Anti-Redirect

Anti-Redirect is a powerful, lightweight browser extension built on Manifest V3 designed to protect your browsing experience by blocking unauthorized Javascript-based redirects, sneaky link hijacks, and intrusive popups. Unlike traditional ad blockers, Anti-Redirect intercepts redirect attempts at the page level and gives you real-time control over where your browser goes. —

🚀 Key Features

• Real-Time Redirect Detection: Intercepts Javascript navigations and shows an elegant, non-intrusive prompt banner asking for your permission before proceeding.
• Intelligent Popup Intervention: Automatically detects and closes background popups opened via native API bypasses, offering to restore them only if approved.
• Granular Whitelist/Blacklist Control:
  • Allow this time: One-off bypass for the current action.
  • Allow always: Whitelists the target destination domain so future navigations there are permitted.
  • Always allow source: Whitelists the originating source domain (e.g., search engines, social media networks) so redirects starting from it are never blocked.
  • Block always: Instantly blacklists the target domain and auto-blocks future connections.
• Persistent Analytics: Tracking dashboard showing how many redirects were intercepted today and over time.

• Dynamic Network-Level Blocking: Synchronizes your blacklist with Chrome’s native declarativeNetRequest engine to block requests efficiently at the network level.

  🛠️ Architecture & Under the Hood

  Anti-Redirect operates using a three-tier script architecture to ensure maximum coverage against bypass techniques:

  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │                      MAIN WORLD                        │
  │  [page-interceptor.js]                                 │
  │  • Monkey-patches window.open, location setters        │
  │  • Traps redirect calls & dispatches CustomEvents      │
  └───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                            │ (CustomEvents / DOM)
  ┌───────────────────────────▼────────────────────────────┐
  │                    ISOLATED WORLD                      │
  │  [interceptor.js]                                      │
  │  • Listens for MAIN world events                       │
  │  • Creates and injects the decision banner / UI       │
  │  • Communicates with the background service worker     │
  └───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                            │ (chrome.runtime.sendMessage)
  ┌───────────────────────────▼────────────────────────────┐
  │                   BACKGROUND WORKER                    │
  │  [service-worker.js]                                   │
  │  • Maintains whitelists, blacklist, and stats          │
  │  • Dynamically compiles & updates DNR network rules    │
  │  • Tracks tab navigation creation targets              │
  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  

  1. Main World Monkey-Patching (content/page-interceptor.js)

  Runs in the main JavaScript execution context of the page (world: "MAIN"). It monkey-patches core navigation functions and properties (like window.open, location.assign, location.replace, and window.Location.prototype) to trap redirects before they load.

  2. Isolated World UI Controller (content/interceptor.js)

  Coordinates between the intercepted actions from the page and the extension’s storage. It injects a highly responsive, custom-styled HTML banner (#__anti_redirect_banner__) to obtain the user’s decision securely.

  3. Background Service Worker (background/service-worker.js)

  Acts as the central orchestrator. It manages the storage keys:

• enabled: (Boolean) Global protection state.
• blacklist: (Array) Blocked target domains.
• whitelist: (Array) Allowed target domains.
• sourceWhitelist: (Array) Trusted origin domains.
• stats: (Object) Chronological block statistics. It dynamically updates network block rules using Chrome’s declarative rules manager when domains are added to the blacklist. —

  ⚙️ Settings & Customization

  The extension provides a clean management interface divided into three settings views:

  1. Allowed Destinations (Whitelist): Manage destination domains that should always be bypassed without prompts.
  2. Blocked Destinations (Blacklist): Edit or clear domains blocked at the network level.

  3. Allowed Sources (Source Whitelist): Manage root websites (such as search engines or trusted portals) that are permitted to perform outbound navigations freely.

     🔒 Permissions & Security

     To function correctly, the extension requests the following permissions in manifest.json:

• activeTab: To inspect and inject helper assets into the currently focused tab.
• storage: To securely persist whitelist, blacklist, and stats.
• webNavigation: To monitor tab creation targets and suppress native window bypasses.
• declarativeNetRequest / declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess: To register dynamic, high-performance blocking rules directly within Chrome’s network stack without inspecting all URL payloads.
• <all_urls> (Host Permissions): Required to intercept network requests on whitelisted and blacklisted targets across any origin.