extensions

here’s-how-hucksters-are-manipulating-google-to-promote-shady-chrome-extensions

Here’s how hucksters are manipulating Google to promote shady Chrome extensions

abuse, Biz & IT, Chrome Web Store, extensions, Google, Security, spam / /

The people overseeing the security of Google’s Chrome browser explicitly forbid third-party extension developers from trying to manipulate how the browser extensions they submit are presented in the Chrome Web Store. The policy specifically calls out search-manipulating techniques such as listing multiple extensions that provide the same experience or plastering extension descriptions with loosely related or unrelated keywords.

On Wednesday, security and privacy researcher Wladimir Palant revealed that developers are flagrantly violating those terms in hundreds of extensions currently available for download from Google. As a result, searches for a particular term or terms can return extensions that are unrelated, inferior knockoffs, or carry out abusive tasks such as surreptitiously monetizing web searches, something Google expressly forbids.

Not looking? Don’t care? Both?

A search Wednesday morning in California for Norton Password Manager, for example, returned not only the official extension but three others, all of which are unrelated at best and potentially abusive at worst. The results may look different for searches at other times or from different locations.

Search results for Norton Password Manager.

It’s unclear why someone who uses a password manager would be interested in spoofing their time zone or boosting the audio volume. Yes, they’re all extensions for tweaking or otherwise extending the Chrome browsing experience, but isn’t every extension? The Chrome Web Store doesn’t want extension users to get pigeonholed or to see the list of offerings as limited, so it doesn’t just return the title searched for. Instead, it draws inferences from descriptions of other extensions in an attempt to promote ones that may also be of interest.

In many cases, developers are exploiting Google’s eagerness to promote potentially related extensions in campaigns that foist offerings that are irrelevant or abusive. But wait, Chrome security people have put developers on notice that they’re not permitted to engage in keyword spam and other search-manipulating techniques. So, how is this happening?

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time-to-check-if-you-ran-any-of-these-33-malicious-chrome-extensions

Time to check if you ran any of these 33 malicious Chrome extensions

Biz & IT, Browsers, chrome, extensions, privacy, Security / /

Screenshot showing the phishing email sent to Cyberhaven extension developers. Credit: Amit Assaraf

A link in the email led to a Google consent screen requesting access permission for an OAuth application named Privacy Policy Extension. A Cyberhaven developer granted the permission and, in the process, unknowingly gave the attacker the ability to upload new versions of Cyberhaven’s Chrome extension to the Chrome Web Store. The attacker then used the permission to push out the malicious version 24.10.4.

Screenshot showing the Google permission request. Credit: Amit Assaraf

As word of the attack spread in the early hours of December 25, developers and researchers discovered that other extensions were targeted, in many cases successfully, by the same spear phishing campaign. John Tuckner, founder of Secure Annex, a browser extension analysis and management firm, said that as of Thursday afternoon, he knew of 19 other Chrome extensions that were similarly compromised. In every case, the attacker used spear phishing to push a new malicious version and custom, look-alike domains to issue payloads and receive authentication credentials. Collectively, the 20 extensions had 1.46 million downloads.

“For many I talk to, managing browser extensions can be a lower priority item in their security program,” Tuckner wrote in an email. “Folks know they can present a threat, but rarely are teams taking action on them. We’ve often seen in security [that] one or two incidents can cause a reevaluation of an organization’s security posture. Incidents like this often result in teams scrambling to find a way to gain visibility and understanding of impact to their organizations.”

The earliest compromise occurred in May 2024. Tuckner provided the following spreadsheet:

Name ID Version Patch Available Users Start End
VPNCity nnpnnpemnckcfdebeekibpiijlicmpom 2.0.1 FALSE 10,000 12/12/24 12/31/24
Parrot Talks kkodiihpgodmdankclfibbiphjkfdenh 1.16.2 TRUE 40,000 12/25/24 12/31/24
Uvoice oaikpkmjciadfpddlpjjdapglcihgdle 1.0.12 TRUE 40,000 12/26/24 12/31/24
Internxt VPN dpggmcodlahmljkhlmpgpdcffdaoccni 1.1.1 1.2.0 TRUE 10,000 12/25/24 12/29/24
Bookmark Favicon Changer acmfnomgphggonodopogfbmkneepfgnh 4.00 TRUE 40,000 12/25/24 12/31/24
Castorus mnhffkhmpnefgklngfmlndmkimimbphc 4.40 4.41 TRUE 50,000 12/26/24 12/27/24
Wayin AI cedgndijpacnfbdggppddacngjfdkaca 0.0.11 TRUE 40,000 12/19/24 12/31/24
Search Copilot AI Assistant for Chrome bbdnohkpnbkdkmnkddobeafboooinpla 1.0.1 TRUE 20,000 7/17/24 12/31/24
VidHelper – Video Downloader egmennebgadmncfjafcemlecimkepcle 2.2.7 TRUE 20,000 12/26/24 12/31/24
AI Assistant – ChatGPT and Gemini for Chrome bibjgkidgpfbblifamdlkdlhgihmfohh 0.1.3 FALSE 4,000 5/31/24 10/25/24
TinaMind – The GPT-4o-powered AI Assistant! befflofjcniongenjmbkgkoljhgliihe 2.13.0 2.14.0 TRUE 40,000 12/15/24 12/20/24
Bard AI chat pkgciiiancapdlpcbppfkmeaieppikkk 1.3.7 FALSE 100,000 9/5/24 10/22/24
Reader Mode llimhhconnjiflfimocjggfjdlmlhblm 1.5.7 FALSE 300,000 12/18/24 12/19/24
Primus (prev. PADO) oeiomhmbaapihbilkfkhmlajkeegnjhe 3.18.0 3.20.0 TRUE 40,000 12/18/24 12/25/24
Cyberhaven security extension V3 pajkjnmeojmbapicmbpliphjmcekeaac 24.10.4 24.10.5 TRUE 400,000 12/24/24 12/26/24
GraphQL Network Inspector ndlbedplllcgconngcnfmkadhokfaaln 2.22.6 2.22.7 TRUE 80,000 12/29/24 12/30/24
GPT 4 Summary with OpenAI epdjhgbipjpbbhoccdeipghoihibnfja 1.4 FALSE 10,000 5/31/24 9/29/24
Vidnoz Flex – Video recorder & Video share cplhlgabfijoiabgkigdafklbhhdkahj 1.0.161 FALSE 6,000 12/25/24 12/29/24
YesCaptcha assistant jiofmdifioeejeilfkpegipdjiopiekl 1.1.61 TRUE 200,000 12/29/24 12/31/24
Proxy SwitchyOmega (V3) hihblcmlaaademjlakdpicchbjnnnkbo 3.0.2 TRUE 10,000 12/30/24 12/31/24

But wait, there’s more

One of the compromised extensions is called Reader Mode. Further analysis showed it had been compromised not just in the campaign targeting the other 19 extensions but in a separate campaign that started no later than April 2023. Tuckner said the source of the compromise appears to be a code library developers can use to monetize their extensions. The code library collects details about each web visit a browser makes. In exchange for incorporating the library into the extensions, developers receive a commission from the library creator.

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