Visilant — Xcoder

Visilant is a lightweight, open-source extension designed primarily to protect you from phishing sites that aim to steal your credentials by tricking you into voluntarily entering them, typically through visual similarity to legitimate websites.

The core idea is simple: most phishing websites are those you have never visited or visited very rarely. Unlike traditional antivirus solutions, Visilant's approach can immediately alert you about phishing sites — even those newly created and not yet included in any security blacklists or antivirus databases.

Visilant counts your visits to all websites and displays highly configurable visual cues when interaction with a "unfamiliar" site is detected (interaction types are also customizable), helping you stay alert.

Note that the extension does not block any content; its effectiveness relies entirely on your awareness and response to its visual cues.

GETTING STARTED
1. Install the extension.
2. (Recommended) Pin the Visilant icon to your browser toolbar for constant visibility.
3. Click the Visilant icon to open the Settings page.
4. Configure the extension according to your preferences.
5. Import your browser history to initialize the visit counter with previously visited sites. This helps reduce false positives and unnecessary warnings for "familiar" sites.

CONFIGURATION INCLUDES:
1. Safety Threshold: Specify how many visits classify a site as "familiar" (default is 10).
2. Icon Settings:
1) Choose to display the visit counter on the extension icon.
2) Enable/disable icon color change to red for "unfamiliar" sites.
3. Notification Settings:
1) Select notification triggers: typing, copying, or both.
2) Select notification styles: browser notifications, in-page warnings, or both.

PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS
Visilant is open-source and operates locally within your browser:
1. All data remains on your computer.
2. Extension only needs permissions necessary for it to work properly; other permissions are optional:
1) Browser history: Required only if you choose to import it (recommended).
2) Notifications: Required only if you choose OS-native browser notifications.

LIMITATIONS
While Visilant enhances awareness of "unfamiliar" websites, understanding its limitations is crucial for Visilant's effective use:
1) Not a Malware Blocker:
Visilant doesn’t detect or block malicious code, downloads, or trackers; it focuses solely on tracking your visits to determine site familiarity. It's not a replacement for an antivirus, but an additional layer of protection in browser!
2) Relies on User Action:
Visilant issues warnings but does not enforce any protection. Ignoring these alerts leaves you vulnerable.
3) False Positives and Negatives:
Legitimate sites with low visit counts may trigger warnings (false positives), while phishing sites visited repeatedly may go unflagged (false negatives).
4) Script Injection Limitations:
To detect input and clipboard interactions, Visilant injects a small script into visited pages. If a malicious site removes this script from the DOM - which is unlikely but theoretically possible - warnings cease. In such cases, protection relies solely on the extension icon, emphasizing the importance of pinning it to the toolbar.