logo
logo
Sign in

Are URL shorteners safe?

avatar
borhan bb

Are URL shorteners safe?

URL shortener services are responsible for reducing the size of a given URL to a new URL with a predetermined and lower length, in which the link is mapped so that it can be used in services such as Twitter that have a limited number of characters. The increase in popularity of this new social network has made this type of service multiply. In this way, it is easier to incorporate long links in entries of this type of service.

From a security point of view, the problem with these services is that they completely hide the address of the page to be accessed under the guise of a secure link, thus allowing a potential attacker to hide both the code embedded in the URL itself in the form of complex statements or parameters, such as the potential malicious target of the real URL

So that we can get a concrete idea of the use of this type of service by web pages with malicious content, we can use Google's safe browsing services. There is another alternative, such as using a Firefox extension called LongUrlPlease, whose functionality consists of locating the URLs of about 80 services that are responsible for reducing the length and converting the link shown by its corresponding destination link in the user's browser.

Of course, this does not mean that short links should not be used, or that as soon as a page with these links is viewed it should be closed instantly to avoid being exposed. However, they must be used with caution. https://linklytics.com/

collect
0
avatar
borhan bb
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more