as site:, filetype:, inurl:, intitle: and intext: narrow results to exposed documents, login pages, configuration files and error messages. The Google Hacking Database (GHDB) on Exploit-DB catalogs useful dorks. It is a passive technique because queries go to the search engine, not the target.

Example

site:example.com filetype:xlsx intext:password

Exam tip

Recognize the operators; 'filetype' and 'site' are the most commonly tested.

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