Free Security Tool Now Scans Shortened URLs
by Frank Jovine on 10/13/2009 in Online Security Tools, Security
Shortened URLs can lead users to malicious sites because there’s no way of telling what the URL is about. There are many services that offer shortened URLs. All you need to do is type the full URL and the service will provide a shorten version.
Shorten URL Services: tinyurl.com, shorturl.com, metamark.net, abe5.com
AVG has added a feature to its LinkScanner Web security product that scans shortened URLs, which can prevent users from browsing to malicious websites.
LinkScanner performs real-time scanning of Web pages as users browse and blocks those pages that may have malicious software or exploits.
LinkScanner is the only security tool that can detect the presence of malicious pages hiding behind shortened URLS according to AVG.
Twitter has a 140 character or fewer limit for posts. Twitter and other popular social networking sites have been attacked recently due to shortened URLs.
Twitter began filtering bad URLs in August using Google’s Safe Browsing API (application programming interface), which enables client applications to check against Google’s blacklist of known bad Web sites.
AVG LinkScanner® is a free utility which can be downloaded at www.linkscanner.avg.com
HART (1-800-HART)
Oct 13th, 2009
Sounds like a good utility to have – regardless whether it’s a shortened URL or not.
What I’ve been doing, besides an air of caution, is
a) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10297 .. Firefox addon for bitly
b) http://tinyurl.com/preview.php .. to enable to see full URL before you click tinyURLs
I am pretty cautious of all shortened URL’s that are used in forums and on websites because there just is no reason to use them unless it’s meant to deceive either an affiliate link or worse – a malicious site, and rarely click them anyway.
Frank J
Oct 13th, 2009
Hart,
Nice serve! I appreciate the share on the Firefox addon, that looks like a great x-ray for tiny urls.
HART (1-800-HART)
Oct 13th, 2009
Thanks
also, i sometimes use http://iTweet.net web/app and copy/paste short URLs in there to see what it is expanded
Hicham
Oct 13th, 2009
Frank, this seems interesting since I see many twitter profiles are placing short-links in their bio which I suspect and same goes for forums or e-mails unless I know the sender!
BunnygotBlog
Oct 13th, 2009
Geez,
I know my Tweeter account seems to have the short links at times but I think it is from my own site. I what else it could be.
Thanks Frank~ Your the best!!!
BunnygotBlog
Oct 13th, 2009
lol~ I know I put tweeter ~ lol
but you know what I mean. I read this other blog and this women is all the time,saying tweeter, I mean Twitter!
But I know you know that
Frank Lynch
Oct 14th, 2009
yeah, this is just like an x-ray for shortened URL’s infact, this tool will help to find spams and virus from torrent files, which has most shortened URL, but is this add-on compatible with latest version of Firefox ?
Frank J
Oct 14th, 2009
Frank,
This upgrade from AVG is the bomb. I put it through a test with a few sites that are malicious and shortened the URLs to those sites and it worked like magic.
Kyle
Oct 14th, 2009
I’m impressed how programmers infect computers just by shortening URLs, I have programming experience but my background is more on web development. This kind of work is more on low level coding….
Ching Ya
Oct 14th, 2009
Good find. I had a post done about previewing the shortened urls earlier, however wasn’t aware of AVG added feature. Any tools to help prevent malicious sites will be a big plus. Thanks for the notice.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Frank J
Oct 14th, 2009
Ching,
I take web security very serious and I will always share my findings. Thank you and it’s good to see you again!
Mathdelane
Oct 14th, 2009
AVG LinkScanner comes in handy on both free and paid antivirus versions. If you’re using the Antivirus, there is no need to download this separately.
Rockr
Oct 14th, 2009
Man, this is real stuffs.
I never thought of my twitter feeds in this way.
thanx alot for this work.
Telesales
Oct 19th, 2009
This tool is really great! Especially on twitter. I have been sending my tweets ones in every hour. and twitter is very strict when it comes to total number of characters for every tweet. so this tool shortened those long url’s…
Frank J
Oct 19th, 2009
Shortened URLs are becoming more dangerous on social networks. I hope you find this tool useful.