This post was originally published in French only. We translated it in 2026 so the archive reads the same in both languages. Read the original →
Irongeek is definitely inspiring me this week... And I'd love to have the time to do such cool stuff!
The concept of homographs as an attack vector isn't new. Essentially, they're letters that look alike in two different alphabets. In computing, this matters, because the code (Unicode) that represents each letter is not the same, even if they look visually similar. So, ever since DNS servers started allowing Unicode in domain names, it's been possible to generate domain names that look alike but don't point to the same site. A nice way to divert legitimate traffic to a malicious site!
Irongeek has developed a tool that converts a word in our alphabet into a word that uses letters from another alphabet, but looks exactly the same.
Ꮋаⅽkfеѕt or Hackfest?
Use of Punycode and Homoglyph Attacks to Obfuscate URLs for Phishing