Watching the Watchers: Target Exploitation Via Public Search

Architecture and Background

J0hnny Long - Watching the Watchers: Target Exploitation via Public Search Engines Watching the Watchers: Target Exploitation via Public Search Engines In today's world of all-knowing, all-seeing search engines, it should come as no surprise that very sensitive information lies in the deep recesses of big search engines' data banks. What may come as a surprise, however, is just how much of a search engine's collected data exposes security flaws and vulnerabilities about the crawled sites. In some cases, even after a security hole is fixed, a search engine may cache data about that vulnerability, providing information about other avenues of attack. This process of "watching the watchers" is not theoretical.

Vulnerability Analysis

It happens, and it happens daily. This session demonstrates the technique of crawling one of the most popular search engines for security vulnerabilities on one or many targets simultaneously. Sample information will be extracted about various friendly targets without sending any data or packets to the intended targets, leaving those targets completely unawares. A database of hundreds of vulnerabilities (and growing) will be uncovered and presented to the participants, as well as an automated tool which can be used to scan search engines for vulnerabilities on participant's hosts and networks.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

A little-known research page has been started with working examples of this technique applied to one popular public search engine. See for details. This presentation (especially when presented in conjunction with a live internet feed) is not only informative and eye-opening, but both refreshingly fun and amazing to watch. Most participants will have a great deal of familiarity with the search engines presented and will be delighted (and rightfully concerned) to see them operating in a manner they were not designed for.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Solutions for remedying and controlling this amusing (yet very serious) vulnerability will also be discussed. Johnny Long has actively explored both sides of the computer security fence, but since the grass was greener with a paycheck as a security professional, he now opts to spend his time as one of the good guys. Johnny did not develop his skills within the hallowed halls of higher learning but rather by spending way too many late nights huddled in front of his computer, developing his anti-social tendencies. Although Johnny finds it ironic that he is often asked to speak before large groups of intelligent, educated and highly technical security people, he has found his niche within the world of intelligent and highly technical security people. Mr Long has previously presented at SANS and other computer security conferences nationwide. In addition, Mr Long has presented before several government entities including NSA, NASA, FBI, DOJ, AFOSI, AFIWC, DOE, US, canadian and Australian DOD, DCITP, DCFL, and the US ARMY. During his career as an attack and penetration specialist, Mr Long has performed active network and physical security assessments for hundreds of government and commercial clients."