This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Toolzr
Phishing attacks often rely on visually deceptive characters to trick users into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive information. These attacks exploit homoglyphs—characters from different writing systems that look almost identical but have different Unicode values.
To combat this, we’ve built the Character Identifier tool on Toolzr. It helps developers, security professionals, and system administrators analyze text and detect hidden character substitutions that could indicate phishing attempts.
🔍 How the Character Identifier Works
The Character Identifier breaks down text into individual characters and reveals their Unicode values and script origin. This allows you to quickly inspect strings that may contain deceptive characters.
Example: Detecting a Phishing Attempt
Consider the following URLs:
example.com
exаmple.com
At first glance, they look identical. However, using the Character Identifier tool, we can see that the second URL contains a Cyrillic "а" (U+0430) instead of a Latin "a" (U+0061).
Character Breakdown:
| Character | Unicode | Script |
|---|---|---|
| e | U+0065 | Latin |
| x | U+0078 | Latin |
| а | U+0430 | Cyrillic |
| m | U+006D | Latin |
| p | U+0070 | Latin |
| l | U+006C | Latin |
| e | U+0065 | Latin |
| . | U+002E | Punctuation |
| c | U+0063 | Latin |
| o | U+006F | Latin |
| m | U+006D | Latin |
A quick scan with the Character Identifier immediately reveals the hidden homoglyph, helping security professionals identify potential phishing domains before users fall for them.
🛡️ Why This Matters
Homoglyph attacks aren’t limited to URLs. They also appear in code repositories, emails, and social engineering attacks. Developers and security teams can use the Character Identifier to:
- Detect Unicode spoofing in source code (e.g., variables named with homoglyphs).
- Identify misleading email addresses in phishing emails.
- Verify domain names before clicking links.
🖥️ Try It Now
You can use the Character Identifier for free at Toolzr. Simply paste any text, and it will break down each character, showing its Unicode value and script origin.
Stay ahead of phishing attacks by verifying every character.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Toolzr
Toolzr | Sciencx (2025-02-13T22:53:11+00:00) Detecting Homoglyph Attacks with Toolzr’s Character Identifier. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/02/13/detecting-homoglyph-attacks-with-toolzrs-character-identifier/
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