URLek

URLek is a web-based URL analysis and parsing platform designed to help researchers, security professionals, and developers inspect and classify web addresses. It provides automated extraction of URL components, parameter analysis, and metadata gathering, alongside integrations with threat intelligence feeds to assess reputational risk.

Core capabilities include decomposition into protocol, domain, path, and query; decoding of URL-encoded parameters; enumeration of query strings; DNS lookup and WHOIS data; domain reputation checks; redirection tracing; and bulk URL processing for batch analysis. An API allows automation and integration with security workflows.

History and deployment: URLek originated as a project in a small security lab in the late 2010s and has evolved through multiple releases. It is available as both a hosted service and a self-hosted package, with ongoing community and developer support.

Usage: The tool is used by security analysts conducting phishing or malware research, by incident response teams evaluating suspicious links, and by developers debugging applications that generate or consume URLs. It supports workflow integration, reporting, and export in common formats.

Privacy and security: When used as a cloud service, URLek processes user-submitted URLs on remote servers, which may raise privacy considerations for sensitive data. Users are advised to consult the privacy policy and, if needed, deploy the self-hosted version to retain control over data. Communications are typically encrypted in transit.

Reception and licensing: URLek has been noted for its approachable interface and breadth of URL-focused features, though critics caution about data handling and reliance on external services for some lookups. The core project is released under an open-source license.