Topic: Google Cache Hacking
Level: Experienced Beginner (2)
Description: This tutorial explains how to abuse Google's caching methods.
Introduction
To celebrate Hackflag's 2nd anniversary , here's a new hacking tutorial! In this tutorial, we'll cover how to use Google's caching methods to find out important data about your target. This tutorial will also show you why you should NEVER expose important data in URLs.
[tutwarn]
Google cache Hacking
Users can sign up for many cloud providers and get a trial period, a “trial”. This allows users or companies to try out the platform before making a purchase. Here's a fictional cloud provider, ToetjesCloud.com 1
Image 1, Dessert Cloud trial page
Once the user has logged in, the user will receive a welcome message. The welcome message is interesting because it contains the user's username and password.
Image 2, Dessert Cloud welcome message
Besides the fact that from a security point of view it is not smart to send cleartext passwords via email, the password and username are included in the URL that is sent to the user.
The risk a company runs when sending important data via plaintext URLs is that a search engine like Google may have “cached” the data. If you are good at making a Google query you can request that data, for Toetjescloud that results in the following Google query:
This query has the following result:
This would mean that you can view the data that users receive by email when they register for the cloud site. And that would of course be a serious problem for ToetjesCloud!
Summary
So never expose important data in a URL when you build an application because websites like Google cache these links, and a hacker can take advantage of that.
Level: Experienced Beginner (2)
Description: This tutorial explains how to abuse Google's caching methods.
Introduction
To celebrate Hackflag's 2nd anniversary , here's a new hacking tutorial! In this tutorial, we'll cover how to use Google's caching methods to find out important data about your target. This tutorial will also show you why you should NEVER expose important data in URLs.
[tutwarn]
Google cache Hacking
Users can sign up for many cloud providers and get a trial period, a “trial”. This allows users or companies to try out the platform before making a purchase. Here's a fictional cloud provider, ToetjesCloud.com 1
Image 1, Dessert Cloud trial page
Once the user has logged in, the user will receive a welcome message. The welcome message is interesting because it contains the user's username and password.
Image 2, Dessert Cloud welcome message
Besides the fact that from a security point of view it is not smart to send cleartext passwords via email, the password and username are included in the URL that is sent to the user.
The risk a company runs when sending important data via plaintext URLs is that a search engine like Google may have “cached” the data. If you are good at making a Google query you can request that data, for Toetjescloud that results in the following Google query:
This query has the following result:
This would mean that you can view the data that users receive by email when they register for the cloud site. And that would of course be a serious problem for ToetjesCloud!
Summary
So never expose important data in a URL when you build an application because websites like Google cache these links, and a hacker can take advantage of that.
