Hugging the Web (Part 1: Introduction)

Introduction)

Greetings, hackers and friends! I know it has been a while since I posted a tutorial, and hopefully I can make up for that by posting a series.

At this point many of you may be asking, "What the heck does it mean to hug the web?" Don't be discouraged, as this is not a hacking term that you have been missing out on. Hugging the web simply means using search engines like Google to find vulnerable servers, documents containing sensitive information, and sometimes just day to day recourses like a recipe for tomato soup.

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Terminology

Before I begin this series there are some terms that you might here me say that you should know. Here is a brief list of them:

Google Dork - The correct term is "Google Operator" and is a built in function from google to limit searches to specific results. For instance, Googling "'The science of apples'" is much different from googling "'The Science of Apples' Filetype:pdf"

Gov Domain - This is a term I use for any domain that ends in ".gov". These domains can be automatically assumed to be owned by a government facility.

SSN - This stands for social security number. You will see in later tutorials how a single google dork can pull up many social security numbers.

What You'll See

In this series you will learn how to do many different things through searching the web. Here is a list of some ideas that I'd like to go over. If you have any other ideas, post them in the comments and I'll be sure to update this post.

  • Use Google to find vulnerable websites.
  • Use Google to find open web cameras on the internet
  • Find free books and resources with Google
  • Do background checks by searching through different search engines
  • Reveal social security numbers by uncovering sensitive documents
  • Find out if you are being leaked online

Conclusion

Hopefully this series will go as smoothly as I planned. Please be sure to give me any criticism, and if you have a problem with anything, feel free to comment on one of my posts or private message me.

Can't wait to see how this plays out!

  • Cameron

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8 Comments

The last 3 Points could be very intresting to me if they are more effective than just to google the name. However , you can find with shodan also open webcams (dont remeber if there was about vul. sites)

Yes indeed! There are websites like Shodan that work as an evil google. If you are curious more about Shodan, OTW has posted a fantastic tutorial on the topic. You can find that here.

Haha i had the same idea a few days ago was supposed to be my first How-To here :)
Really looking forward to it hopefully can learn alot more then i already know ;)

Marvellous - having dipped into Johnny Long's Google Hacking book I'm really looking forward to this.

I'm glad you enjoyed the book! I will be covering some techniques from there, too.

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