Google Hacking for Penetration Testers by Johnny Long
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Book Reviews of Google Hacking for Penetration Testers
Book Review: Overcoming My Mixed Feelings/Initial Reactions To The Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Some months ago after reading an article about people using the Google search engine to look up credit card numbers using Google syntax, I came across a web site run by Johnny Long. This site is dedicated to tricks and tips of how Google can be used to hack information in places many would consider to be "unlikely". The site is loaded with good information, so I was happy to have the chance to review Long's book entitled "Google Hacking for Penetration Testers" (2005, Syngress, 502 pages, $31.47 at Amazon). While loaded with great information and content, I must say that I left the book with mixed feelings.
The mixed feelings mainly arise from the way the book is written. While the book is set up as a tool to help penetration testers, there are absolutely no disclaimers addressing the liabilities and risks that can arise from penetration testing, or the fact that anyone planning to do any penetration testing should have the written approval from the target company before testing begins. But then again, the tone of the book is how Google can be used to do "pre-testing" to identify holes that may be good targets for more detailed penetration testing. This is a thin line that is made thinner by the way the text is written. Specifically, it is written as if the target audience is the hacker and not the people who need to do the testing or setting up defenses. In fact, you do not hit any discussion of defensive approaches or ways to prevent these type of probes/attacks until Chapter 11 on page 321.
This is not to say that the book is not chock full of good, solid information. Long does present a thorough overview and explanation of the ways Google syntax can be used to extract many different kinds of interesting information. Whether it be finding specific file types, server type information, Microsoft Outlook mail/pst files, instant messaging buddy lists, passwords, and/or user names, Long shows how it is done. (A side note for Lotus Notes administrators: the only mention of Notes in the book is not by name, but as a screen shot of "even 'tight-lipped' software".)
Parts of the book may get too technical for "non-techies", but you can easily skim over this information and ask your technical staff for deeper explanations of proxy servers, packet routing, and caching from your own staff who may have a better understanding of the concepts.
Who Should Read This Book?
So like me, if you can look beyond the elements of the book that gave me cause for concern, you will see that Long does provide a bevy of useful information for professional security auditors, information systems managers, system administrators, application developers, and information security managers. However, it would be advisable to consider the concerns I do have about what the book does not say/recommend. There is no substitute for getting written agreements from your customers (i.e. targets) or consult with your attorneys. Also make sure your professional liability insurance is sufficient to cover any potential losses that may arise from penetration testing without authorization or gone bad. All this being said, this will be a top shelf reference book in my professional library.
Scorecard
Long chips it in from the greenside bunker to score a birdie on a Par 4.
Book Review: Great for stimulating ideas .........
Summary: 5 Stars
I am involved in penetration testing on an occasional basis (my principal role is audit management, my principal interest is systems auditing), per other reviews this is an excellent resource for anyone planning or executing tests.
I have used google with simplistic searches and obtained good results (e.g. pictures of site being tested, too much detail in job postings ...). This book is an excelent source of ideas and techniques, for both social engineering, and more technical tests.
It has also made me consider what the google desktop search tool could be used for, when run on key servers in internal nets.
Authors writing style is very easy to read yet packed with valuable information.
This book is likely to be of significant value to forensic investigators and for those with an interest in competitive intelligence.
Book Review: Great Tutorial!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rather than reiterate what other reviewers have said, I'll focus on a few other things worth a mention.
The first two chapters provide a solid foundation for Google use. They can be read and understood by anyone. The knowledge presented in these two chapters alone can make your queries much more efficient. Usage for each operator and searching technique is explained in detail, so that the fundamentals can be applied to any search. These two chapters comprise the best Google tutorial available anywhere!
The rest of the book focuses on techniques relevant to security testing. There so many ways to use Google to enumerate information. The author walks your through each of the techniques and the principles behind them. The examples expand upon and reinforce the techniques discussed in the first two chapters.
I also own the O'Reilly "Google Hacks" book. It's a good book mostly consisting of tips geared towards coders looking harness Google's power for miscellaneous purposes. Although Johnny Long's book does present plenty of code and techniques for automation, its primary focus is using Google's relevance to security testing. Defensive techniques (how to limit what googlebot crawls) are also discussed. "Google Hacking" makes a better starting point for those interested in security testing.
Book Review: Indispensable reference for the dark side of Google searches
Summary: 5 Stars
While Google is a researcher's friend, it is a hacker's dream. The subtitle of Google Hacking for Penetration Testers is "Explore the Dark Side of Googling". The dark side of Google is that far too many networks are insecure with inadequate security and enable unauthorized information to leak into Google. This leakage creates the situation where significant amounts of password files, confidential information, and configuration data and much more are easily available.
After reading Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching, the real power and potential danger of Google is easily understood. Author Johnny Long details how penetration testers can harvest information that has been crawled by Google. The need for Google to be an integral part of any penetration test is now easily understood.
In a similar manner, when Dan Farmer wrote SATAN in 1995, it was met with significant consternation in that many felt he was wrong to release such a powerful program into the wild. Silicon Graphics, his employer at the time, considered his conduct unprofessional and summarily fired him. Ironically, in 2005, a security administrator can be fired if they don't run a vulnerability scanner akin to SATAN. Running scanning tools is now part of security due diligence and any administrator not running such a tool is careless.
With that, some may think author Johnny Long gives far too much ammunition to those seeking to peruse corporate data, but those were the same mistaken objections to SATAN. The book is not meant to be a crutch for script kiddies, its aim is rather to show how Google can be used to uncover data that most companies would rather remain secured. It is simply a matter of time until such Google searches will be considered due diligence for any basic security endeavor.
The book's 12 chapters show how one can plunder and pillage corporate data via Google. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a basic introduction to Google searching, including building Google queries, URL and operator syntax, search reduction, and more.
Chapters 3 through 10 detail the internals of Google hacking. The avenues of attack are nearly endless and various methods are detailed from traversal techniques, site crawling, tracking down Web server logins, and much more. With the sheer amount of data produced on corporate Web sites, it is hard not to have information leakage. The problem is that Google is the perfect glue to bond those disparate pieces of data together to form a dangerous set of connected data. Google is now gluing isolated data, which is dangerous data when in the wrong hands.
Chapter 11 details what can be done to protect an organization from Google hackers. While author Johnny Long may be a hacker, he is quite mainstream when he writes that the best hardware and software configuration money can buy can't protect computing resources if an effective security policy is not in place. Long observes that a good security policy, when properly enforced, outlines the assets the organization is trying to protect, how the protection mechanisms are installed, the acceptable level of operational risk, and what do to in the event of a compromise or disaster.
Chapter 11 details the use of the robots.txt file, which can be used to block Web crawlers such as Google. The chapter also recommends the use of various tools to secure an internal Web site. Tools from Foundstone are detailed, in addition to Gooscan, a tool created by Long that enables bulk Google searches to determine how much information has leaked.
A decade ago, Google was the type of powerful search tool that was rumored to be used within the NSA. Today, petabytes of data are only a few clicks away on Google, and with the Google API, all of that information can be seamlessly integrated into a few scripts. The challenge companies face is to take security seriously and stop making it easy for their password files, payroll data, and other confidential information to be entered into Google's server farm.
Book Review: This book should be on the President's Desk
Summary: 5 Stars
About the only thing I don't like about this book is the title, Google Hacking For Penetration Testers. It sounds like it's going to be boring but it is far from it. This book is fantastic. I couldn't put it down. This book opens up a whole world of information vulnerability from a tool we use in searching for information, the Google search engine.
The book is like a college education spanning the freshman year all the way to graduate school. A novice can easily understand the author's, Johnny Long's, explanations on how to surf Google. Yes,you can go to Google itself and get this information, but he compiles it for you in the first several chapters in a neat, clean, well laid out format. Anyone reading this section will have a solid grounding in the basics of using Google to surf the web.
As I read the book I kept saying "Good Point" and I thought that many web types like myself "know" what the author is saying but seeing it in print makes you focus and think about issues of security. It exposes so many vulnerabilities and gives options to deal with them. For under $45 this book could save you from major problems as an individual or as an enterprise.
The book does get complicated. It expects you to be a web adminstrator, web master, or very familiar with web development and servers. Johnny Long has a straightforward writing style which he combines with concrete examples that open your eyes to the points he is making. For example, Johnny shows how configuration files and document types can be crawled for user names and passwords. It's chilling to read about the devious methods Google hackers use.
Johnny Long is talking about one of the most serious, really important things in this day and age. SECURITY. Secure web sites are important to each of us as individuals. It's important to your company. Vital information is shown to be at risk in Google Hacking. This book should be on the President of the United States desk.
Have you ever seen a tv show where a former thief shows you how to protect your house? This book is just like that. Some of the tips are very simple, ones that many administrators know and those who are smart implement. Others are more complex. The table of contents reads like a dry college curriculum. But if you follow what is written, trying out the suggestions as it relates to your site, not only will you be rewarded, but the book just comes to life and you find yourself saying 'I can't believe how useful this is'.
In summing up, Johnny Long has issued a wake-up call to all who use the web. I showed this book to a colleague of mine and we both felt that the strength of the book lies in its constant repetition that the Google search engine, while effective in helping web surfers find information, also helps those web surfers with not such good intentions. Any reader would do well to follow the author's advice throughout the book in each and every chapter.