2 ms·

But why would the attacker want this, how can it benefit them? I don't understand how a third party could make Googlebot hitting a SQLi benefit themselves. I ge

But why would the attacker want this, how can it benefit them? I don't understand how a third party could make Googlebot hitting a SQLi benefit themselves. I get the cleverness of hiding behind Googlebot, I just don't see how you can "steer" the attack, so to speak, to your own benefit.

bazzargh 13y ago
There's a long history of being able to search google for sites with vulnerabilities or infections if you know what to look for. With a black hat on, alter a busy forum's code to generate a link spreading the infection via google to every domain that commenters mention; a tiny fraction of those will be infected, those will show up later in a search. That's a bit weak, and might not pick out decent targets. However, visit the forum as a user, mention some specific sites, and hey presto - google infects them for you, while you disappear in the crowd. Seems a bit airport thriller though. More likely the leaked sqli and google's use of it were accidental.