RSSGoogle's newest use: finding vulnerabilities
By Tim Conneally | Published February 26, 2008, 11:02 AM
"Hacktivist" group Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) began offering a software tool that scans for security flaws in Web sites by exploiting Google's omnipresence.
Goolag Scanner was developed by John Long, who is a published author and early pioneer in the Google Hacking tehnique. He is also a self-proclaimed "Christian Hacker" that often does his work for charity.
The freely downloadable standalone application for Windows lets people check domains for exploitable weaknesses. It uses one XML-based configuration file for its settings.
Many prominent sites, the cDc reports, have "unsettling" vulnerabilities, which it says could be easily fixed once Goolag locates them.
.ooM
Score: 0
|There's MAD COW first, then the dead cow...
Score: 0
|bow to the cow!
Score: 0
|Using google to find vulnerable websites isn't new. It is interesting that someone has released a tool to automate the process.
Score: 0
|just for curiosity sake,
i wonder that if google knew of these suspicious sites was it still providing and promoting their urls in the google search results.
"exploitation of the computer user is what its about"
Score: 0
|By using the words "Google" and "suspicious sites" in the same sentence, you have now made it easier for folks to learn that suspicious sites can be found using Google.
I fully expect you to take this comment down as it is the only responsible thing to do.
Anything else would be promoting the finding of malicious sites though Google.
Score: 0
|not really sure which veggie truck you may have fallen from, but you did make me chuckle a bit.
out of curiosity i took both criterions in your concern and obtained no compromising results.
perhaps you don't understand that the best way to avoid a trap is to learn how to recognize it.
therefore i stand by my comment, though you may have misinterpreted.
Score: 0
|Too subtle?
You assert Google should take responsibility for the results.
I merely took that to the next step holding you responsible for the fact that someone searching Betanews will see your comment and find out about google's search results.
While mine is an undoubtedly more absurd scenario, it isn't all that far removed from yours.
When a post of mine makes no sense to you, try *not* taking it quite so literally. :p
More to the point, the farther you take the responsibility away from the *source* (in this case, the malicious sites, and tools used to search Google for them), the more ridiculous it becomes.
Score: 0
|Either you do not understand the article or your comment was intentionally random... I'm not sure. The tool allows you to scan websites to find vulnerabilities that need patched.
Score: 0
|