Clean The Web

Protecting users from phishing, scams, and shady websites — in real time.

Built with:

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📜 Table of Contents

• 📖 Overview
• ✨ Features
• 🛠️ Tech Stack
• 🎯 Trust Score Calculation
• 📂 Project Structure
• 🚀 Getting Started

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📖 Overview

Clean The Web is a modern cybersecurity Chrome extension and full-stack system that detects phishing, fake, and scam websites.

It uses real technical signals like SSL certificates, domain age, suspicious keywords, and crowdsourced reports to determine a website’s trust score — giving users an instant, clear verdict on site safety.

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📸 Extension Screenshots

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✨ Features

🚀	Feature	Description
🧹	Real-Time Site Check	Analyze current website instantly inside your browser
🧠	Smart Trust Score	Based on SSL, domain age, suspicious keywords, and user reports
📈	Trust Score Visualization	Animated circular indicator showing trust percentage
📜	Explanation Panel	Shows exactly why a site was rated Safe / Suspicious / Scam
🔒	Google Safe Browsing API	Real-time lookup of known phishing/malware URLs
📢	Crowdsourced Reporting	Users can report suspicious sites to strengthen the system
🧩	Full-Stack Backend	Node.js API with MongoDB database to handle reports and site data

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Technology	Usage
Chrome Extension APIs	Building the browser extension
Node.js + Express.js	Backend server to process site checks
MongoDB + Mongoose	Database to store site reports, domain metadata
Axios	API communication with backend and WhoisXML
WhoisXML API	Checking domain registration age
Google Safe Browsing API	Real-time threat lookup for URLs
Frontend (HTML/CSS/JavaScript)	Extension popup and dashboard UI
(Future) Next.js	Public web dashboard (optional)

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🎯 Trust Score Calculation

The trustScore starts at 100 and is dynamically adjusted based on the following:

1. Start:
   trustScore = 100

2. SSL Check:
   ❌ No SSL certificate → trustScore -= 40

3. Domain Age Check:
   ❌ Domain age < 6 months → trustScore -= 30

4. Suspicious Keywords Check:
   ❌ Domain contains suspicious words (login, verify, account, paypal) → trustScore -= 20

5. User Reports Check:
   ❌ Each report → trustScore -= 10

6. Clamp:
   ❌ If trustScore < 0 → Clamp to 0

7. Set Status:

   • ✅ trustScore ≥ 80 → Safe
   • ⚠️ trustScore < 80 and ≥ 50 → Suspicious
   • ❌ trustScore < 50 → Scam

Rating Guide:

• Safe: No major red flags—SSL valid, established domain, no reports, AND not flagged by Google Safe Browsing.
• Suspicious: Minor concerns (young domain, or one warning) but not outright malicious.
• Scam: Significant issues (multiple reports, or any Google Safe Browsing flag).

✅ TrustScore and Explanation are both displayed to the user for full transparency.

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📂 Project Structure

/extension
  ├── popup.html
  ├── popup.js
  ├── styles.css
  ├── icons/ (browser action icons)

 /backend
  ├── server.js
  ├── routes/
  │   └── siteRoutes.js
  ├── models/
  │   └── Site.js
  ├── .env (Mongo URI + Whois API Key + Google Safe Browsing API Key)

 /database
  └── MongoDB Atlas (Cloud database)

🚀 Getting Started

📋 Prerequisites

Before getting started with Clean The Web, ensure your environment meets the following:

• Programming Language: JavaScript (Node.js)
• Package Manager: npm
• Database: MongoDB Atlas (or local MongoDB)
• Chrome Browser: For extension testing

🛠️ Installation

Install Clean The Web using the following steps:

Build from source:

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/AlexanderPotiagalov/clean-the-web

2. Navigate to the project directory:

cd backend

3. Install backend dependencies:

npm install

4. Create a .env file:

MONGO_URI=your-mongodb-connection-string
WHOIS_API_KEY=your-whoisxmlapi-key
SAFE_BROWSING_API_KEY=your-safebrowsingapi-key

5. Start the server:

npm run dev

✅ Server will run at:

http://localhost:5000

🧩 Chrome Extension Setup

1. Open Chrome → Go to chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer Mode (top right)
3. Click Load Unpacked
4. Select the /extension folder
5. 🎉 The extension is now active!

Contributing

• 💬 Join the Discussions: Share your insights, provide feedback, or ask questions.
• 🐛 Report Issues: Submit bugs found or log feature requests.
• 💡 Submit Pull Requests: Review open PRs, and submit your own PRs.

🧑‍💻 Author

Built by Alexander Potiagalov

Protecting users from online scams, one website at a time.