URL-Sentry

URL-Sentry is a website/url monitoring tool built primarily with NodeJS, SendGrid API and Nodemailer. It is designed to:

• Monitor restricted websites using an express server.
• Send email notifications to a user when such a website is being accessed on the user’s local machine.

Getting Started

• Node.js must be pre-installed.

Module/Project Setup

In your express application install the following dependencies:

• nodemailer (version 6.4.8)
• nodemailer-sendgrid-transport (version 0.2.0)

Usage

• Install the middleware i.e "npm install url-sentry"
• Require the middleware in your entry point e.g server.js.

const url_sentry_middleware = require("url-sentry");

2. Create a 'sentryOptions' object containing your API Key from sendgrid , email address ,nodemailer and nodemailer-sendgrid-transport.

const sentryOptions = {
    userApiKey : "SG.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...",
    userEmail: "youremailaddress.com",
    nodemailer,
    nodemailer-sendgrid-transport
}

3. Mount the middleware and pass in sentryOptions as argument.

app.use(url_sentry_middleware(sentryOptions);

4. Add the code below to listen for '/' endpoint and display message for blocked website.

app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.send("<h3>SORRY RESTRICTED URL</h3>");
});

const PORT = 80;

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`server is running at ${PORT}`);
});

Website Restriction

1. Navigate to your 'hosts' file on your local machine through C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.
2. Make sure you have the appropriate permissions to edit the file by checking its properties.
3. Below the host file, map the website you want to restrict e.g test.com to the IP address for localhost (127.0.0.1).

Testing

1. Enter the URL of the restricited website on your browser.
2. Email notification starts to roll in.

Note

For security reasons your 'hosts' file should be read only by default.