5 ms·

This bug could have been exploited for millions of dollars. Imagine giving a mafia boss control over the heartbeat of every rival. One blackhat SEO could have d

by staunch 15y ago

This bug could have been exploited for millions of dollars. Imagine giving a mafia boss control over the heartbeat of every rival. One blackhat SEO could have dominated any number of lucrative keywords. If this bug has existed for a long time it's quite possible some guy is sailing around on a yacht that this bug paid for. It's such a blindingly obvious bug that I really do wonder whether this might have been a backdoor/inside job by an employee. Google should very closely inspect the code change history. Hopefully they also maintain a history of all page removal requests to see who might have been exploiting this.

jacques_chester 15y ago
It's not a back door, it's an abuse of an existing approach. Google could weight the process in one of two ways: 1. in favour of the complaint-maker. 2. in favour of the website-owner. If they favour the complainant, then website deletion is presumed to go ahead. If the webmaster, then it is presumed to be held up. Google chose a compromise: the complaint is acted on, after a delay. The webmaster gets notified through webmaster tools; after some period of time the removal goes ahead. If Google flip the compromise around, they will make it nigh impossible to remove any websites from the index.
- jmillikin 15y ago
  I think you're misunderstanding the article. Google webmaster tools allows the website owner to request links to their own sites be removed. The poster has discovered that this form can be used to request any url be removed, and Google will think it's being submitted by the owner of that URL. This has nothing to do with users complaining about a URL.
  - jacques_chester 15y ago
    In which case, I think I have too.
xiaoqmashh 15y ago
welcometo: http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com The website wholesale for many kinds of fashion shoes, like the nike,jordan,prada,, also including the jeans,shirts,bags,hat and the decorations. All the products are free shipping, and the the price is competitive, and also can accept the paypal payment.,after the payment, can ship within short time. free shippingcompetitive priceany size availableaccept the paypal ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== jordan shoes $32nike shox $32Christan Audigier bikini $23 Ed Hardy Bikini $23Smful short_t-shirt_woman $15ed hardy short_tank_woman $16Sandal $32christian loubo utin $80 Sunglass $15 COACH_Necklace $27handbag $33AF tank woman $17puma slipper woman $30 ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com =====
cheez 15y ago
> This bug could have been exploited for millions of dollars. Quite possibly exploited for non-savvy website owners. Savvy owners would be checking their ranking regularly and noticing it disappear one day. Anyone who ranks highly for lucrative keywords and does not check their ranking is asking to lose it, whether ethically or otherwise. So I don't think it would have been exploited for the millions you think, but possibly a good bit of money.
- kragen 15y ago
  > Anyone who ranks highly for lucrative keywords and does not check their ranking is asking to lose it, whether ethically or otherwise. Your ranking is not your responsibility as a webmaster. It's Google's responsibility to its users to rank good answers highly.
  - Hisoka 15y ago
    It is your responsibility as someone doing business to check up on it, and proactively take action if/when rankings go down. To not do so makes no business sense. Of course, if you're just a casual blogger who doesn't care about SEO, it doesn't matter. But if you do care, not checking is foolish
  - a5seo 15y ago
    By that logic, your comment being understood isn't your responsibility, it's the responsibility of your reader.
- fhars 15y ago
  Then just run your attack on the day of a big algorithm or index update when it will be drowned by the usual "google made my children starve" noise.
  - cheez 15y ago
    Brillant!
- danneu 15y ago

by staunch 15y ago

jacques_chester 15y ago

It's not a back door, it's an abuse of an existing approach. Google could weight the process in one of two ways: 1. in favour of the complaint-maker. 2. in favour of the website-owner. If they favour the complainant, then website deletion is presumed to go ahead. If the webmaster, then it is presumed to be held up. Google chose a compromise: the complaint is acted on, after a delay. The webmaster gets notified through webmaster tools; after some period of time the removal goes ahead. If Google flip the compromise around, they will make it nigh impossible to remove any websites from the index.

jmillikin 15y ago
I think you're misunderstanding the article. Google webmaster tools allows the website owner to request links to their own sites be removed. The poster has discovered that this form can be used to request any url be removed, and Google will think it's being submitted by the owner of that URL. This has nothing to do with users complaining about a URL.
- jacques_chester 15y ago
  In which case, I think I have too.

xiaoqmashh 15y ago

welcometo: http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com The website wholesale for many kinds of fashion shoes, like the nike,jordan,prada,, also including the jeans,shirts,bags,hat and the decorations. All the products are free shipping, and the the price is competitive, and also can accept the paypal payment.,after the payment, can ship within short time. free shippingcompetitive priceany size availableaccept the paypal ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== jordan shoes $32nike shox $32Christan Audigier bikini $23 Ed Hardy Bikini $23Smful short_t-shirt_woman $15ed hardy short_tank_woman $16Sandal $32christian loubo utin $80 Sunglass $15 COACH_Necklace $27handbag $33AF tank woman $17puma slipper woman $30 ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com ===== ===== http://www.fullmalls.com http://www.fullmalls.com =====

cheez 15y ago

> This bug could have been exploited for millions of dollars. Quite possibly exploited for non-savvy website owners. Savvy owners would be checking their ranking regularly and noticing it disappear one day. Anyone who ranks highly for lucrative keywords and does not check their ranking is asking to lose it, whether ethically or otherwise. So I don't think it would have been exploited for the millions you think, but possibly a good bit of money.

kragen 15y ago
> Anyone who ranks highly for lucrative keywords and does not check their ranking is asking to lose it, whether ethically or otherwise. Your ranking is not your responsibility as a webmaster. It's Google's responsibility to its users to rank good answers highly.
- Hisoka 15y ago
  It is your responsibility as someone doing business to check up on it, and proactively take action if/when rankings go down. To not do so makes no business sense. Of course, if you're just a casual blogger who doesn't care about SEO, it doesn't matter. But if you do care, not checking is foolish
- a5seo 15y ago
  By that logic, your comment being understood isn't your responsibility, it's the responsibility of your reader.
fhars 15y ago
Then just run your attack on the day of a big algorithm or index update when it will be drowned by the usual "google made my children starve" noise.
- cheez 15y ago
  Brillant!
danneu 15y ago