Google Is Also Helpful

While reverse engineering real world programs, it is important that you understand how to get around the internet when you need some good specific docs! With that, the power of Google exists! This was just a way of saying that it may be helpful for you to Google when your stuck on specific areas. Let's check out some examples from below.

Documentation

During your reverse engineering life, and yes I do say life because of how dreadfully long this road path is- you will come across scenarios where you are clueless without documentation. Alas: Not only have I found Google Dorking to be extremely helpful for locating official documentation, but even with the right queries and dorks, you can easily find unofficial documentation which is basically third party documentation by other reverse engineers or security researchers.

This documentation will help you greatly in the filed of reverse engineering because it gives us both ethical and unethical insights on the systems that we are targeting. It also gives us two completely different perspectives - Developer and Researcher.

Programmatic History

Reverse engineering is already hard for some people- but it can be even harder starting from the ground up. However, during my reverse engineering road path, I have found program history such as bug releases, CVEs, and more to be helpful particularly when binary auditing or searching for flaws in binary applications.

Google holds sooo much stuff, I mean you literally have access to the NVD or National Vulnerability Database. Finding a programs history will be super helpful for you in the future.

Hidden Features

There have been some weird and wacky times where I have found undocumented or hidden features apart of primary applications by simply Googling specific symbols unique to a application- especially from other reverse engineers that will create unofficial documentation on a product.

The reason this can help is because hidden features are often hidden for a reason and if the developer does not make it known or tells you to NOT do something such as trigger an event that is undocumented, then be sure to check that area out- there might be some flaw they know exists but do not want to fix either due to laziness or a million other things.

These are just three out of the 20 different reasons Google can be helpful- a short list is...

• Previous exploits

• Leaked information on products or software

• Leaked vulnerabilities /0days

• Internal design documents left on open storage buckets