Link Inspector Chrome Extension

Link Inspector is a lightweight Chrome extension for fast link triage on the active tab.

It extracts unique links, highlights external and risky links, and exports clean evidence for analyst workflows.

Why this tool exists

During web investigations, analysts often need to:

• quickly enumerate links on a page
• identify external destinations
• spot risky link patterns fast
• export results for case notes

Link Inspector keeps that flow fast inside the browser.

Features

• Live badge on extension icon showing the current tab link count
• Extracts unique links from the active page
• Internal and external classification (external links highlighted)
• Risky link highlighting for:
  • insecure http:// links
  • non-web schemes such as javascript:, data:, mailto:, and similar
• Summary panel with:
  • total links
  • internal links
  • external links
  • risky links
  • unique domains
• Filters:
  • All
  • Internal
  • External
  • Risky
• Sorting:
  • First seen
  • Alphabetical
  • Domain
  • Path length
• Copy single link or copy visible filtered list
• Export visible filtered list as TXT or CSV
• Local-only processing, no outbound telemetry

Screenshot

Architecture

flowchart TD
    A[Active browser tab] --> B[Background service worker]
    B --> C[Badge updater: count links]
    A --> D[Popup UI]
    D --> E[Link extraction via scripting API]
    E --> F[Classification engine]
    F --> G[Internal vs external detection]
    F --> H[Risky link detection]
    G --> I[Filter and sort controls]
    H --> I
    I --> J[Copy visible links]
    I --> K[Export TXT]
    I --> L[Export CSV]
    I --> M[Analyst triage view]

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Threat patterns this helps identify

• Suspicious external redirection chains hidden in content pages
• Insecure HTTP links that can weaken trust or downgrade transport security
• Non-web or script-style schemes that can signal malicious or unsafe link behaviour
• Large link farms or unexpected domain spread on compromised or spammed pages
• Potential phishing surface where external and risky links cluster together

Chrome Web Store

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/link-inspector/mhddppopjnmclolaonnimfenhfepjmpd

Installation

Option 1: Chrome Web Store

Install directly from: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/link-inspector/mhddppopjnmclolaonnimfenhfepjmpd

Option 2: Load unpacked (developer)

1. Clone or download this repository
2. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions/
3. Enable Developer mode
4. Click Load unpacked
5. Select the src folder

Packaging note for store uploads

The extension package root must be the src folder contents so that manifest.json is at the ZIP root.

Example:

cd src
zip -r ../link-inspector-upload.zip .

Do not upload the repository root as the extension bundle.

Project structure

README.md
src/
├── manifest.json
├── background.js
├── popup.html
├── popup.js
└── images/
    └── icon128.png

Permissions

• activeTab: reads links from the active tab when requested
• scripting: runs extraction/count logic in tab context
• tabs: updates badge count when active tab changes
• host_permissions (<all_urls>): enables badge link counting across standard web pages

Security model

• No data is sent to external services by the extension.
• URLs are rendered with safe DOM APIs, avoiding risky HTML injection patterns.
• Clipboard and export actions are user-triggered.

Troubleshooting

• No links found: page may be script-rendered post-load or has no anchor tags.
• Cannot run on protected pages: Chrome blocks script injection on some internal/system pages.
• Store upload rejects package: ensure manifest.json is at ZIP root, not nested.

License

Apache License 2.0