Defang / Fang URL
Defang / Fang URL. Defang turns a live indicator into inert text (won't render as a link); fang reverses it. Pure text substitution, on your device.
Runs on your device. The file is never uploaded.
Defang / Fang URL rewrites an indicator into text a mail or chat client will not linkify: http turns into hxxp, :// into [://], and each period into [.]. Setting mode to fang puts all three back. Substitution runs over the whole file, so periods in ordinary sentences and version numbers are rewritten as well.
Questions
What does defanging change?
Three substitutions across the whole text. The scheme becomes hxxp or hxxps, the :// becomes [://], and every period becomes [.]. The result will not render as a clickable link in a ticket, a chat message or an email client, which is the point.
Can I get the original back?
Yes, switch mode to fang. It reverses all three substitutions, turning hxxp back into http, [://] back into ://, and [.] back into a period. Round tripping ordinary text works, though anything you had written with literal square brackets around a period will come back changed.
Does it only touch URLs?
No, and this matters. The substitutions run over the entire file text, so every period in the document becomes [.], including the ones in sentences and version numbers. Feed it the indicators you want defanged, not a whole report, unless you want the whole thing rewritten.
Why does my defanged text still look clickable?
Some chat and mail clients linkify a bare domain even without a scheme. Defanging removes the shape those clients usually match, but no text transformation can promise every client will refuse. Check how it renders where you plan to send it.
Is this the same as the IP defanger?
Close, but not the same rules. Defang / Fang IP replaces every period with [.] and every colon with [:], for IPv4 and IPv6, and does nothing to a URL scheme. Running it on a URL would turn the scheme colon into [:] as well.