app4mac‘s CutX is an extension plug-in for Safari web browser (Mac only). It allows users to censor websites. It’s only good for parental control on kid’s Internet surfing. Or will it also stop users from accidentally downloading malicious files from websites in the blacklist?

One tool that they offer with CutX is ‘Banned Words.’ You can customize a list of banned words for your needs. If CutX spots a webpage with any of the banned words, it will block access.

I can tell you at the beginning. Censoring websites with banned words is not going to work no matter how you do it. That’s from our experience with one of the ad companies we are affiliated with. We started having porn text ads at our SEO blog website around June 20 because of this ad company. (See Screenshot 01.) We asked them not to deliver porn ads. Then they told us to consider removing one particular article. As you see Screenshot 02, there is nothing wrong about it. What, we can’t mention sex or pornography on our websites? But their website also mentions child pornography. (See Screenshot 03.) We can’t even say something like ‘Avoid this porn website’ or ‘we do not condone child pornography’?

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Setting up

Anyway, let’s see how app4mac’s Safari extension works. Safari extension… Right, it will run only with Safari we browser. 

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When you run its installer, CutX will install files by creating folders titled InputMangers and CutX inside Library. So you will be prompted to enter your user password. (See Screenshot 04-5.) That means those are the folders that you need to get rid of if you want to uninstall CutX. (See Screenshot 06.)

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If you are finished installing CutX, launch Safari web browser. If this is your first time using CutX, you will probably see a half-transparent menu window. (See Screenshot 07.) This menu will disappear after entering a user license code. In order to set up CutX, you need to go to Block Websites > Preferences under Safari. (See Screenshot 08.) By the way, if you trash the CutX folder inside Library, you won’t see Block Websites under Safari any more. (See Screenshot 09.)

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All right. Looking at its Preferences, CutX gives you 3 mains tools to censor websites. The first one is Banned Words. There is a default list of words. (See Screenshot 10.) And you can add and delete words to censor. The second tool is Forbidden Websites. There is a default list here as well. (See Screenshot 11.) And Authorized Websites is just opposite to Forbidden Websites. Each of these three tools is not exclusive from others. So you have to decide what’s most important under Level of Protection. (See Screenshot 13.)

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Censoring words

We haven’t enabled site protection yet, by the way. So let’s do that. (See Screenshot 14.) Hmm… Apple’s startup page is now banned. (See Screenshot 15.) Let’s see why. I’m going to choose View banned words found in this website. (See Screenshot 16.) And CutX says this website has a word pu**y. (See Screenshot 17.) Sorry, I won’t mention the exact word. If I enable the search function by pressing Command + F and look for that particular word… Safari cannot find it. (See Screenshot 18.) That’s strange, isn’t it?

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Next, I’m going to change the Level of Protection. The default list of Authorized Websites includes apple.com. So I’m going to choose Banned Words and Forbidden Websites, except Authorized Websites. (See Screenshot 19.) So CutX should accept this page, right? And it does. (See Screenshot 20.)

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Okay. How about our website? So let’s go to http://www.mhvt.net. (See Screenshot 21.) And CutX bans our website. (See Screenshot 22.) What’s wrong with it? If I use ‘View banned words found in this website,’ CutX says the website contains 3 banned words. (See Screenshot 23.) One of them is gspot. I know where it comes from. It’s part of Google-owned blog website blogspot.com. I don’t know what ‘ffm’ means. Is that a bad word? It’s part of ‘ffmpeg,’ an open-source video encoder. Anyway, let me add mhvt.net to the list of Authorized Websites. (See Screenshot 24.) And our website is now accessible. (See Screenshot 25.) Yes, we have a word containing porn at the index page. (See Screenshot 26.)

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By the way, I have inserted a word ‘animalsex’ at the page located at http://www.mhvt.net/quicktime/eng/about.php. (See Screenshot 27.) The default list of banned words includes this one. Anyway, let me remove ‘mhvt.net’ from the list of the approved websites. If I access mhvt.net, CutX says it’s a banned website. But if I see the list of banned words found at this website, it doesn’t contain ‘animalsex.’ (See Screenshot 28.) Now, it looks like censoring only works page-wide, not site-wide.

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Banning domains

The other day, we mentioned at our SEO/Internet Security blog that an organized cyber criminal group installed a redirection website at Google-owned Blogspot. This redirection website is located at http://multic3.blogspot.com. If you access this URL with a web browser, you will be redirected to a fake anti-virus scan website. A web browser is likely to access two domains: spywareadvancedscanner.com and spywareonlinescanner.

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So let me add these evil domains to the forbidden website list. (See Screenshot 29) And let me access http://multic3.blogspot.com with Safari. (See Screenshot 30.) Then CutX says the website cannot be viewed. But a fake scan dialogue opens anyway. (See Screenshot 31.) If I press ‘Cancel,’ the browser window expands itself into a full page though content cannot be viewed. (See Screenshot 32.)






Downloading files from forbidden websites

Next, I want to see if CutX will stop me from downloading files from forbidden websites. Again, we mentioned at our SEO/Internet Security blog a couple of months ago that an organized cyber criminal group was using several dozen websites with Chinese top domains to circulate Mac-targeting computer viruses. Those days, one source of malicious files was hosted at the domain of nitro-code.com. Another source is the website at hq-codec.net. So let me ban this domain. (See Screenshot 33.)

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Next, I’m going to change the level of protection to Banned Websites Only (See Screenshot 34.) Now, let me access one of the websites with a Chinese top domain. I’m going to access http://lesbiana-madura.vgmvo8.cn. Then let me click on ‘+18 Enter,’ (See Screenshot 35.) After a few seconds later, Safari asks me if I want to continue to download a dmg containing an application. (See Screenshot 36.) So let me click on ‘Continue.’

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So Safari let me download a disk image file titled ‘hq-codec.v.4.221.dmg.’ (See Screenshot 37.) Let’s look at Screenshot 36 again. If we take a look at the status bar at the bottom of the window, we can tell the file comes from one of the forbidden domains that I added earlier. Let me use Norton AntiVirus 11 to scan the file contained in the disk image. (See Screenshot 38.) And Norton AntiVirus says the file contains three copies of OSX.RSPlug.A. So what we have found out is that CutX does not prevent us from downloading files even when the domain of the source is in the forbidden list.






Summary

CutX gives you three tools in censoring websites. Each tool is not exclusive from others. So you need to choose what is most important in censoring websites under the Level of Protection tab.

CutX is not good at censoring banned words. For example, if you include the word ‘gspot’ in the list, you cannot visit websites that mention Blogspot, Google-owned website offering free blogs.

One thing that we haven’t mentioned and that we are unsure of is how CutX distinguishes the website hosted at the root directory from ones at its own subdomains. For example, if I add ‘seo.mhvt.net’ to the forbidden website list, this name will fall back to mhvt.net. Then I will be prevented from visiting http://www.mhvt.net, but not from visiting http://seo.mhvt.net.

Furthermore, CutX does not stop users from downloading files from forbidden websites. That’s a big minus.

By the way, we don’t use Safari. We used it this time only in order to review this software title. CutX is only applicable to Safari. That’s a pity.

Developer: app4mac (www.app4mac.com)

Developer’s location: 8721 Santa Monica Blvd #1208, Los Angeles, CA 90069-4507

Latest version: CutX 4.5 (Compatible with PPC, Intel Mac and Leopard)

System requirements: OS X 10.4 or higher

Prices: US$49 or €31.00 (Free upgrades for life)

MacHouse recommendation: Censoring websites depending on banned words won’t work whether you use CutX or other browser plug-ins. It’s no offense to the software developer, but we wouldn’t even pay $10 for the current version of CutX.






CutX is a product of app4mac.






References:

Google-Owned Blogspot Used to Redirect Internet Users to New Fake Anti-Virus Scan Website (2)
Google-Owned Blogspot Used to Redirect Internet Users to New Fake Anti-Virus Scan Website (1)
10 More Websites with Chinese Domains Designed to Infect Mac Users with a Trojan Horse Virus

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