Top 10 Browser Extensions For OSINT Researchers and Hackers

Nowadays, modern browsers are robust and provide a long list of functionalities; browsers can be unlocked to do various spectacular things with browser add-ons and extensions.

Security Researchers, OSINT researchers, and hackers can use these add-ons to prevent online tracking, log in to SSH devices, and search the internet for hints during an investigation. In this article, we will talk about a list of the top ten important browser extensions for hackers – and how to use them.

What are Add-Ons or Extensions?

Browser add-ons or extensions are tiny programs that expand what a browser can do. The simplest way to imagine browser add-ons is to think of them as a creative application for your browser. Specific add-ons offer additional functions to make the browser more usable for a particular case of use. An example of a simple browser extension can be the Grammarly browser extension, which corrects spelling and grammatical mistakes automatically.

Note: We have picked extensions that specifically run on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox as these are the most popular web browsers used around.

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) investigations and ethical hacking demand efficiency and the right tools. Browser extensions streamline uncovering hidden information, website analysis, and other crucial research tasks. Let’s dive into the best OSINT-focused extensions that should be in your arsenal.

Top 10 Browser Extensions For OSINT Researchers and Hackers

1. Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is an essential tool for Ethical Hacking’s Information Gathering stage, enabling users to uncover web application details. Upon installation, it reveals a website’s tech stack, programming languages, CMS, and frameworks.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: Wappalyzer for Google Chrome or Wappalyzer for Mozilla Firefox

Features:

1. Tech Detection: This offers one-click detection of various technologies
2. Supports Browser: This supports popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox
3. Open Source: It’s open source, allowing customization and contributions

Limitations:

1. Less Accuracy: It’s accuracy is somewhat compromised compared to paid tools
2. Specific Limit of Information: It focuses solely on technology and lacks insights into nonfunctional aspects like security and performance
3. Compatibility Updates: There is the need to regularly update to detect different technologies.

2. d3coder

d3coder is a time-saving tool for security professionals, enabling quick encoding and decoding of keys, hashes, and text via the context menu. It also offers customization options for the context menu.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: d3coder for Google Chrome or d3coder for Mozilla Firefox

Features:

1. Encoding and Decoding: This extension simplifies encoding and decoding tasks. It. eliminates the need for external tools
2. Unserilaize PHP support: d3coder extension supports of PHP unserialize function
3. Support for different Encoding and Decoding Types: It has support for a wide range of encoding and decoding types like CRC32, MD5, SHA-1.

Limitations:

1. Security: This extension is sensitive because it covers the encoded text into normal text
2. No Offline Support: It does not have support for offline usage
3. Not Suitable or Complex Tasks: It may not be suitable for complex security tasks

3. Proxy SwitchyOmega

Proxy SwitchyOmega extension is the advanced version or successor of SwitchyOlus, Proxy Switchy, and SwitchySharp. By using this extension, you can hide your IP address while performing pen testing attacks.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: Proxy SwitchyOmega Chrome Extension or Proxy SwitchyOmega Firefox Extension

Features:

1. Supports Proxy Management: Supports different types of proxies like HTPP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, etc.
2. Wildcard Matching: Supports the wildcard patterns in rules that allow us to match the multiple URLs and domains with a single rule.
3. Supports Encryption: Supports SSL encryption for our proxy connections to ensure security for those concerned and keep privacy maintained while accessing the internet.

Limitations:

1. Less Performance: Due to the use of the proxy server, there might be performance issues while accessing the internet.
2. No Anonymity: Although there is the use of Proxy Servers still it does not provide the complete level of anonymity as a VPN service.
3. Browser Compatibility: This extension has the support of only web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

4. Tamper Data

The Tamper Data extension allows you to monitor and change the HTTP, HTTPS, and several other requests and responses that are not generally visible. If you have used the Burp Suite Tool, then you will get a better idea of how the Tamper Data extension works.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: Tamper Data Chrome Extension or Tamper Data Firefox Extension

Features:

1. Manipulation of Response: Using the Tamper Data extension we can modify or alter the HTTP responses that have been received.
2. Request Replay Support: Using this Tamper Data Extension we can resent the modified request to the server like Burp Suite.
3. Cookie Management: Tamper Data allows us to view and modify the cookies that are related to the website.

Limitations:

1. Fewer Features: As compared to the Burp Suite, the Tamper Data extension has a very small number of features.
2. Complexity: Although the extension is powerful in terms of usage, but tot is a more convenient fit the users who don’t have knowledge of HTTP and related web application concepts.
3. Resource Dependency: The tampered data mainly increases resource usage and utilities more system resources.

5. HackBar

The HackBar extension offers the comfort of access and interface to web-based Penetration Testing.HackBar is one of the most favorable extensions of every hacker. HAckBar can be used to support XSS attacks, SQL Injection attacks, and other attacks in which fuzzing inputs are used.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: HackBar Chrome Extension or HackBar Firefox Extension

Features:

1. Hash Generation Support: THe HackBar extension is one of the favorable extensions that supports the different types of Hash Generations.
2. URL Manipulation Support: HackBar extension can also be used to easily, read and modify the URLS within the extension.
3. SQL Support: HackBar extension supports the SQL functions and its operations through which we can plan the SQL injection attack and test the target application.

Limitations:

1. Privacy Issues: The extension of HackBar can raise privacy concerns as this allows researchers to directly manipulate the data transmitted over the network.
2. No Updation: In the past years, there has been no updation in the features of the extension.
3. High Resouce Utilization: The Hackbar mainly increases resource usage and utilities more system resources.

6. Shodan

We as Security Researchers have always used the Shodan website to perform OSINT research. But the Shodan is also can be accessed using the Browser extensions. With the use of Shodan, we can find different types of recon information like Network Configurations, Vulnerable Devices, and many more critical and extensive data related to servers and networking devices.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: Shodan Chrome Extension or Shodan Firefox Extension

Features:

1. API AccesWwe can use the Shodan API so that the researchers can use the the same utilities and services offered on the website.
2. Discover Vulnerable Devices: Using the Shodan extension, we can get the list of specific devices that have some vulnerable behaviors in them.
3. Access Banner Information: Using this extension, we can get or retrieve the detailed banner information for each discovered device.

Limitations:

1. Less Update Information: As Shodan has a wide range of databases, in many cases, the databases are not kept up to date.
2. Not Free to Use: As Shodan has free access, there are only a limited number of features offered in the Free access.
3. Less Accuracy: The information which is provided by the Shodan is mostly varied, as this information is not very accurate due to the free behavior.

7. Data Scraper

Data extraction is also one of the important tasks in the process of OSINT. As information about the target is one of the milestones for planning for the security attack. To extract the data from websites, a tool or extension of Data Scraper can help manu security researchers.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: Data Scraper Chrome Extension or Data Scraper Firefox Extension

Features:

1. Supports Data Export: Data Scraper Extension supports exporting the scrapped data in various formats like CSV, JSON, etc.
2. Scheduled Scraping: Using Data Scrapper Extension, we can run the scrapping process at specific time intervals, this can be beneficial for retrieving the updated data.
3. jQuery Selectors: This extension has jQuery Selectors, which allow the users to specify the elements on the webpage to be extracted.

Limitations:

1. IP Blocking Risk: As of now, many websites use advanced security techniques to safeguard their website from various security attacks.
2. Website Chnages: Data Scrapper tension is susceptible to problems when the target website is been updated or there is a change in its HTML layout.
3. Depends on Third-Party Tools: Thi moostly depends on external Tools and libraries, we need to be aware of any dependencies and privacy implications associated with these tools.

8. EditThisCookie

In OSINT Research EditThisCookie extension is one of the important and helpful extensions for cookie management. Cookies store the user’s browser to track information and also maintain the session states. So manipulation of cookies is an important task in OSINT. As we can understand the behavior of the target application by modifying the cookies.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: EditThisCookie Chrome Extension or EditThisCookie Firefox Extension

Features:

1. Supports Authentication Testing: EditThisCookie extension offers a feature for Security Researchers and Hackers to test the actual behavior of the website while handling the authentication and session management.
2. Support for Tracking and Profiling: Cookies can be used by some websites to track and profile users.
3. Extract Hiden Data: Using this extension, the researchers can alter and modify the cookies and their values.

Limitations:

1. Less OSINT Analysis: This has only the scope for cookie handling, other OSINT tasks like social media monitoring, geolocation tracking, etc. are not supported by this extension.
2. Less Automation: This extension is mostly applicable for less complex OSINT tasks, as it has more manual work to be done, so it doesn’t support more complex OSINT tasks.
3. Website Compatibility Issue: Many of the websites use advanced security measures to hide and keep the information private.

9. User-Agent Switcher and Manager

To safeguard from the data leak, we can use the browser extension as a User-Agent Switcher and Manager. This extension is so powerful that it is capable of allowing users or researchers to modify the user agent string which is sent to the website by the browser.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: User-Agent Switcher and Manager Chrome Extension or User-Agent Switcher and Manager Firefox Extension

Features:

1. Allows User Agent Modification: Using this extension, researchers and hackers can change the user agent string that is sent to the website.
2. Browser Emulation: So by spoofing the user agent hackers can make the website believe that they are using a different browser such as Safari, Firefox, etc.
3. Perform Testing and Debugging: Hackers and Researchers can use this extension to test how the target website responds to different user agents and devices.

Limitations:

1. Less Reliable: Many of the websites use advanced techniques and tools to detect the spoofed user agent’s string, like checking the JS features or using fingerprinting.
2. Security Issues: This may cause privacy issues if this is done without any legal permission or done with malicious purpose intentions.
3. Inaccurate Testing: As many websites use responsive design and also uses layouts to adjust the screen sizes of the devices, this makes user agent spoofing less relevant for testing purposes.

10. Exif Data

Images consist of many sensitive information and the metadata that is related to this image is used to plan the attack. The metadata can be the information like camera from which the image was clicked, the name of the user, the settings used, etc. So to get this information, the Exif Data extension can help.

Download Links for Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Browsers: Exif Data Chrome Extension or Exif Data Firefox Extension

Features:

1. User-Friendly Interface: Extension has a much easier and friendly interface, and the hackers and researchers and easily understand the navigation and retrieve the metadata easily.
2. Support for different Image Formats: Exif Data extension has support for various image formats including JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.
3. Supports Data Export: Once the image’s metadata is been extracted, this information needs to be analyzed and more insights can be found through this.

Limitations:

1. Less Accuracy: The main goal of this Exif Data extension is to extract the metadata from the Image file, the extension mainly relies on the accuracy of the Exif metadata which is embedded in the image file.
2. Incomplete Metadata: In many cases, there might be the presence of incomplete data embedded in the image due to factors like a camera or device.
3. Only Image Support: This extension has only the support to the Images. It doesn’t have support for other formats of files like videos, or documents.

Conclusion

After going to this extension list, you will think that Chrome and Firefox are more than just web browsers. With these fantastic extensions, they can help you in every step of your penetration testing, like gathering information, analyzing web pages, and many more.