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shaheen amjed
shaheen amjed

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Needs a professional URL safety checker ?

#webdev #api #safety #hacktoberfest

An intelligent and production-grade REST API that analyzes any URL to detect if it’s safe, suspicious, or malicious. It uses real-time DNS resolution, phishing detection (brand similarity, keywords, and favicon host), redirection tracking, HTTPS validation, content analysis, domain age, and integrates with VirusTotal (optional) to give a clear verdict, safety score, and recommendation.
Link: https://rapidapi.com/dreamers-dev-dreamers-dev-default/api/smart-url-safety-checker

✅ Confirms Everything from Our Plan:

Feature Is it Implemented? Notes
✔️ Validate URL ✅ Strong validation with protocol check
✔️ DNS Resolution ✅ Uses dns.promises to get IP & MX
✔️ Redirection Detection ✅ Tracks final URL & redirect count
✔️ Phishing Detection ✅ Levenshtein + Soundex + Punycode
✔️ Known Brand Matching ✅ With similarity percentage
✔️ HTTPS Analysis ✅ Detects secure/insecure protocol
✔️ Content Scraping ✅ title, meta, <form>, <script>
✔️ Favicon Host Check ✅ Checks if hosted on foreign domain
✔️ Phishing Keywords ✅ Searches login/password/etc
✔️ Domain Age Check ✅ Uses whois-json
✔️ VirusTotal Scan ✅ Optional, with API key
✔️ Score + Verdict + Recommendation ✅ Generates score + readable decision
✔️ Rate Limit + Helmet + CORS ✅ Production-grade setup
✔️ Clean Express App ✅ Fully ready to deploy

🧠 Verdict:

This is the exact production API we planned. All smart features are there.
Even faviconHost check, soundex, and VirusTotal are rare in free APIs — so it's already "premium-level".

If you publish this API with a strong brand and clear documentation, it can easily be sold on RapidAPI.

Would you like me now to write a full documentation and ready pricing plan for it so you publish directly?

Sure! Here's the full API documentation and a description ready to copy-paste into RapidAPI (or anywhere you publish it):

🧠 API Name

Smart URL Safety Checker

📝 Description

An intelligent and production-grade REST API that analyzes any URL to detect if it’s safe, suspicious, or malicious. It uses real-time DNS resolution, phishing detection (brand similarity, keywords, and favicon host), redirection tracking, HTTPS validation, content analysis, domain age, and integrates with VirusTotal (optional) to give a clear verdict, safety score, and recommendation.

📘 Documentation

🧩 Base URL 

POST /analyze
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📥 Request Body

Send a JSON payload like this:

{
  "url": "http://example.com"
}
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⚠️ Required Field

Key Type Required Description
url string ✅ Yes The full URL to analyze (must include http:// or https://)

📤 Response Example 

{
  "originalUrl": "http://insta-login-security-check.com/login",
  "verdict": "suspicious",
  "score": 38,
  "confidence": 85,
  "aiFlagged": true,
  "recommendation": "Warning: Potential risk with this URL",
  "finalUrl": "http://insta-login-security-check.com/login",
  "https": false,
  "redirects": 2,
  "domain": "insta-login-security-check.com",
  "ipAddress": "192.0.2.1",
  "hasMxRecords": false,
  "relatedToKnownBrand": "instagram",
  "containsPhishingKeywords": true,
  "faviconWarning": true,
  "domainAge": "Unknown",
  "meta": {
    "title": "Login Now - Instagram Security",
    "description": "Secure your account with this login page.",
    "formCount": 1,
    "scriptCount": 5
  },
  "warnings": [
    {
      "type": "brand",
      "message": "Domain is similar to instagram (78.6% similarity)"
    },
    {
      "type": "content",
      "message": "Login/password related keywords detected"
    },
    {
      "type": "favicon",
      "message": "Favicon is hosted on different domain (phishy-icons.net)"
    }
  ],
  "virusTotal": {
    "harmless": 65,
    "malicious": 3,
    "suspicious": 1,
    "undetected": 5,
    "timeout": 0
  }
}
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📊 Response Fields Explained

Field Type Description
verdict string clean, suspicious, or malicious
score number Safety score (0-100). Higher = safer
confidence number Trust level of detection (based on signals)
aiFlagged boolean If smart detection triggered high risk
recommendation string Human-readable suggestion
finalUrl string Final URL after redirection
https boolean Whether the URL uses HTTPS
redirects number Count of redirects
domain string Extracted domain
ipAddress string Resolved IP address
hasMxRecords boolean True if domain has mail servers
relatedToKnownBrand string or null If domain mimics a brand (like paypal)
containsPhishingKeywords boolean If dangerous words found in page content
faviconWarning boolean True if favicon is hosted outside domain
domainAge string Age of domain (or "Unknown")
meta.title string Page <title>
meta.description string Page meta description
meta.formCount number How many <form> tags on page
meta.scriptCount number How many <script> tags
warnings array List of all triggered warnings
virusTotal object (Optional) scan stats from VirusTotal

✅ Health Check 

GET /health
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Returns the uptime and basic API status.

📦 Examples (cURL) 

curl -X POST https://yourdomain.com/analyze \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "http://suspicious-paypa1-login.com"}'
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🔒 Security

  • Helmet for HTTP protection
  • CORS enabled
  • Rate limited to 100 requests per 15 minutes per IP

🧠 Built-in Intelligence

This API doesn't just check if the URL is HTTPS or not — it checks:

  • Similarity to famous brand names using Levenshtein distance + Soundex
  • Redirections & domain mismatch
  • Dangerous words in <title> and <meta>
  • Suspicious favicon links
  • Optionally scans with VirusTotal if API key is set

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