About The Exploit Database
The Exploit Database is maintained by OffSec, an information security training company
that provides various Information Security Certifications as well as high end penetration testing services. The Exploit Database is a
non-profit project that is provided as a public service by OffSec.
The Exploit Database is a CVE compliant archive of public exploits and corresponding vulnerable software, developed for use by penetration testers and vulnerability researchers. Our aim is to serve the most comprehensive collection of exploits gathered through direct submissions, mailing lists, as well as other public sources, and present them in a freely-available and easy-to-navigate database. The Exploit Database is a repository for exploits and proof-of-concepts rather than advisories, making it a valuable resource for those who need actionable data right away.
The Google Hacking Database (GHDB) is a categorized index of Internet search engine queries designed to uncover interesting, and usually sensitive, information made publicly available on the Internet. In most cases, this information was never meant to be made public but due to any number of factors this information was linked in a web document that was crawled by a search engine that subsequently followed that link and indexed the sensitive information.
The process known as “Google Hacking” was popularized in 2000 by Johnny Long, a professional hacker, who began cataloging these queries in a database known as the Google Hacking Database. His initial efforts were amplified by countless hours of community member effort, documented in the book Google Hacking For Penetration Testers and popularised by a barrage of media attention and Johnny’s talks on the subject such as this early talk recorded at DEFCON 13. Johnny coined the term “Googledork” to refer to “a foolish or inept person as revealed by Google“. This was meant to draw attention to the fact that this was not a “Google problem” but rather the result of an often unintentional misconfiguration on the part of a user or a program installed by the user. Over time, the term “dork” became shorthand for a search query that located sensitive information and “dorks” were included with may web application vulnerability releases to show examples of vulnerable web sites.
After nearly a decade of hard work by the community, Johnny turned the GHDB over to OffSec in November 2010, and it is now maintained as an extension of the Exploit Database. Today, the GHDB includes searches for other online search engines such as Bing, and other online repositories like GitHub, producing different, yet equally valuable results.