PH Launch: Clipboard checker (Keep your clipboard safe)
Hi fellow IH'ers 👋
TL;DR:
Clipboard checker is a set it and forget it chrome extension. It will scan and check any text you copy in your browser to determine if malicious content has been added or changed. Did the website added some text you didn’t know about? The extension will notify you instantly.
Any upvote would be appreciated: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/clipboard-checker
After laying low for a while it was time to launch something again, just to get the energy flowing again. What's better for that then building a tool that helps and protects my fellow IH'ers.
So, let's get at it!
⚡ A chrome extension that keeps your clipboard safe
✅ Check if what you’re trying to copy is also what you're actually copying.
🔔 Get a warning if a websites adds text to your clipboard.
🔒 Do we collect any data from your clipboard? No.
💰 Is this tool free? Yes.
Why?
Being a developer I copy code / commands from sites like Stackoverflow, but also from other forums / sites that have the correct answer. A while ago I noticed that the site inserted some malicious code after copying a massive command to fix some composer issue. I checked out the command on the website but I did not re-check it after pasting in the terminal. So, yeah that's obviously a potential security breach.
How does it work?
Well it's actually pretty simple, the tool checks if what is selected is the same as if what goes to the clipboard. Don't the two match? Then we'll let you know by an browser notification (so no notification access is necessary). So we don't do anything with your clipboard data, it just compares the two locally.
Future plans
If this thing gets used I have some cool ideas to also build in e.g. phising detection so companies could use it to protect their employees from copying malicious links.
I would appreciate your upvote and feedback! 🙏
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/clipboard-checker
Good luck out there, stay safe.
Cool extension. Is it open-source?
Also a quick heads up:
The warning popup will not be visible if you are scrolled down too far on the page. It is only shown at the very top of the page.
Thanks for the feedback! We've submitted another version the the Chrome Web Store, it should be approved soon.
Would you like to contribute or would you feel more at ease when you have a chance to read the code? In any case: we are considering it!
I personally don't like to have something that has access to my clipboard running on my computer without knowing exactly what it does. I am almost certain your extension is safe, but I'm still a bit weary about things that have access to that kind of data. Nothing personal :)
I also have a couple of other concerns:
Do you collect any analytics/data other than what Chrome Store gives you?
How easy would it be to bypass your extension? I see that it injects HTML code into the DOM. Couldn't a hacker simply monitor the entry of your alert and remove it?
What's your pricing model? Do you plan to keep it free forever or have you just not thought about monetizing?
Those are my main concerns at the moment, but overall the extension is really handy and I think I'll continue using it.
We made it open-source just now: https://github.com/StudioBrightside/clipboardchecker. Should answer a few of your questions! Bear with me, I wrote the readme's just now, and the code was written whilst not realising that we were making it open-source 😉
To address the 2 questions which aren't answered by the Github link:
Thanks for being invested. If you see any way to contribute: we'd love your input!