A freelance developer’s public GitHub repository (indexed by Google) included a password.log file from a local XAMPP server. The file contained PayPal credentials for a small e-commerce store’s business account.
The final elements are the most dangerous. password.log is a specific filename. Historically, developers or system administrators who are in a hurry or lack security training have named log files "password.log" to debug authentication systems. The term paypal indicates the target organization or context. The crawler is looking for any log file that contains the word "password" and the word "paypal" in the same visible text block. allintext username filetype log password.log paypal
It is a common misconception that this data appears online through "hacking" alone. Often, it is the result of or infection : allintext username filetype log password.log paypal