The most exciting part about being a security researcher is when you've got a hunch and you have that moment when you feel like you have the key to crack a big and significant problem.
And in this journey, I've tried to find and analyze some of the best search engines used by hackers and security researchers.
The world of hacking and security research is full of so many different tools out there. One of the most popular, and most used, is Google Search.
The reason being is that it's a free tool every hacker will have access to.
This is a considerable advantage, especially when it comes to testing websites for potential vulnerabilities.
Search engines are an essential part of cyber security. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they're critical to the success of any cybersecurity operation.
This is largely due to the search results that appear in the top ten of Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Although most small businesses and individuals tend to ignore them, these search engines often have more information about your business than your own employees do!
But it doesn't only wrap up with Google, Bing, or yahoo there are many other search engines out there that security researchers, bug bounty hunters, or hackers use.
So in this blog, we are going to talk about some of the best search engines which are mostly used by security researchers, bug bounty hunters, or hackers.
Search Engines Used by Hackers
Shodan (for Servers)-
Shodan is a search engine that lets users search for various types of servers (webcams, routers, servers, etc.)connected to the internet using a variety of filters. Some have also described it as a search engine for service banners, which are metadata that the server sends back to the client.
Google (for Dorks)-
Google is a popular internet search engine. It scans the Web to find Web pages that are relevant to the words you have typed in the search box. Hackers use it mostly for Dorking.
If you want to learn Dorking we have an awesome article about it on our website to read that click here.
Wigle (for Wifi Networks)-
WiGLE (or Wireless Geographic Logging Engine) is a website for collecting information about the different wireless hotspots around the world. Users can register on the website and upload hotspot data like GPS coordinates, SSID, MAC address, and the encryption type used on the hotspots discovered.
Grep (for Codes Search)-
Grep is a command-line utility for searching plain-text data sets for lines that match a regular expression. Its name comes from the ed command g/re/p (globally search for a regular expression and print matching lines), which has the same effect.
So in Grep.app you will search across a half million git repos. Search by regular expression.
Binaryedge (for Threat Intelligence)-
They scan the internet and acquire data that can be transformed into threat intelligence feeds or security reports.
Onyphe (for Server)-
Cyber Defense Search Engine for open-source and cyber threat intelligence data collected by crawling various sources available on the Internet.
Hunter (for Email Address)-
Hunter lets you find professional email addresses in seconds and connect with the people that matter to your business. Enter a domain name to launch the search.
Intelx (for Osint)-
A search engine and data archive. Search Tor, I2P, data leaks, and the public web by email, domain, IP, CIDR, Bitcoin address, and more.
Netlas (for Attack Surface)-
A search engine for increasing attack surface. Search for DNS, IP, cert, and much more.
crt.sh (for certificates)-
It is a web interface to a distributed database called the certificate transparency logs.
Vulners (for vulnerabilities)-
Vulners.com is the security database containing descriptions for large amount of software vulnerabilities in a machine-readable format.
Conclusion
There are a lot of the most popular hacker-friendly search engines that you can begin to employ for your personal purposes, but we would recommend trying them out one by one.
For instance, you could give a trial to DuckDuckGo or StartPage and then check out their competitors like Bing and Yahoo on a deeper level.
Try them all, see what is better for you, check the rating, and evaluate which one will work best and provide the most benefits.
You can start with one search engine and then when you will find it enough interesting and useful start using 2-3 simultaneously.
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