Goolag: the easy way to hack

Don’t be mistaken by the title. Web site owners already have enough trouble from hackers scanning their web sites for vulnerabilities. This always involved complex scripts and tools but the hacking group ‘Cult of the Dead Cow’ (cDc) which is best known for creating the deadly Back Orifice trojan just released Goolag, an open-source tool that allows even script kiddies to leverage the use of google to help find such vulnerabilities easily.

The web auditing tool from cDc was announced with the following press release:

SECURITY ADVISORY:  The following program may screw a large Internet search
engine and make the Web a safer place.

LUBBOCK, TX, February 20th -- Today CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc), the world's
most attractive hacker group, announced the release of Goolag Scanner, a web
auditing tool.  Goolag Scanner enables everyone to audit his or her own web
site via Google.  The scanner technology is based on "Google hacking," a form
of vulnerability research developed by Johnny I Hack Stuff.  He's a lovely
fellow.  Go buy him a drink.

"It's no big secret that the Web is the platform," said cDc spokesmodel
Oxblood Ruffin.  "And this platform pretty much sucks from a security
perspective.  Goolag Scanner provides one more tool for web site owners to
patch up their online properties.  We've seen some pretty scary holes through
random tests with the scanner in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
If I were a government, a large corporation, or anyone with a large web site,
I'd be downloading this beast and aiming it at my site yesterday.  The v
ulnerabilities are that serious."

Goolag Scanner will be released open source under the GNU Affero General
Public license.  It is dedicated to the memory of Wau Holland, founder of the
Chaos Computer Club, and a true champion of privacy rights and social justice.

GOOLAG SCANNER FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES

Goolag Scanner is a standalone windows GUI based application.  It uses one
xml-based configuration file for its settings.  All dorks coming with the
distribution of gS are kept inside one file.

The group describes itself as:

About CULT OF THE DEAD COW
Based in Lubbock, Texas, CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc) is the most influential
computer underground group in the world.  The cDc alumni list reads like a
Who's Who of hacking and includes a former Presidential advisor on Internet
security, among others.  The group is further distinguished by publishing the
longest running e-zine on the Internet [est. 1984], stretching the limits of
the First Amendment, and fighting anyone or any government that aspires to
limit free speech.

Sources: www.goolag.org

• Posted in: Internet