What is Google Dorking?
Google Dorking (or Google Hacking) is the use of advanced search operators to find information that shouldn't be public but that Google has indexed: admin panels, files with credentials, exposed cameras, internal documents, unprotected APIs. It's a powerful OSINT technique for both attackers and defenders.
Most useful operators
site: limits to a domain; filetype: searches file types (pdf, xls, env, log); intitle: and inurl: search the title or URL; and combining them locates sensitive resources — for example, exposed config files or login panels indexed by mistake.
Ethical use and defense
A pentester uses dorks to discover what client information is exposed on the internet. On the defensive side, it's worth 'dorking' your own organization periodically to catch leaks before attackers do, and configure robots.txt, headers and permissions so what shouldn't be public isn't indexed.
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