Scan Websites

http://virusscan.jotti.org/en - Jotti 

http://www.metascan-online.com/ - Metascan (40 MB max.)

http://www.viruschief.com/ - VirChief

http://virscan.org/ - VirScan

http://vscan.novirusthanks.org/

http://elementscanner.net/?act=Scan

Enjoy

How to access the deep web( (secret Internet)

What is the deep web? 

The deep web is that part of the internet that is not accessible through regular searches on google or on other search engines. 

Here are some facts about the deep web...

• The size of the public information on the deep web is 400-500 times larger than the information on the surface web.
• The deep web has 7500 TB(terabytes) of information while the surface web has 19 TB of information.
• The deep web has 500 billion of documents compared to the 1 billion on the surface web.
• The HQ content on the deep web is up to 200 times greater than the HQ content on the surface web.
• Almost 95% of the deep web can be accessed without registering/ having a subscription.

Who usually accesses the deep web?
Beneath the surface web there are hackers, scientists, drug dealers, assassins, kidnappers, perverts, police, feds, physicists, sociologists ets.

A good reference point on the deep web is the hidden wiki. 

What is the hidden wiki?
The hidden wiki is like wikipedia. It is part of the ".onion" network and it can be accessible only through the TOR network. 

What is the TOR network?
Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis


Can i access the hidden wiki?
The answer is yes, you can access it only through TOR. A picture of the hidden wiki can be found here: http://i.imgur.com/Xq7ih.png



How do i connect to the deep web? 
To connect to the deep web you will need to have Tor. You can download Tor Bundle from this link: https://www.torproject.org/download/down...sy.html.en

Tor bundle is a version of Firefox that is pre-cofigured with TOR button. It is configured to not keep cookies and javascript is disabled for enhancing the security. 

---

The hidden wiki URL: http://kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Some search engines for searching on the deep web: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-e...sible-web/

Hacking- A Story Of Its Journey

The day, since the word “HACKING” has been coined by John Nash, there has been uncounted and unmeasured e-incidents happened in the world of computing. In broader sense, Hacking is considered as intentionally gaining un-authorized access to a computer system.

(1960-1970)- a hacker is a clever and creative programmer; not destructive—- > harmless
(1970-1990)- hacking starts to become negative; breaking into large computer systems e.g. Govt agencies; spreading viruses; stealing/changing information. also phone phreaking (using phone systems illegally)
(1990-today)- Hackers exploit the vulnerability of the Internet; very destructive; disruptive; involving organised crime; increased risk for e-commerce.

Now using hacking, even the complete details and all data from a computer or even cellphone be hacked without the knowledge of a person. Information related to bank details, social media account, email account, secret material everything can now be hacked or even deleted. As technology is developing, new methodologies like Backtrack OS, Metasploit framework, CyberGate and Darkcomet RAT etc. are adapted for hacking. So keeping yourself safe from getting affected into such hacking trap is indeed a tough task.

Here is a basic story of HACKING—-

How to Activate Gmail Autoresponder

Hello, Gmail has added another feature called “Auto Responder”  

Auto responder is when you receive mails in your gmail inbox , the auto responder will reply automatically to to the sender of this mail with the message which you have setup in your Vacation Responder.

You have to follow this steps in This video tutorial.

Best Practies Against Hacking

These days, the majority of websites are built around applications to provide good services to their users. In particular, are widely used to create, edit and administrate content. Due to the interactive nature of these systems, where the input of users is fundamental, it's important to think about security in order to avoid exploits by malicious third parties and to ensure the best user experience.

Some types of hacking attempts and how to prevent them

There are many different types of attacks hackers can conduct in order to take partial or total control of a website. In general, the most common and dangerous ones are SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).

SQL injection is a technique to inject a piece of malicious code in a web application, exploiting a security vulnerability at the database level to change its behavior. It is a really powerful technique, considering that it can manipulate URLs (query string) or any form (search, login, email registration) to inject malicious code. You can find some examples of SQL injection at the Web Application Security Consortium.

There are definitely some precautions that can be taken to avoid this kind of attack. For example, it's a good practice to add a layer between a form on the front end and the database in the back end. In PHP, the PDO extension is often used to work with parameters (sometimes called placeholders or bind variables) instead of embedding user input in the statement. Another really easy technique is character escaping, where all the dangerous characters that can have a direct effect on the database structure are escaped. For instance, every occurrence of a single quote ['] in a parameter must be replaced by two single quotes [''] to form a valid SQL string literal. These are only two of the most common actions you can take to improve the security of a site and avoid SQL injections. Online you can find many other specific resources that can fit your needs (programming languages, specific web applications ...).

The other technique that we're going to introduce here is cross-site scripting (XSS). XSS is a technique used to inject malicious code in a webpage, exploiting security vulnerabilities of web applications. This kind of attack is possible where the web application is processing data obtained through user input and without any further check or validation before returning it to the final user. You can find some examples of cross-site scripting at the Web Application Security Consortium.

There are many ways of securing a web application against this technique. Some easy actions that can be taken include:

• Stripping the input that can be inserted in a form (for example, see the strip tags function in PHP);
• Using data encoding to avoid direct injection of potentially malicious characters (for example, see the htmlspecialchars function in PHP);
• Creating a layer between data input and the back end to avoid direct injection of code in the application.

Some resources about CMSs security

SQL injection and cross-site scripting are only two of the many techniques used by hackers to attack and exploit innocent sites. As a general security guideline, it's important to always stay updated on security issues and, in particular when using third party software, to make sure you've installed the latest available version. Many web applications are built around big communities, offering constant support and updates.
To give a few examples, four of the biggest communities of Open Source content management systems—Joomla, WordPress, PHP-Nuke, and Drupal—offer useful guidelines on security on their websites and host big community-driven forums where users can escalate issues and ask for support. For instance, in the Hardening WordPress section of its website, WordPress offers comprehensive documentation on how to strengthen the security of its CMS. Joomla offers many resources regarding security, in particular a Security Checklist with a comprehensive list of actions webmasters should take to improve the security of a website based on Joomla. On Drupal's site, you can access information about security issues by going to their Security section. You can also subscribe to their security mailing list to be constantly updated on ongoing issues. PHP-Nuke offers some documentation about Security in chapter 23 of their How to section, dedicated to the system management of this CMS platform. They also have a section calledHacked - Now what? that offers guidelines to solve issues related to hacking.

Some ways to identify the hacking of your site

As mentioned above, there are many different types of attacks hackers can perform on a site, and there are different methods of exploiting an innocent site. When hackers are able to take complete control of a site, they can deface it (changing the homepage), erase all the content (dropping the tables of your database), or insert malware or cookie stealers. They can also exploit a site for spamming, such as by hiding links pointing to spammy resources or creating pages that redirect to malware sites. When these changes in your application are evident (like defacing), you can easily spot the hacking activity; but for other types of exploits, in particular those with spammy intent, it won't be so obvious. Google, through some of its products, offers webmasters some ways of spotting if a site has been hacked or modified by a third party without permission. For example, by using Google Search you can spot typical keywords added by hackers to your website and identify the pages that have been compromised. Just open google.com and run asite: search query on your website, looking for commercial keywords that hackers commonly use for spammy purposes (such as viagra, porn, mp3, gambling, etc.):

[site:example.com viagra]

If you're not already familiar with the site: search operator, it's a way to query Google by restricting your search to a specific site. For example, the search site:googleblog.blogspot.comwill only return results from the Official Google Blog. When adding spammy keywords to this type of query, Google will return all the indexed pages of your website that contain those spammy keywords and that are, with high probability, hacked. To check these suspicious pages, just open the cached version proposed by Google and you will be able to spot the hacked behavior, if any. You could then clean up your compromised pages and also check for any anomalies in the configuration files of your server (for example on Apache web servers: .htaccess and httpd.conf).
If your site doesn't show up in Google's search results anymore, it could mean that Google has already spotted bad practices on your site as a result of the hacking and may have temporarily removed it from our index, due to infringement of our webmaster quality guidelines.

In order to constantly keep an eye on the presence of suspicious keywords on your website, you could also use Google Alerts to monitor queries like:

site:example.com viagra OR casino OR porn OR ringtones

You will receive an email alert whenever these keywords are found in the content of your site.

You can also use Google's Webmaster Tools to spot any hacking activity on your site. Webmaster Tools provide statistics about top search queries for your site. This data will help you to monitor if your site is ranking for suspicious unrelated spammy keywords. The 'What Googlebot sees' data is also useful, since you'll see whether Google is detecting any unusual keywords on your site, regardless of whether you're ranking for them or not.

If you have a Webmaster Tools account and Google believes that your site has been hacked, often you will be notified according to the type of exploit on your site:

• If a malicious third party is using your site for spammy behaviors (such as hiding links or creating spammy pages) and it has been detected by our crawler, often you will be notified in the Message Center with detailed information (a sample of hacked URLs or anchor text of the hidden links);
• If your site is exploited to place malicious software such as malware, you will see a malware warning on the 'Overview' page of your Webmaster Tools account.

Hacked behavior removed, now what?

Your site has been hacked or is serving malware? First, clean up the malware mess and then do one of the following:

• If your site was hacked for spammy purpose, please visit our reconsideration request page through Webmaster Tools to request reconsideration of your site;
• If your site was serving malware to users, please submit a malware review request on the 'Overview' page of Webmaster Tools.

We hope that you'll find these tips helpful. If you'd like to share your own advice or experience, we encourage you to leave a comment to this blog post. Thanks!

password hacking ideas 2012

has been the trusted source of ethical and legal monitoring and logging tools since last several years for all type of users including Parents of under-age children, business owners, as well as spouses to monitor their life partner’s truthfulness. The situations, when it was critically important for the parents to spy to on their kids to make sure that they are not in the contact of strangers or unexpected online sources, parents relied on ethical password hacker programs and techniques provided by passwordhacking.net to hack into their activities on internet or on computer and laptop. Studies indicate that Not only concerned Parents and married couples are insecure about their family’s life today, but company owners, executive mangers and bosses also need to hack into the daily activities of their employees. In the event of potential data leakage or trade secrets insecurity threats, The Employers have no way but to hack their employees email activities, hacking passwords of facebook orkut twitter etc social networking websites and even their uploading, download, chat conversation, internet browsing and even the software installation and uninstallations in the computers. PC Data Manager Programs have capabilities to record each and every activity performed on Laptop and desktop and to secretly keep records of each of them. Moreover, if you are not able to access that Computer physically to check such recordings, you can configure the program to send activity reports to your email and even on your FTP account automatically and secretly. Password Hacking .net Programs installations are Completely stealth and have capabilities to capture chain of screenshots of computer screen, record key strokes typed using keyboard, record voice chat conversations into audio files, maintain record of visited websites their user names and login passwords, computer usage paths folders and screens, log typed texts or chats or email accounts usernames and login passwords of all type of websites into a text file and even automatically send such activity logs to your email ID or upload it to your FTP web hosting space.

Keyboard activity monitoring tool

Professional Keyboard Activity Monitoring Tool is a hidden inspection utility that keeps track of all activities performed on your system in your absence. Best stealth keylogger software keeps eye on each action performed by family members, children, students, employees or workers etc when they use your computer. Invisible key logging software establishes full control over your computer system as software secretly stores keystrokes into an encrypted log file so that administrator could know external users activities including visited web site, system login-name/password, emails, windows clip board entries etc in his absence.

Keyboard surveillance tool runs completely in invisible mode and no one except system owner is aware of software installation. Award winning keyboard logger utility overrides all major anti keylogger or spy tools as application is not visible either in the ‘start menu’, ‘system startup’, ‘add remove program list’ etc or even cannot be detected by antivirus softwares. Easy to use key catcher software helps you to watch out what your co-workers are doing online, students are doing at lab, schools or at home, friends are doing what etc. You can easily customize keyboard activity tracking report in the exact manner you want and prefer.

Advanced Activity Monitoring Tool

Advance Keyboard Activity Monitoring Tool is like a video surveillance camera that is capable of recording all keystrokes, passwords, internet usage with advance facility of capturing Windows screenshot periodically at regular interval of time. Key detecting software continuously monitors activities of variety of users including system administrator, office managers, student, parental monitoring, personal users, internet cafe owner and more. Best PC protector tool saves all keystrokes information into a secret and encrypted log file. This log file is sent automatically to system owner by email at specified mail address.

Advanced key catcher software has an exclusive login feature that provides security to your computer system by hiding installation files and folders from user’s awareness. Best stealth key logger has user friendly graphical interface that facilitates invisible and undetectable monitoring of PC users' activity in your absence. Superb key tracing utility keeps track of multiple user account information simultaneously on your computer system including guest user login information also. Password protecting utility prevents unauthorized user to change or modify configuration setting of owner’s mail account.

Apple MAC Monitoring Tool

Keylogger for mac os x is wonderfully designed mac monitoring software to record complete activities performed on Apple mac OS installed computer machines in complete surveillance mode.

No special help, No technical assistance, No prior training, just use easy to operate mac os x keylogger to record entire activities performed by your Kids, Staff members, Students while using mac computer system in easiest way.

If you are wondering about your partner suspicious activity on mac machines, you can simply use monitoring software (mac spyware) to know the complete details including keystrokes, clipboard contents, USB drive insertion or removable, online chat activities (using Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and more). Similarly hidden monitoring mac osx keylogger capture screenshots with option to capture Skype video call screenshots at regular time intervals.

Advance functioning of keylogger mac generate complete monitoring report in HTML file format with advance keylogger mac os x password protection facility.

Freeware keylogger for mac

Download mac keylogger freeware with 30 days trial to evaluate monitoring software for mac features and working capabilities. Place order to get full featured licensed version of keylogger mac osx at cost-effective price.

Malware Protection

With "always on" Internet access there are added risks, therefore there is a growing requirement for protection against hacking and malware. Just as the computers on the web sites that you visit are accessible to you, your compter is also accessible to other computers when online. With some simple tweaks to the Windows OS which includes Internet Explorer browser and using few freeware protection tools with infinite commonsense when online it is possible to make your system a tough nut to crack.

These tips and ideas are designed to protect your system not only against spyware/adware, but also to protect against the whole range of malware including computer viruses, trojans,worms and to a considerable extent to protect against the malicious hackers. Remember even the best protected system is not 100% watertight.

MALWARE/SPYWARE PREVENTION GUIDE

Install a Firewall

A firewall is a hardware and/or software that is designed to be your first line of defense against unauthorized users accessing your system. For most home users a personal software firewall will do the intended job very nicely. A personal firewall will allow you to create rules as to what software on your system may access the Internet and when. It will also let you create different security levels for different areas of the Net leaving the control in your hand. It will also alert you as to when an unknown, unauthorized intruder is probing your system. You'll be surprised, and dismayed, as to how often it really happens.

The perfect personal firewall would be inexpensive and easy to install and use, would offer clearly explained configuration options, would hide all ports to make your PC invisible to scans, would protect your system from all attacks, would track all potential and actual threats, would immediately alert you to serious attacks, and would ensure nothing unauthorized entered or left your PC.

This is a great definition is from Jeff Sengstack in PC World.

For basic explanation about firewalls in general visit: howstuffworks.com.

There are number of free personal firewall software available for download. Only some of them are worth your time and your effort. Currently the top slots seem to be occupied byZone Alarm Free, Sygate Personal Firewall, Kerio Personal Firewall and Outpost Free – all stripped down versions of their respective professional versions but adequate for a home user.

Considering the ease of use balanced with must-have features I would recommend choosingKerio Personal Firewall for the new user.

Whatever is your choice, if you are using Windows XP version, please note to turn off the built in firewall before you install the new firewall. Never use two software firewalls at the same time as it may conflict with each other.

INSTALL A ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

More than any other kind of malware, computer viruses are one of the single biggest threats facing computer users today. The simple act of opening a seemingly benign email attachment can be enough to bring a computer to its knees. In order to protect your computer from such attacks, it's wise to use good quality anti-virus software! AntiVirus software is designed in such a way they detect and remove harmful viruses before they can do any harm to your data and the computer. They does not need to be expensive to work well – indeed, there are some highly reputable anti-virus programmes that are available totally free of charge.

Since new viruses are being written everyday it is essential that any antivirus software is regularly updated to protect your system from these new viruses.

The top slots in this category goes to AVG Anti-Virus, Avast 4 Home Edition, AntiVir Personal Edition and BitDefender Free Edition.

In view of the comprehensive features offered in the free edition – IM protection, P2P protection, support also for non-microsoft e-mail clients and for POP3/SMTP mail – I plump for Avast 4 Home Edition for the home users. To round it off nicely, Alwil the developers of Avast also offer support via e-mail for the free edition.

KEEP WINDOWS HAPPY – UPDATED & PATCHED

A typical Microsoft OS now contains over 50 million lines of code and due to its complexity, it is inevitable that unintentional elements will have crept into the programming. This may mean the OS not functioning as it was designed to but more critically it may also mean that a security vulnerability has been created, which could be exploited. Microsoft continue to test the OS even after its launch and release periodic updates and critical updates (patches). Microsoft also release Service Packs to support their various applications. They are a cumulative rollup of all Critical Updates and fixes to-date, released in one convenient package. The various updates and service packs are provided free of cost to the Windows users.

Every month Microsoft publish security bulletins that detail the latest known vulnerabilities. These security bulletins are also monitored by malware creators who write viruses and other malware – within days usually – designed to exploit published vulnerabilities. When these malware are released, they are able to infect computers not patched with the latest updates. So it becomes imperative to download and install the security updates and patches as soon as they are announced.

This regimen of dutiful updates are also recommended to updates and patches released for Internet Explorer, Outlook express and Microsoft Office suite.

Windows Update

Internet Explorer Downloads

Office Update

What is Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA)

MBSA is the free security scanner for Microsoft products which analyzes your computer (or even a group of computers) for missing patches/updates and common security mis-configurations. When run MBSA provides a checklist of configuration problems and missing updates/patches. The most important part of the security report provided by theOn the contrary, alternate browsers like Mozilla, Firefox and Opera are a lot more secure and are much more resistant to Malware installation attempts. They are also way more standards compliant than IE and as any Mozilla or Opera user can tell you, you're losing out on many features that make alternative browsers so attractive.

Need more convincing? Check out the following links:

• Firefox Leaves No Reason to Endure Internet Explorer
• Internet Explorer Is Too Dangerous to Keep Using
• Why I dumped Internet Explorer
• Why You Should Dump Internet Explorer
• No! Don't use Internet Explorer!
• 
  

  A NOTE ABOUT INTERNET EXPLORER SHELLS

  
  
  An IE shell like Maxthon, Slim Browser, Avant Browser and Crazy Browser adds functionality by providing a feature rich interface, but be aware that they are really IE beneath their pretty skin. These shells are also affected by the security vulnerabilities found in IE and are also limited by the IE's rendering engine in displaying web pages correctly.
  
  

  IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SECURE IE AT ALL?

  
  
  With few tweaks and some third-party software, Internet Explorer can be made almost as secure as any other browser out there.
  
  
  The emphasis is on getting the security settings right which match your needs for security and privacy balanced with the ease of use which you may be accustomed to. What this boils down to is that you must decide what risks you are willing to take in order to view various Web content. Unfortunately we are forced into choosing between increasing our online security and privacy, or reducing the accessibility of certain content on the web, but that is the way it is.
  
  
  Check out this page for Configuring Internet Explorer 6 for Practical Security and Privacy

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is the way information given on the lines of "What was scanned", Result details" and "How to correct this".

Some of the checks that MBSA performs:

• Check for missing Windows security updates
• Check for missing IE security updates
• Check for missing Windows Media Player security updates
• Check for missing Office security updates
• Check for file system type on hard drives
• Check if Auto Logon feature is enabled
• Check if Guest account is enabled
• Check the number of local Administrator accounts
• Check for blank or simple local user account passwords
• Check if unnecessary services are running
• Check if Internet Connection Firewall is enabled
• Check if Automatic Updates is enabled
• List the Internet Explorer security zone settings for each local user
• Check if Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is enabled for Administrators
• Check if Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is enabled for non-Administrators
• List the Office products security zone settings for each local user

MBSA can be installed and run on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Server 2003. The tool can be run over the network against Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Workstation, Windows XP Professional and Home Edition systems, and Windows Server 2003. Running MBSA against Windows NT, 95, 98 or Me systems is not supported.

Note:

• The "Workstation" and "Server" services must be enabled when scanning a local computer.
• 
  
• MBSA needs internet access to download the Web-based XML file containing a list of up-to-date security bulletins from Microsoft. (If you ran the tool previously, it will use the local cached copy.)
• 
  
  More on Using Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA)
  
  

  THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKUP

Most unfortunately, there are some things that people only take seriously after they have experienced personally the pain that results from not taking them seriously. Backups definitely fall into this category. Most people are relatively nonchalant about them until disaster strikes–thereafter, they are much more diligent about backups (but after the damage is done.) Here's a mental exercise that you can do to help you understand how important backups are. Take a look at your PC and think about what is on it. Think about your data and your programs. Consider how much time it took to create the data, and to set up and tweak your PC so that it works the way you like. Now imagine that one morning you go to your desk and the PC has vanished without a trace. What will you do?

Let's suppose you had insurance on the hardware, and a week later a new PC shows up at your door with a fresh new, clean hard disk. Now what? Most people who ask themselves this question seriously, begin to take backups much more seriously. (Fortunately, for most people the exercise is only a mental exercise, but don't think it can't happen to you in the real world.)

Recovering from a disaster such as a total disk crash or theft of a PC box can be a very traumatic event, much more than most PC users realize. This is true even if backups exist; when they don't exist the situation is much, much worse. The pain of recovering from a disaster is almost always very high, and the cost is primarily in the time required to recreate the lost data. For even a small business, this can run into the thousands of dollars very quick…..

Charles M. Kozierok of The PC Guide.

A valuable lesson then, don't underestimate the importance of backups. Make a backup of your critical files regularly, after having scanned them with an antivirus program.

A tutorial to help you start backing up, if you are not doing it already.

YOUR GUIDE to never losing another file – Alex Zaharov-Reutt and Simon Williams.

SECURE THE BROWSER – INTERNET EXPLORER

There is a more than a big chance that you are using the browser that came with your operating system. As more than 85% of the desktop users prefer running or forced to run a flavor of the Windows OS and as IE is tightly integrated into the OS, it becomes imperative that you take precautions to secure the browser by modifying its default behavior.

If you ask a geek about how to secure the Internet explorer, the immediate reply would be "Don't bother, use an alternate browser like Mozilla or Opera" as they are more secure by default. It'll be worthwhile to switch over to an alternative browser and keep Internet Explorer for the "must use" situations.

Why should you consider switching over to an alternate browser and minimize the use of Internet Explorer

There are many disadvantages to using Internet Explorer as your primary web browser, mostly security related (Active X and Active Scripting makes it relatively easy to install Malware on your computer without you knowing about it and the numerous issues/vulnerabilities that existed and still exist) and incomplete and incorrectly implemented core standards used for web authoring. This is despite the fact that Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduced many new security features for Internet Explorer.

Secunia Highlights security flaws unpatched (not yet fixed) for Internet Explorer 6, although some of these flaws only affect Internet Explorer when running on certain versions of Windows or when running in conjunction with certain other applications.

WHAT IS MALWARE?

INTRODUCTION

Malware is a generic term for bad software. Malware is an abbreviation for ‘malicious software’ computer program. Malware contains spyware,adware programs, keyloggers, Trojan horses, worms, and viruses

Along with viruses, one of the biggest threats to computer users on the Internet today is malware. It can hijack your browser, redirect your search attempts, serve up nasty pop-up ads, track what web sites you visit, and generally screw things up. Malware programs are usually poorly-programmed and can cause your computer to become unbearably slow and unstable in addition to all the other havoc they wreak.

Many of them will reinstall themselves even after you think you have removed them, or hide themselves deep within Windows, making them very difficult to clean. This guide will detail the different varieties of malware along with basic preventive measures. In a follow-up article, we will examine the removal process and review a set of spyware removers. Although also considered to be malware, programs such as viruses, worms, trojans, and everything else generally detected by anti-virus software will not be discussed here, and the use of the word malware will only explicitly refer to software that fits in the categories listed below.

You can get infected by malware in several ways. Malware often comes bundled with other programs (Kazaa, iMesh, and other file sharing programs seem to be the biggest bundlers). These malware programs usually pop-up ads, sending revenue from the ads to the program's authors. Others are installed from websites, pretending to be software needed to view the website. Still others, most notably some of the CoolWebSearch variants, install themselves through holes in Internet Explorer like a virus would, requiring you to do nothing but visit the wrong web page to get infected.

The vast majority, however, must be installed by the user. Unfortunately, getting infected with malware is usually much easier than getting rid of it, and once you get malware on your computer it tends to multiply.

WILL ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS PROTECT AGAINST MALWARE?

Anti-virus companies are only beginning to pay attention to malware. Aside from some of the latest versions (many include the malware scanner in the Internet security portion of their suites), most anti-virus programs have little to no protection. Those anti-virus programs that do protect are generally not as thorough as a dedicated malware remover. However, some especially virulent malware that malware scanners may miss will be removed by anti-virus programs, so it is generally a good idea to run a virus scan as well. Some of the anti-virus vendors' delay may be caused by worries they will get sued if they start labeling programs spyware, adware, etc., which has already happened.

TYPES OF MALWARE

Although there is no official breakdown, we can divide malware into several broad categories of malware: adware, spyware, hijackers, toolbars, and dialers.
Many, if not most malware programs will fit into more than one category.

It is very common for people to use the words adware, spyware, and malware interchangeably. Most products that call themselves spyware or adware removers will actually remove all types of malware.

Adware

Adware is the class of programs that place advertisements on your screen. These may be in the form of pop-ups, pop-unders, advertisements embedded in programs, advertisements placed on top of ads in web sites, or any other way the authors can think of showing you an ad. The pop-ups generally will not be stopped by pop-up stoppers, and often are not dependent on your having Internet Explorer open. They may show up when you are playing a game, writing a document, listening to music, or anything else. Should you be surfing, the advertisements will often be related to the web page you are viewing.

Spyware

Programs classified as spyware send information about you and your computer to somebody else. Some spyware simply relays the addresses of sites you visit or terms you search for to a server somewhere. Others may send back information you type into forms in Internet Explorer or the names of files you download. Still others search your hard drive and report back what programs you have installed, contents of your e-mail client's address book (usually to be sold to spammers), or any other information about or on your computer – things such as your name, browser history, login names and passwords, credit card numbers, and your phone number and address.

Spyware often works in conjunction with toolbars. It may also use a program that is always running in the background to collect data, or it may integrate itself into Internet Explorer, allowing it to run undetected whenever Internet Explorer is open.

Hijackers

Hijackers take control of various parts of your web browser, including your home page, search pages, and search bar. They may also redirect you to certain sites should you mistype an address or prevent you from going to a website they would rather you not, such as sites that combat malware. Some will even redirect you to their own search engine when you attempt a search. NB: hijackers almost exclusively target Internet Explorer.

Toolbars

Toolbars plug into Internet Explorer and provide additional functionality such as search forms or pop-up blockers. The Google and Yahoo! toolbars are probably the most common legitimate examples, and malware toolbars often attempt to emulate their functionality and look. Malware toolbars almost always include characteristics of the other malware categories, which is usually what gets it classified as malware. Any toolbar that is installed through underhanded means falls into the category of malware.

Dialers

Dialers are programs that set up your modem connection to connect to a 1-900 number. This provides the number's owner with revenue while leaving you with a large phone bill. There are some legitimate uses for dialers, such as for people who do not have access to credit cards. Most dialers, however, are installed quietly and attempt to do their dirty work without being detected.

Google Baba

Google search engine can be used to hack into remote servers or gather confidential or sensitive information which are not visible through common searches.

Google is the world’s most popular and powerful search engine. It has the ability to accept pre-defined commands as inputs which then produces unbelievable results.

Google’s Advanced Search Query Syntax

Discussed below are various Google’s special commands and I shall be explaining each command in brief and will show how it can be used for getting confidential data.

[ intitle: ]

The “intitle:” syntax helps Google restrict the search results to pages containing that word in the title.

intitle: login password

will return links to those pages that has the word “login” in their title, and the word “password” anywhere in the page.

Similarly, if one has to query for more than one word in the page title then in that case “allintitle:” can be used instead of “intitle” to get the list of pages containing all those words in its title.

intitle: login intitle: password

is same as

allintitle: login password

[ inurl: ]

The “inurl:” syntax restricts the search results to those URLs containing the search keyword. For example: “inurl: passwd” (without quotes) will return only links to those pages that have “passwd” in the URL.

Similarly, if one has to query for more than one word in an URL then in that case “allinurl:” can be used instead of “inurl” to get the list of URLs containing all those search keywords in it.

allinurl: etc/passwd

will look for the URLs containing “etc” and “passwd”. The slash (“/”) between the words will be ignored by Google.

[ site: ]

The “site:” syntax restricts Google to query for certain keywords in a particular site or domain.

exploits site:hackingspirits.com

will look for the keyword “exploits” in those pages present in all the links of the domain “hackingspirits.com”. There should not be any space between “site:” and the “domain name”.

[ filetype: ]

This “filetype:” syntax restricts Google search for files on internet with particular extensions (i.e. doc, pdf or ppt etc).

filetype:doc site:gov confidential

will look for files with “.doc” extension in all government domains with “.gov” extension and containing the word “confidential” either in the pages or in the “.doc” file. i.e. the result will contain the links to all confidential word document files on the government sites.

[ link: ]

“link:” syntax will list down webpages that have links to the specified webpage.

link:www.expertsforge.com

will list webpages that have links pointing to the SecurityFocus homepage. Note there can be no space between the “link:” and the web page url.

[ related: ]

The “related:” will list web pages that are “similar” to a specified
web page.

related: www.expertsforge.com

will list web pages that are similar to the Securityfocus homepage. Note there can be no space between the “related:” and the web page url.

[ cache: ]

The query “cache:” will show the version of the web page that Google
has in its cache.

cache:www.hackingspirits.com

will show Google’s cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the “cache:” and the web page url.

If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document.

cache:www.hackingspirits.com guest

will show the cached content with the word “guest” highlighted.

[ intext: ]

The “intext:” syntax searches for words in a particular website. It ignores links or URLs and page titles.

intext:exploits

will return only links to those web pages that has the search keyword “exploits” in its webpage.

[ phonebook: ]

“phonebook” searches for U.S. street address and phone number information.

phonebook:Lisa+CA

will list down all names of person having “Lisa” in their names and located in “California (CA)”. This can be used as a great tool for hackers incase someone want to do dig personal information for social engineering.

Google Hacks

Well, the Google’s query syntaxes discussed above can really help people to precise their search and get what they are exactly looking for.

Now Google being so intelligent search engine, hackers don’t mind exploiting its ability to dig much confidential and secret information from the net which they are not supposed to know. Now I shall discuss those techniques in details how hackers dig information from the net using Google and how that information can be used to break into remote servers.

Index Of

Using “Index of ” syntax to find sites enabled with Index browsing

A webserver with Index browsing enabled means anyone can browse the webserver directories like ordinary local directories. The use of “index of” syntax to get a list links to webserver which has got directory browsing enabled will be discussd below. This becomes an easy source for information gathering for a hacker. Imagine if the get hold of password files or others sensitive files which are not normally visible to the internet. Below given are few examples using which one can get access to many sensitive information much easily.

Index of /admin
Index of /passwd
Index of /password
Index of /mail

“Index of /” +passwd
“Index of /” +password.txt
“Index of /” +.htaccess

“Index of /secret”
“Index of /confidential”
“Index of /root”
“Index of /cgi-bin”
“Index of /credit-card”
“Index of /logs”
“Index of /config”

Looking for vulnerable sites or servers using “inurl:” or “allinurl:”

a. Using “allinurl:winnt/system32/” (without quotes) will list down all the links to the server which gives access to restricted directories like “system32” through web. If you are lucky enough then you might get access to the cmd.exe in the “system32” directory. Once you have the access to “cmd.exe” and is able to execute it.

b. Using “allinurl:wwwboard/passwd.txt”(without quotes) in the Google search will list down all the links to the server which are vulnerable to “WWWBoard Password vulnerability”. To know more about this vulnerability you can have a look at the following link:

http://www.securiteam.com/exploits/2BUQ4S0SAW.html

c. Using “inurl:.bash_history” (without quotes) will list down all the links to the server which gives access to “.bash_history” file through web. This is a command history file. This file includes the list of command executed by the administrator, and sometimes includes sensitive information such as password typed in by the administrator. If this file is compromised and if contains the encrypted unix (or *nix) password then it can be easily cracked using “John The Ripper”.

d. Using “inurl:config.txt” (without quotes) will list down all the links to the servers which gives access to “config.txt” file through web. This file contains sensitive information, including the hash value of the administrative password and database authentication credentials.

For Example: Ingenium Learning Management System is a Web-based application for Windows based systems developed by Click2learn, Inc. Ingenium Learning Management System versions 5.1 and 6.1 stores sensitive information insecurely in the config.txt file. For more information refer the following
links: http://www.securiteam.com/securitynews/6M00H2K5PG.html

Other similar search using “inurl:” or “allinurl:” combined with other syntax

inurl:admin filetype:txt
inurl:admin filetype:db
inurl:admin filetype:cfg
inurl:mysql filetype:cfg
inurl:passwd filetype:txt
inurl:iisadmin
inurl:auth_user_file.txt
inurl:orders.txt
inurl:”wwwroot/*.”
inurl:adpassword.txt
inurl:webeditor.php
inurl:file_upload.php

inurl:gov filetype:xls “restricted”
index of ftp +.mdb allinurl:/cgi-bin/ +mailto

Looking for vulnerable sites or servers using “intitle:” or “allintitle:”

a. Using [allintitle: "index of /root”] (without brackets) will list down the links to the web server which gives access to restricted directories like “root” through web. This directory sometimes contains sensitive information which can be easily retrieved through simple web requests.

b. Using [allintitle: "index of /admin”] (without brackets) will list down the links to the websites which has got index browsing enabled for restricted directories like “admin” through web. Most of the web application sometimes uses names like “admin” to store admin credentials in it. This directory sometimes contains sensitive information which can be easily retrieved through simple web requests.

Other similar search using “intitle:” or “allintitle:” combined with other syntax

intitle:”Index of” .sh_history
intitle:”Index of” .bash_history
intitle:”index of” passwd
intitle:”index of” people.lst
intitle:”index of” pwd.db
intitle:”index of” etc/shadow
intitle:”index of” spwd
intitle:”index of” master.passwd
intitle:”index of” htpasswd
intitle:”index of” members OR accounts
intitle:”index of” user_carts OR user_cart

allintitle: sensitive filetype:doc
allintitle: restricted filetype :mail
allintitle: restricted filetype:doc site:gov

Other interesting Search Queries

· To search for sites vulnerable to Cross-Sites Scripting (XSS) attacks:

allinurl:/scripts/cart32.exe
allinurl:/CuteNews/show_archives.php
allinurl:/phpinfo.php

To search for sites vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks:

allinurl:/privmsg.php
allinurl:/privmsg.php