Browser punycode

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yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Browser punycode

Post by yogi »

This is a little geeky, but well worth the effort.

Most of us long time users of the Internet are aware of phishing scams. One of the easier ways to tell if you are being scammed or not is to look at the website address, URL. If it looks fishy and not where you expected to be, it's probably a scam. The scammers have figured this out and discovered ways to make the website URL look legitimate when it's not. The attached article explains how this is done, but most of us are interested in the fix and not the technology. It's simple enough. if using Chrome, Firefox, or Opera, you are vulnerable.
Firefox can users can protect themselves in the meantime by visiting about:config and setting network.IDN_show_punycode to true.
In the address bar type in "about:config" (without quotes). You will get a disclaimer page on which you accept the risk for screwing up your browser. Then find "network.IDN_show_punycode" in the list of settings. It's value defaults to "false." Click on it and change it to "true." Done! Close the settings page and go back to the article to call up the test page. The real URL will now show up and not the fake one.

https://www.grahamcluley.com/chrome-fir ... g-attacks/
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pilvikki
Posts: 2999
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 21:35

Re: Browser punycode

Post by pilvikki »

so, with vivaldi i can still fiddle away. but i'll write this down anyway. thanks!

:loveu:
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yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: Browser punycode

Post by yogi »

All browsers have such settings, but some are easier to get to than others. Foxfire is perhaps the easiest.
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