4 ms·

I’m confused how this can be used for phishing? Does the text only get replaced, and the underlying link stays intact? Surely not? Otherwise, the link would s

I’m confused how this can be used for phishing? Does the text only get replaced, and the underlying link stays intact? Surely not? Otherwise, the link would still go to fedex.com.

deleted 3y ago
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bluedel 3y ago
No, you got that right. Only the displayed text is affected.
dom96 3y ago
> Does the text only get replaced, and the underlying link stays intact? Surely not? That is exactly what happens.
- jader201 3y ago
  That’s almost literally unbelievable. I’m not even sure his nephew is reading W3Schools. In case you’re reading this, you may have missed this article: https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp
aavshr 3y ago
Yes, only the text gets replaced but not the underlying link. Once you navigate to the link it will be the actual link in the URL bar however. But this is an easy miss for people after they have already navigated to the link from twitter thinking it's a legitimate link.
campbel 3y ago
Yeah, looks like _only_ the link label gets replaced, otherwise as you suggest it wouldn't be as bad.
- myself248 3y ago
  Why do browsers allow this by default? Seems like a feature made to enable phishing and other bad behaviors.
  - aavshr 3y ago
    The link I just clicked on to reply to your comment was `https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=39991931&goto=item%3Fid%3D39991173%2339991931 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=39991931&goto=item%3Fi...` but thankfully it just said 'reply' in the UI.
    - Karellen 3y ago
      I wonder if there's a browser extension that checks if the link text is a valid URL, but is a different URL (or just on a different domain?) than the actual link target, and adds some kind of warning for the user if so? I'm not sure what keywords I'd use to find an extension like that.
      - kibwen 3y ago
        This would break every website that wants to track what links you click on by sneakily rewriting the link under your nose. Which, to be fair, is a use case that I'm all for breaking, but it would make Google mad, so it won't happen.
        Karellen 3y ago
        > This would break every website that wants to track what links you click on So, a plan with no drawbacks? > it would make Google mad, so it won't happen. Google doesn't control which browser extensions get written?
sylens 3y ago
Exactly it. Please use your Microsoft gaming account to login to my phishing site, xbotwitter.com
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

I’m confused how this can be used for phishing? Does the text only get replaced, and the underlying link stays intact? Surely not? Otherwise, the link would still go to fedex.com.

deleted 3y ago

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bluedel 3y ago

No, you got that right. Only the displayed text is affected.

dom96 3y ago

> Does the text only get replaced, and the underlying link stays intact? Surely not? That is exactly what happens.

jader201 3y ago
That’s almost literally unbelievable. I’m not even sure his nephew is reading W3Schools. In case you’re reading this, you may have missed this article: https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp

aavshr 3y ago

Yes, only the text gets replaced but not the underlying link. Once you navigate to the link it will be the actual link in the URL bar however. But this is an easy miss for people after they have already navigated to the link from twitter thinking it's a legitimate link.

campbel 3y ago

Yeah, looks like _only_ the link label gets replaced, otherwise as you suggest it wouldn't be as bad.

myself248 3y ago
Why do browsers allow this by default? Seems like a feature made to enable phishing and other bad behaviors.
- aavshr 3y ago
  The link I just clicked on to reply to your comment was `https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=39991931&goto=item%3Fid%3D39991173%2339991931 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=39991931&goto=item%3Fi...` but thankfully it just said 'reply' in the UI.
  - Karellen 3y ago
    I wonder if there's a browser extension that checks if the link text is a valid URL, but is a different URL (or just on a different domain?) than the actual link target, and adds some kind of warning for the user if so? I'm not sure what keywords I'd use to find an extension like that.
    - kibwen 3y ago
      This would break every website that wants to track what links you click on by sneakily rewriting the link under your nose. Which, to be fair, is a use case that I'm all for breaking, but it would make Google mad, so it won't happen.
      - Karellen 3y ago
        > This would break every website that wants to track what links you click on So, a plan with no drawbacks? > it would make Google mad, so it won't happen. Google doesn't control which browser extensions get written?

sylens 3y ago

Exactly it. Please use your Microsoft gaming account to login to my phishing site, xbotwitter.com

deleted 3y ago
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