Have you ever wanted to edit the web pages of another website? This simple line of code makes it possible.
Of course you can’t actually edit the actual web page but you can edit the page as you see it on your screen.
This is one of the ways scammers create fake screenshots, fake Adsense & affiliate earnings and even fake Paypal transactions.
All you need to do is visit the site you want to edit, paste the code below into your web browser address bar (tested in Firefox & IE7) and hit the Enter button.
Then simply select a portion of text on the page and start editing.
javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
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Now, I understand, how the affiliate marketers, and the authors of the million dollar secret formula actually operate.
Thanks.
That’s quite scary – I knew it was possible by altering the HTML and resaving somewhere, or by doing some Photoshopping, but that’s just much simpler.
Like Rob I knew it could done but never realised how quick it could be. I suppose this is just one of a number of ways it could be done though. Guessing the lesson here is always beware what links you are sent?
You are aware that the editong happens only inside the momory of your browser??? You can edit what you want but you will not be able to save your “Work”
So it is just a funny joke that will not harm your pages in any way.
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Yes I’m aware of that. Pretty cool though.
More comments from Patrick AltoftHehe, awesome hack, Patrick. I’m not too sure about disclosing this little secret right here, who knows what scams might occur if it falls in the wrong hands :<
Seriously…you guys are morons. Like you said, this does NOTHING WITH THE HOSTED VERSION.
it’s just a few seconds easier than saving and modifying the source locally.
Wow. There is one thing I really love about this — with firefox, you can save the edited page.
I’ve always wanted a decent editor that could just work w/ templates.
Seriously — got a tipjar?
I should also mention, it will save the various Editibles into the final document, so be sure to remove before upload if you do this
This works in Safari as well!
This is very cool and scary
Fair enuff, but wats the point if i cant save my designs????
This should be handy for note taking (other than using some other firefox extensions). I just made this code a bookmarklet. Now for writing papers and such, I can find a web page, click my bookmarklet, make notes, then save the web page w/ notes. Much faster than editing source, and better formatting than copying to Word/notepad/whatever, and adding notes there. If someone has a better way of taking notes, point me to the extension.
so then how would you edit a website with a blank index.html tag so you can edit the files in that same folder!?
Works in Opera too. Neat trick!
@ visitor, not true.
@ prags, just make the changes you want then “Save Page As…..” under “File” in Firefox. This does not change the way the page is served up from the internet, but you can save a changed version of it to your desktop or something.
You can also do this within Firebug. Very cool, and you don’t need a plugin.
Actually the ‘title’ is possible:) Just put a simple script and make your site editable in 7 minutes.
Users Guide ScreenCast:
http://www.core.gen.tr/videos/asli9.swf
Desginers Guide ScreenCast:
http://www.core.gen.tr/videos/asli101.swf
Product Info:
http://www.core.gen.tr/#coretal
That’s insane! very c00l for developers to mess around with ideas, layouts ….
I think that you may have missed the point that Patrick is trying to make, here – it’s not about editing the hosted version at all. It’s about being able to easily forge things like screenshots, and go “look at this! Here’s a screenshot of an actual Adsense page, with over $10m in earnings!”. It doesn’t matter whether the changes get saved or not – it’s simply about being able to create fake screenshots easier.
Holy hell this is insane. I had no clue it was this easy to do…
The dangers don’t lie in screenshots, they lie with people who edit hidden form values to change item prices, and people who edit AJAX for malicious purposes.
Sure the changes aren’t saved on the server, but that doesn’t mean the page stops being able to interact with it.
While trying it on various sites in my favorites list, found that funnyordie.com displays only a login form after entering this javascript url in the address bar. All images and text from the page are hidden.
this is madness! Its actually quite fun to play with though
Or you could just use Firebug and it’s a lot easier, cleaner, and faster…
In Firefox, once you type the command in the address bar and hit enter, grab the command and drop it into the bookmarks toolbar, then right click, properties, change name to “Edit” and there you have it, a nice little button handy for when you need it.
Why wouldn’t they just download the page and edit it. There are tons of scripts that already do this. There are tons of editors that do this for you online too (like FCK Editor).
I feel like I’ve jumped back in time to 2001 when this was new.
That’s pretty wild stuff. It definitely explains a lot of the clickbank “earnings” I’ve seen from a lot of folks.
Is there any /other/ line of code which can allow me to save and use a page as an offline web application?
Any way to add this the the head of an HTML file to make it permanent and automatic to visitors?
Works in Opera 9.50
Ummm… have you guys never heard of the “firebug” firefox plugin?
It lets you edit the DOM live, even the dynamically generated stuff.
In other words, there are actual tools for this – most of them are for debugging your own web development. Thinking this kind of thing is important is like thinking it’s important that someone knows that my username bought a hard drive on ebay last year. Ooooh, scary!
OMGWTF, you people ain’t heard of Firebug yet?
hey, 2001 called and wants its leet hax back!
This is quite scary.
Donno how much scam had already been done and how many affiliate marketers have laughed all their way to the banks.
Phew! I used to do this using FF and FireBug. But this is much cooler!
Why would you include item prices in your hidden values. There is no need for that and is bad design. Item prices should be stored server-side (a database for example).
If your webshop needs you to have item prices in the hidden values, then you should try another webshop.
You do realise that everyone is going to test it on your page?
Great trick!
haha nice one.
did you even read the post?
“Of course you can’t actually edit the actual web page but you can edit the page as you see it on your screen.”
This is also a standard feature of Opera.
To edit the source:
1. View > Source (Or Ctrl+U)
2. Make the edits in Opera’s color-coded Source Editor
3. Click “Apply Changes”
Bam, site’s edited.
Also, with the developer tools you can view all of the scripts, DOM, and all of the errors that show up in the code.
Tools > Advanced > Developer Tools
It’s cool to see that you can do this in IE, though.
Yesterday a friend of mine came to meet me at my office.
I last saw him some years ago at high school.
He talked for long about earnings he was raising through adsense. Sitting at my desk, using my firefox, he showed me (after a short phone call I had to answer) his huge adsense earnings on the adsense profile.
But after reloading the page, it revealed as a fake.
I think this is the kind of story this link is about.
Many would trust what they read on *theyr* screen, not wondering about hitting F5 to test it out.
And many more can, with a bookmark, fake screenshots without learning html or at all.
btw, I never trust screenshots, do you?
Does it illegal for this work?
I am new comer know not much about that.
how does it work?
You can do this with Firebug… And more. Kudos anyway, it works in IE at least.
Freakin awesome now i can edit microsoft,ibm,sony website and take screenshots.Thats it!
Very cool
I just tested it out on this page using Firefox 3. Amazing. (Maybe I can trick my
moroninexperienced kid brother into thinking I’m magic after I hide the URL bar…)Also works in Safari on a Mac
Omniweb has had this feature for years. Very helpful when troubleshooting code.
The anecdotal story about fake adsense earnings is hilarious. I can’t quite believe it though.
good, useful article.
Have you ever wanted to edit the web pages of another website? No, just my sites.
Thanks for sharing this simple yet powerful javascript code.
I have been using the edit features of the Web Developer toolbar for what seems like years to do this while testing out html and CSS. The Scrapbook extension for Firefox is nifty too. It allows you to download a local copy of a webpage but you can erase the parts of a page you don’t want first- e.g. you just want to save the text and delete sidebars, footers, images etc…
Thats pretty cool,
Fake Adsense Stats
Wow. I just tried that and it is a bit scary. However, will be neat to play joke on my sons with it.
Peace
Wow, now I think this infomation is worth more than the books “millionaire authors” sell.
U can turn editing off by entering
javascript:document.body.contentEditable=’false’; document.designMode=’on’; void 0
and the edit mode will be off.
Ok now I have to try it…
cant we then save what we have edited suppose i add funds in account and then cant it be save refering page see the same page that is original so there is no saving of page
How do you save it when you are done with editing?
can you or any one tell me what im doing wrong on copy and paste from clickbank to my website on hoplink i can copy and paste but then i cant get that ling to activate on my site need help for dummy. thanks call me if you want 865 470 4154 or email
javascript:document.body.contentEditable=true’;document.designMode=’on’void 0
This is quite scary.Nice trick bT pRbZ is d anY eDItable itEm doEsnT SavE..
How do you save it when you are done with editing?????
Yes correct the real dangers lurk in the form of sql injection attacks and scripting attacks by changing the forms and making them post malicious values to the processing script.
Also yes it is quite usefull for manipulating web screenshots etc but I thought graphic programs like photoshop would do a more expert work of manipulating screenshots !
Very funny……I really enjoyed using this.
Wow! Didn’t even know about such an interesting thing. You can send fake statistics to webmasters, make cruel jokes or anything else. But… ya… I’ll never trust screenshots now.
))
now find out how to save it
I should also mention, it will save the various Editibles into the final document, so be sure to remove before upload if you do this .
Good day.
Ho w can I edit our own website, I want to put some contact details and information of our company to our website, how can I do that.
Wow! Never known that’s possible!
Man this is the best thing ever! I hust played a trick on my boyfriend using one of his favourite sites Ha Ha!
Mine isnt working y is this i am copy and pasting the code?:javascript:document.body.contentEditable=true’;document.designMode=’on’void 0 is that the right code or am i doing something wrong
how to edit wxisting website and save it
…but can you save the website as it is edited for EVERYONE to see?
You can edit the website , but you cannot save it.
pls tell me how can save it on server.
Wow! It was really scary. I was able to make a website blank again!
How do you save in firefox?
how do u save it after u have changes the website
I dont understand how to edit the website or what to do helppppp
Hmmmm…I’ve never heard about this before,
I’ll try it on my blog
Pleas provide me a code on how to update the edited website
it is easy as 123 and abc that is how i now good luck everyone
Cool, I’ll try it later
How do you save it
Very interesting bit of code there. I tried it and found it working. I could actually edit websites. Great post!
Hi there, never new you could do this, thank you for posting.
hey i love doing it.
How would you make the changes permanent??????
how do after change the website how can submit or publish it editable page
wow thats really nice and scary as well. being a webmaster i am afraid of it. i dont know how many such tricks exist. will try it
Damn! Thats just made a whole lot of things make a whole lot of sense! Thats how they do it! Thank you so much.
I think there is nothing to be afraid of this since web hosting providers are all patching up their systems to get around this security flaw.
well i try it but it didnt really work for me it dint safe what i had change how can i safe the things i change?
keep it up
i want 2 edit my website
isnt it sooooo bogus…it doesnt save
what i wanted to do, was get google maps, still the same and stuff, execpt i wanted to change the look at name of it for my own website, for E.G: prank maps, ghost maps, you get the idea?
Guys, you realize this is all just for fun…. once you reload the page, it goes back to normal. did you really think it would be THAT simple to edit any text?
OMg….. i used this to edit a website that has ” you can’t see content. fill survey.”box. i deleted it and everything was working. it cool little code.
When you're done, you should add:
javascript:document.body.contentEditable='false'; document.designMode='on'; void 0
this is how big websites can edit their sites… i wonder what i could do to club penguin >:D
screenshot
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