For anyone who never managed to get one of the original Google API Keys. This is for you.

If you have ever wanted to use Sensepost's tools such as Wikto, Eor and BiDiBlah and you are a new user you will have found that the Google API Key does not work. Google made changes to the keys and their functionality. But not to worry the guys at Sensepost have been kind enough to create a workaround.

A snippet from the email:

"SensePost Aura is a logical workaround to the Google API key problem -
namely an executable that listens on localhost which intercepts and
interprets Google API calls, obtains results and serves the results
back in the format expected by the application requesting the API.
All without the need for an API key...

As with anything, there are a few disclaimers and limitations...

Disclaimer:

This software is provided as is and free of charge.  SensePost shall
have no liability, including to third parties, arising from the use of
this software.

Limitations:

Although Aura emulates an HTTP server, it's only ever going to respond
to valid Google API calls.  Arbitrary GETS/HEADS/OPTIONS/POSTS are not
going to work.

The HTTP component is single-threaded - meaning that Aura is only
going to process one query at a time.  Since it's designed to listen
on the localhost only, we don't foresee any problems with this
approach.

Finally, we've only concentrated on implementing the bits of the
Google API used in our tools, so all the other amazing things the real
Google API offers will not work.

We've been testing Aura with the new version of Wikto (rapidly
approaching something worthy of release) and have had very satisfying
results, although due to the manner in which Aura works, it should
work equally well with all our other tools which use the Google API."

-dean-

Just in case, here is an older article/tutorial on EH-Net:

Making Testing Easier With BiDiBLAH

Don