A short link that points at nexus market

A short link that points at nexus market is a clearnet url that resolves to a page carrying the mirror strings. The short never carries the onion itself, and the destination is the whole risk.

What it is

A short link that points at nexus market is a clearnet url on a shortening service or a small custom domain, which the reader opens in an ordinary browser and which forwards to or displays a page carrying the onion address for the market. The reader clicks the short link, arrives at the destination, and picks a mirror off the page there. The short link itself never carries the onion string.

This path stands out from the others because the server on the far end of the short link controls what the reader sees at the moment they arrive. The link the reader has in a note might have been safe on a first click and unsafe on a later one, or the other way around, and the reader cannot tell from the short alone. What the link points at is entirely up to whoever owns the destination domain.

What the short link controls

Destination domain

Where the reader lands. A short link owner who changes the destination changes it for everyone who has the link, not only for readers who arrive today.

Redirect chain

Some short links pass through more than one hop before landing. Each hop is another server that can see the request and another one that can decide where to send it next.

Cache and mirroring

Some short link services mirror the destination content. The reader might see a cached page from a previous fetch rather than the current one.

Rate and geography

Some short links behave differently for different regions or after a certain number of clicks. A link that shows one page in one place can show another page somewhere else.

What can go wrong on the destination

• The destination page shows a lookalike domain, spelled almost like the site the reader expected, with the onion string swapped for a different one that reads as similar.
• The destination page has been replaced by a login form asking for a nexus market login. A login form on the clearnet side of a short link is a signal to stop and close the tab.
• The destination page has an old copy of the mirror list. The short link redirects the same way, but the target has been left to go stale.
• The destination page is fine, and the short link was only used to hide the destination from a filter that would have blocked it. Being fine now does not mean being fine on the next click.

Lifeline

What the path drops

The path drops any check the reader could have done on the destination before clicking. The whole point of a short link is that the destination is not in the short. A reader who insists on knowing where a link leads before opening it is a reader who has to expand the link through a tool that resolves it in a preview, or who does not click the link at all.

The path also drops any historical assurance. A short link that used to point at a signed list can point at anything the owner wants on the next click. The reader who trusted the link once is trusting the same short every subsequent click, on the assumption that whoever runs the destination has not changed their mind or lost the domain.

What to check after following

• The address bar on the destination is on the domain the reader expected, letter for letter. A domain that looks like the expected one with a single character difference is a signal to close the tab.
• The page carries a check the reader can verify independently, such as a signed list they can drop into their own gpg client, rather than a bare row of onion strings.
• The onion address on the page, when the reader is ready to use it, is copied and pasted with the same care as any other clearnet carrier. The clipboard is still a clipboard.
• The reader has a plan for the day the short link stops working. A saved copy of the destination content is more useful than a saved short link.

Engagement

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