Re: [Nolug] Web forensics

Two possibilities:
1) Google does a TCP Quesry for all permutations of directories for ever
site it crawls (unlikely)
2) The browser of a user of that flat file reported a "referrer" URL to
Google when the user left the flat file and landed on a Google page. I
believe browsers usually report a referral only when a link from the
original page is provided, but that doesn't mean a non-standards compliant
browser (e.g. IE7) didn't report it that way.

--
Mike Walker
On 9/19/07, Chris Jones <techmaster@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm doing some forensics for a web site, involving some sensitive data
> being hidden in a file on a web site, and google somehow finding the file
> with this data.  Even though it's in a directory that basically has no way
> of listing its contents, google can somehow find out about the existence of
> this file, spider the file, and keep a copy of it in google cache.  I'm
> trying to find an article about this issue, proving that it is a real issue
> and that it exists.  So far I'm turning up nothing, but I was wondering if
> any of you knew of such an article.  Basically, just something saying "don't
> store credit card numbers in a flat file on your web server because..." or
> something to that effect.  I just want to have some proof that this is
> possible.  If any of you can help, it's highly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Chris
>
___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug@nolug.org