Improve in binary search algorithm for parameter optimization

Author: devploit

README.md

@@ -6,12 +6,14 @@
 
 [![contributions welcome](https://img.shields.io/badge/contributions-welcome-brightgreen.svg?style=flat)](https://github.com/devploit/dontgo403/issues)
 
-Discover hidden debugging parameters and uncover web application secrets with debugHunter. This Chrome extension scans websites for debugging parameters and notifies you when it finds a URL with modified responses.
+Discover hidden debugging parameters and uncover web application secrets with debugHunter. This Chrome extension scans websites for debugging parameters and notifies you when it finds a URL with modified responses. The extension utilizes a binary search algorithm to efficiently determine the parameter responsible for the change in the response.
 
 ## Features
 
-- Automatically detects URLs with modified responses due to debugging parameters
-- Displays a list of URLs with modified responses for easy access
+- Perform a binary search on a list of predefined query parameters.
+- Compare responses with and without query parameters to identify changes.
+- Track and display the number of modified URLs in the browser action badge.
+- Allow the user to view and clear the list of modified URLs.
 
 ## Installation
 
@@ -36,7 +38,7 @@ Discover hidden debugging parameters and uncover web application secrets with de
 
 ## Usage
 
-It is recommended to pin the extension to the toolbar to check if a new URL debug parameter is found.
+It is recommended to pin the extension to the toolbar to check if a new modified URL by debug parameter is found.
 1. Navigate to any website.
 2. Click on the debugHunter extension icon in the Chrome toolbar.
 3. If the extension detects any URLs with modified responses due to debugging parameters, they will be listed in the popup.

background.js

@@ -1,40 +1,40 @@
 // List of query parameters to append
 const queryParams = [
   { key: "_debug", value: "1" },
-  { key: "test", value: "1" },
   { key: "admin", value: "1" },
-  { key: "debug", value: "1" },
-  { key: "env", value: "pre" },   
-  { key: "dev", value: "1" },
-  { key: "staging", value: "1" },
+  { key: "analysis", value: "1" },
+  { key: "beta", value: "1" },
   { key: "console", value: "1" },
-  { key: "trace", value: "1" },
-  { key: "log", value: "1" },
-  { key: "verbose", value: "1" },
-  { key: "diagnostic", value: "1" },
-  { key: "mode", value: "debug" },
-  { key: "profiler", value: "1" },
+  { key: "debug", value: "1" },
+  { key: "debug_flag", value: "1" },
   { key: "debug_mode", value: "1" },
+  { key: "debug_output", value: "1" },
+  { key: "debug_status", value: "1" },
+  { key: "debuginfo", value: "1" },
   { key: "debuglevel", value: "1" },
+  { key: "dev", value: "1" },
+  { key: "dev_mode", value: "1" },
+  { key: "development", value: "1" },
+  { key: "diagnostic", value: "1" },
+  { key: "env", value: "pre" },
   { key: "error_reporting", value: "1" },
-  { key: "show_errors", value: "1" },
+  { key: "experiment", value: "1" },
+  { key: "internal", value: "1" },
+  { key: "log", value: "1" },
+  { key: "mode", value: "debug" },
+  { key: "monitoring", value: "1" },
   { key: "performance", value: "1" },
-  { key: "sandbox", value: "1" },
-  { key: "beta", value: "1" },
+  { key: "profiler", value: "1" },
   { key: "qa", value: "1" },
-  { key: "dev_mode", value: "1" },
-  { key: "validate", value: "1" },
-  { key: "analysis", value: "1" },
-  { key: "experiment", value: "1" },
+  { key: "sandbox", value: "1" },
+  { key: "show_errors", value: "1" },
+  { key: "staging", value: "1" },
+  { key: "test", value: "1" },
   { key: "test_mode", value: "1" },
-  { key: "debug_flag", value: "1" },
-  { key: "development", value: "1" },
-  { key: "debuginfo", value: "1" },
-  { key: "monitoring", value: "1" },
-  { key: "internal", value: "1" },
-  { key: "debug_status", value: "1" },
-  { key: "debug_output", value: "1" },
   { key: "testing", value: "1" },
+  { key: "trace", value: "1" },
+  { key: "validate", value: "1" },
+  { key: "verbose", value: "1" },
 ];
 
 // Counter for the number of modified URLs
@@ -93,97 +93,76 @@ function clearModifiedUrls() {
 window.getModifiedUrls = getModifiedUrls;
 window.clearModifiedUrls = clearModifiedUrls;
 
+// Preprocess Text from responses
+function preprocessText(text) {
+  return text.replace(/\s+/g, '');
+}
+
 // Function to check if two responses are meaningfully different
 function isDifferentResponse(originalText, modifiedText) {
-  // Calculate the similarity between the two responses
-  const similarity = stringSimilarity.compareTwoStrings(originalText, modifiedText);
+  // Preprocess the texts before comparison
+  const preprocessedOriginalText = preprocessText(originalText);
+  const preprocessedModifiedText = preprocessText(modifiedText);
+
+  // Calculate the similarity between the two preprocessed responses
+  const similarity = stringSimilarity.compareTwoStrings(
+    preprocessedOriginalText,
+    preprocessedModifiedText
+  );
 
   // Set a threshold for similarity; responses with similarity below this threshold are considered different
-  const similarityThreshold = 0.90;
+  const similarityThreshold = 0.93;
 
   // Return true if the similarity is below the threshold
   return similarity < similarityThreshold;
 }
 
-// Function to fetch URL and compare responses with and without each parameter
-async function checkUrlWithParameters(url, parameters) {
-  const originalResponse = await fetch(url);
-  const originalText = await originalResponse.text();
-
-  // Check the response with all parameters combined
-  const combinedUrl = parameters.reduce((currentUrl, param) => {
-    return appendQueryParam(currentUrl, param);
-  }, url);
-  const combinedResponse = await fetch(combinedUrl);
-  const combinedText = await combinedResponse.text();
-
-  if (!isDifferentResponse(originalText, combinedText)) {
-    // If the response is the same, there is no need to perform the binary search
+// Perform the binary search
+async function binarySearch(url, includedParams, searchParams, originalText) {
+  if (searchParams.length === 0) {
     return;
   }
 
-  // Define the start and end indices for the binary search
-  let startIndex = 0;
-  let endIndex = parameters.length - 1;
-
-  // Perform the binary search
-  while (startIndex <= endIndex) {
-    // Calculate the middle index
-    const middleIndex = Math.floor((startIndex + endIndex) / 2);
-
-    // Construct the modified URL using the parameters up to the middle index
-    const modifiedUrl = parameters.slice(0, middleIndex + 1).reduce((currentUrl, param) => {
-      return appendQueryParam(currentUrl, param);
-    }, url);
-
-    // Fetch the modified response and compare it to the original response
+  if (searchParams.length === 1) {
+    const modifiedUrl = appendQueryParam(url, searchParams[0]);
     const modifiedResponse = await fetch(modifiedUrl);
     const modifiedText = await modifiedResponse.text();
-
     if (isDifferentResponse(originalText, modifiedText)) {
-      // If the response is different, add the modified URL and search for more modifications
       addModifiedUrl(modifiedUrl);
-      endIndex = middleIndex - 1;
-    } else {
-      // If the response is the same, continue searching in the upper half of the list
-      startIndex = middleIndex + 1;
     }
+    return;
   }
 
-  // Check each parameter individually until the first parameter that modifies the response is found
-  let found = false;
-  for (const param of parameters) {
-    const modifiedUrl = appendQueryParam(url, param);
-    const modifiedResponse = await fetch(modifiedUrl);
-    const modifiedText = await modifiedResponse.text();
+  // Calculate the middle index
+  const middleIndex = Math.floor(searchParams.length / 2);
 
-    if (isDifferentResponse(originalText, modifiedText)) {
-      // If the response is different, add the modified URL to the set
-      addModifiedUrl(modifiedUrl);
-      found = true;
-      break;
-    }
-  }
+  // Construct the modified URL using the includedParams and up to the middle index of searchParams
+  const modifiedUrl = includedParams.concat(searchParams.slice(0, middleIndex)).reduce((currentUrl, param) => {
+    return appendQueryParam(currentUrl, param);
+  }, url);
 
-  // If there are only two parameters left and we have a modified response when using only one of them,
-  // try the other parameter
-  if (!found && parameters.length === 2) {
-    const modifiedUrl = appendQueryParam(url, parameters[0]);
-    const modifiedResponse = await fetch(modifiedUrl);
-    const modifiedText = await modifiedResponse.text();
+  // Fetch the modified response and compare it to the original response
+  const modifiedResponse = await fetch(modifiedUrl);
+  const modifiedText = await modifiedResponse.text();
+
+  if (isDifferentResponse(originalText, modifiedText)) {
+    // If the response is different, add the modified URL and search for more modifications
+    addModifiedUrl(modifiedUrl);
+    await binarySearch(url, includedParams, searchParams.slice(0, middleIndex), originalText);
+  } else {
+    // If the response is the same, continue searching in the upper half of the list
+    await binarySearch(url, includedParams.concat(searchParams.slice(0, middleIndex)), searchParams.slice(middleIndex), originalText);
+  }
+}
 
-    if (!isDifferentResponse(originalText, modifiedText)) {
-      const otherModifiedUrl = appendQueryParam(url, parameters[1]);
-      const otherModifiedResponse = await fetch(otherModifiedUrl);
-      const otherModifiedText = await otherModifiedResponse.text();
+// Function to check URL with parameters
+async function checkUrlWithParameters(url, parameters) {
+  // Fetch the original response only once
+  const originalResponse = await fetch(url);
+  const originalText = await originalResponse.text();
 
-      if (isDifferentResponse(originalText, otherModifiedText)) {
-        addModifiedUrl(otherModifiedUrl);
-      }
-    } else {
-      addModifiedUrl(modifiedUrl);
-    }
-  }
+  // Perform the binary search with the full list of parameters and the original response text
+  await binarySearch(url, [], parameters, originalText);
 }
 
 // Listen for tab updates to perform background checks
@@ -195,4 +174,4 @@ chrome.tabs.onUpdated.addListener(async (tabId, changeInfo, tab) => {
 
 // Expose getModifiedUrls and clearModifiedUrls functions to popup
 window.getModifiedUrls = getModifiedUrls;
-window.clearModifiedUrls = clearModifiedUrls;
+window.clearModifiedUrls = clearModifiedUrls;

manifest.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "manifest_version": 2,
   "name": "debugHunter",
-  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "version": "1.0.2",
   "description": "Discover hidden debugging parameters and uncover web application secrets",
   "icons": {
     "48": "images/icon.png"