Google Webmaster Tools user notified Google unintentionally about the security hole which gave him access to the Google’s Index from where he could delete any web page. Google luckily got the hole filled once and for all within a span of seven hours. The story of a SEO and a web project manager, James Breckenridge to remove from ‘Google Webmaster Tools’ a huge number of URL’s was turned into discovering a security hole which gave him access to delete any web page which he wished to.
James was uninterestedly trying to scrap out numerous URLs which were in the Google Index and was tired of the time consuming processes. So he decided to come up with an extension for Chrome thorough which he could delete the preferred URLs. This extension would add in a specific link which would be placed near the search results on Google search. This was linked deeply in the tools of webmaster. After installation of this tool, he just had to click and remove his preferred URL. It took him no time to get done with a number of deletions.
The security hole wasn’t noticed until James accidentally deleted URL of a web page of which he was nowhere related to. One cannot delete the URL of a website via Google Webmaster Tools where one is not the owner. James claims that is was a ‘mistake’ from his end which led to notice of such a security hole. But once he was in with the secret, he planned to get deeper into this and come up with a few more results by performing tests on them. He intended to know as to how strong this glitch could potentially be. And to his surprise he was successful in tests and have posted the screenshots on his
blog.
The tests performed by him were as under: –
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Remove a website I control (not in my webmaster tools account) on 18/07/2011 – Gone!
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Remove a URL on one of the world’s largest websites (the accident) on 18/07/2011 – Gone!
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Remove a friends blog (blank and with permission) on 18/07/2011 – Gone!
After the tests he noted that not even one of the tests failed as the pages were left unblocked by the robots and there wasn’t a 404 response which is usually see when one attempts removing someone else’s’ website. It would have been a rare case if it would have been hidden from the search engine’s eyes. Google noted this security hole and within seven quick hours patched it up. James appreciated the effort of Google team but regretted not being really discreet about the exploit. However he was rest assured that the removed URLs would be restored in the search engine’s index.
Google’s spokesperson gave a confirmation for the issue which was resolved and they are in process of reprocessing the URLs for which removal requests were made so that their validity can be confirmed too. He stated that the issue was short-lived and the issue would be resolved completely soon.