This list of search engines for hackers. In this article we will publish a list of the most known and unknown search engines used by ethical hackers. Read below to start a career to ethical hacking.
Please Note: Keep hacking legal. We do not encourage illegal hacking of systems. Always report the vulnerabilities to the software owners and avoid any illegal activities.
What is Ethical hacking?
A hacker is the person who tries to find vulnerabilities or bugs in a web or desktop application in order to exploit it.
A black or malicious hacker will try to exploit the vulnerability and keep it secret to ask ransom from the victim. A white or ethical hacker is the one that will report the vulnerability to the victim in order to fix it. Thus, white hacker tries to find application problems, reports the bug to the victim and is compensated accordingly.
Ethical hacking is the “good” side of trying to hack a software or application. We need people with hacking knowledge to find vulnerabilities before they are exploited. So, companies should compensate hackers that report bugs to them.
Top 20 Search Engines for Hackers
A hacker can use the internet to find whatever he needs. We tried and collected a list with the top 20 most important search engines that hackers usually use. Here is the list:
- Shodan – Search Engine for the Internet of Everything
- Censys Search – Search Engine for every server on the Internet to reduce exposure and improve security.
- Onyphe.io – Cyber Defense Search Engine for open-source and cyber threat intelligence data
- ZoomEye – Global cyberspace mapping
- GreyNoise – The source for understanding internet noise
- Natlas – Scaling Network Scanning
- Netlas.io – Discover, Research and Monitor any Assets Available Online
- FOFA – Cyberspace mapping
- grep.app – Search across a half million git repos
- Hunter.io – Find professional email addresses in seconds
- IntelligenceX – Search engine and data archive
- URLScan – A sandbox for the web
- socradar.io – Extension to your SOC team
- Crt.sh – Certificate Search
- CTSearch – Certificate Transparency Search Tool
- tls.bufferover.run – Quickly find certificates in IPv4 space
- Vulners.com – Your Search Engine for Security Intelligence
- PulseDive – Threat intelligence made easy
- NumLookup – Free reverse phone lookup
- Exploit-db – A large database with exploits
Useful Hacking Resources
There are many resources available for anyone to start learning penetration testing. A penetration tester is someone who tries to find vulnerabilities in a software. Usually, pentesters use the specific search engines to find internet- exposed systems. Then, they try to find a way to hack them or gain admin priviledges.
A good Github repo with alternative search engines is this one. It contains a large list of various platforms that someone can use for penetration testing.
Another great post with many resources is this reddit article. It contains many useful resources for ethical hackers.
Udemy, guru99 and other learning platforms can give you a good overview on how to become an ethical hacker. Please note that you should not start searching for “how to become a hacker” but start learning how computers and web applications work.
CEH is the most known and best certificate for becoming an Ethical hacker. It is a good starting point for a penetration testing career. However, a lot of practice is the key to become a great pentester.
Feel free to comment so that I can help you on how to start a pen testing career.