How-to find interesting video, sound and image files in unprotected directories

Written by: The Tutor on Friday, April 15th, 2005
Posted to: Fun Stuff, Google, Images, Music, Video
44 comments, add yours!

RECOMMENDED!! delete your search history
We’ve all got a little voyeurism in us. That’s a big reason why the post, Clearing Google Search History to Maintain Your Privacy sent my visitor counts off the charts :). In this article, I’m going to show you how to create search queries that will list the contents of unprotected directories on the internet. You’ll be able to play the music files, watch the videos, look at photos and more.

I have to say, it’s really addicting.

First of all, what’s an unprotected web directory? It’s one that does not have an “index” file created for it–index.htm, index.html, index.php or some other more rarely used file types. If you try to access a non-password controlled directory that does not have an index file, the system will build a listing of files that are within the directory. If you get that, you can then click on the files and run them with a viewer or player or even download them.

I have to say I have not had this much fun with Google for a while! It’s just plain crazy seeing what people have stashed away in their web sites. (Please, don’t steal copyrighted music–I’m really against that. You can buy it for a buck a song anyway.) I think the absolute most fun you can have with this is to watch the movies you run across. I watched a hilarious British TV commercial, some interesting home videos, and some, well, you know, very interesting other types of videos.

So let’s get to the nitty gritty details. We need to construct a Google search query that searches for and recognizes these system built directory pages. Here’s what one looks like:

An Directory Page Showing Files

The words “Index of /” are common to these pages, and they end up in the “title” of the page. Unfortunately, Google sees the slash is a “stop word” so we cannot search for that. But, the problem is that without the slash there are all sorts of other pages that have the words “Index of” that are regular web pages. So, we need to find something else that is common. Within the page there are the headings of “name,” “last modified,” “size” and “description,” followed by the word “Parent Directory.” The combination of these words in the page body, and the “Index of” in the title should provide a pretty clean search, especially when we use the -inurl operator to exclude regular web pages that might have the same wording in them. (If all this has you confused, please read the Google Tutor Google Search Manual while referencing the sample queries below.)

So, for starters here is a query that will give you a search results page of unprotected directories:

But, this is kind of boring. Too many unknown program files, text files, web pages etc. Let’s narrow it down. You can narrow it down by looking for something in the name of a file in the list, or by the file type, or both.

For example, this query tries to find any types of files about Jennifer Lopez. Within the directories I found music, image and movie files.

Let’s say that we wanted to find any movie files in WMV or AVI format:

Or audio files in WMA or MP3 format:

Or images in JPG or GIF format:

You can get more specific by specifying both the file types and a search word to hopefully find in the name. For example, the following will attempt to find the infamous Paris Hilton video tape:

Or, you can even take a guess at the file name someone might call it:

So there you go. You can combine various search terms and experiment with this. As you’ve seen, this is not an exact science. The directory pages you bring up may have many or even all files which are unrelated to what you are looking for. But, it does make some good hits very often.

I find the most fun searching for movies with an interesting or provocative search term and seeing what comes up. The samples in this article are rather safe and boring, but I’m sure you all have some good ideas of what to try and search for. Do me a favor and post a comment with some interesting queries you’ve had success with, or crazy files that you’ve found (as long as nothing private is given out).

Also if you are going to be searching for anything dodgy you may want to read this piece on keeping your searches private.

Want even more goodies?

Try using these additional intitle operator tips.

44 Responses to “How-to find interesting video, sound and image files in unprotected directories”

  1. # Personal Babblishing » Google Tutor & Advisor - Voyeur Heavenon 15 Apr 2005 at 8:20 pm

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  2. # swenon 16 Apr 2005 at 12:48 am

    those guys from Tech-Recipes.com didn’t “discover” this method. the guy behind breakingwindows.com discovered this in july 2004 ! have a look here
    I provided some handy scripts/bookmarklets so y0u don’t have to do all the typing. Try them here

    I am no javascript pro, so there might be still some work to make them perfect.

    Swen

  3. # 5Russells.net » Google Tutor & Advisoron 18 Apr 2005 at 6:46 am

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    […] protected directories
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  8. # judeon 28 Apr 2005 at 9:10 pm

    this is just wonderful!

  9. # Nice Mess v2 » Google it Up.on 05 May 2005 at 2:57 am

    […] or example, search for MP3 files with Green Day in the title. Check out the full article here. Plus this site has a plethora of tips and tricks for all your Googeling needs. Happy […]

  10. # Personal Babblishing » Google Tutor & Advisor - Voyeur Heavenon 05 Jun 2005 at 2:37 pm

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    The McNugget of The Inept Navy

    Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … SWEET, it’s Friday!

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  14. # Imhimon 27 Jul 2005 at 8:38 am

    This is great! How about if I wanted to search for a certain directory under the unprotected directories?

  15. # Michaelon 28 Jul 2005 at 3:44 am

    wow! pics fromNASA - updated every day and public:

    http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LATEST/

  16. # Ed Smithon 05 Aug 2005 at 7:47 am

    How can we find a list of directories in a specific site. What would be the query?

  17. # ..::RHOblog::.. » Blog Archive » Xtra-Googleon 12 Aug 2005 at 3:24 am

    […] hnissen suchen. So lassen sich Bilder, Filmchen und MP3`s usw. finden. Mehr dazu gibts bei Google Tutor & Advisor zu lesen. Ab sofort kann Mesch diese Dienste a […]

  18. # Summerseton 16 Aug 2005 at 11:53 am

    Found this: http://www.sterilecowboys.org/archive3/

    Check out the extra wierd “Bunny.mov” it might creep you out a bit though.

  19. # Scruffy Dan’s “Words to the Wise” » Search the pageless Internet using Googleon 28 Aug 2005 at 1:55 pm

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  20. # Bhupendraon 04 Sep 2005 at 9:31 am

    really interesting. I found most of my loved one audio songs using this.

    thanks google tutor !

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  23. # Vidson 29 Sep 2005 at 4:54 pm

    Great site, congratulatons, it’s very helpful

  24. # Dannoon 14 Oct 2005 at 5:11 pm

    Pardon a question from a real noob…
    How would I modify the search string to see if there are any “index of’s” on a particular website?

    I see where it says -inurl:(htm|html|php) but can I actually type in a url to find it’s directories?
    I tried just plugging one in to replace the htm|html|php but that doesn’t work.

    Thanks
    Danno

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  26. # Zubon 27 Oct 2005 at 2:21 pm

    Ugh…ugh, so many gisgusting things over the net!

    *pukes*

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  31. # Patricon 04 May 2006 at 11:42 pm

    Really nice article. Thank you for the good instructions on how to create search string!

  32. # bandAon 01 Jun 2006 at 12:17 pm

    But I can’t save them, i can only see….WHY???

  33. # smackfoo › Voyeur Heavenon 03 Jul 2006 at 12:30 am

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  34. # Jeffon 27 Jul 2006 at 12:45 pm

    Try adding +me to the end of any of them, but particularly the jpg/gif search. Good stuff.

  35. # danihelon 26 Sep 2006 at 4:53 am

    just write this in the google search field (much more easier and you avoid the whole “/” problem)

    –> “Index of /Videos”

  36. # danihelon 26 Sep 2006 at 4:55 am

    coppy also the the “.
    Dooooh! easier than writing that sausage.

  37. # Brianon 27 Sep 2006 at 5:16 pm

    still can’t figure out how to find “Karaoke” files..everytime I type in what you state..I get errors..kindly reply..or give me the search url..Fairly new to this type of searching but having trouble finding karaoke files ..Brian

  38. # Ashebookon 30 Sep 2006 at 6:56 pm

    Thanks a lot , It is usefull . Yo great work

  39. # Ryanon 21 Feb 2007 at 9:00 am

    Can this be used to search a specific domain? Like find all the .Jpegs on somewebsite.com???

  40. # 35 Google links you must see! » Technati - Tech News » Archiveon 17 Mar 2007 at 7:32 am

    […] Finding files in unprotected directories […]

  41. # Find Free Music On The Web « Red Chaos’ PC Tech & Gamingon 24 Mar 2007 at 10:17 pm

    […] Use Google operators to find unprotected directories of audio files or files of type .mp3. As suggested by this Google Tutor & Advisor article, a Google search like this: […]

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  44. # How-to Find Any File On Google « Morbid Planeton 13 Sep 2007 at 12:32 pm

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