Hacking Pages in Firefox with the HackBar

A few months ago, I described how the Firefox add-on HttpFox could be used for basic traffic monitoring. Another helpful add-on that complements nicely with HttpFox is called HackBar.

HackBar adds a toolbar underneath the main address bar that can be toggled on or off with the F9 key. When enabled, the toolbar provides a miniature console of sorts for various testing tasks. A resizable textbox gives you plenty of room for editing URIs, and you can also issue POST requests or spoof the referrer. Menus across the top of the bar provide common functions for working with different types of data, such as hash algorithms or encoding and decoding in Base64, URI format, and even hexadecimal.

Using HackBar has its limits, and for comprehensive penetration testing you’ll probably need better tools. But if you just want to poke around a web application or send a quick POST request, HackBar is pretty handy to have around. Combined with HttpFox, you may be surprised at how much testing you can accomplish right in your browser.

Each Thursday, Security Musings features a security-related technology or tool. Featured items do not imply a recommendation by Gemini Security Solutions. For more information about how Gemini Security Solutions can help you solve your security issues, contact us!