Google hacking, also named Google dorking, is a computer hacking technique that uses Google Search and other Google applications to find security holes in the configuration and computer code that websites use.
Google dorks put corporate information at risk because they unwittingly create back doors that allow an attacker to enter a network without permission and/or gain access to unauthorized information. To locate sensitive information, attackers use advanced search strings called Google dork queries.
Google dork queries are built with the advanced search operators that IT administrators, researchers and other professionals use in their daily work to narrow down search engine results. Commonly used search operators include:
site: restricts query results to a certain site or domain.
filetype: restricts query results to PDF files or other specific file types.
intext: resticts results to those content records that contain specific words or phrases.
Because search operators can be strung together, an attacker can use complex queries to find information that was published on the Internet but was not meant to be found. The use of advanced search operators to find information that is not easily accessed through simple searches is sometimes called Google dorking or Google hacking.
