According to a new report, more than 32 million downloads of extensions for the Google Chrome web browser were part of a massive spyware effort. The search engine giant has recently taken actions against widely downloaded and popular Google Chrome extensions and add-ons. Security researchers informed the company about this, and it took corrective measures after that.
The search engine giant confirmed that it has removed over 70 malicious add-ons on the Chrome Web Store. These extensions were actively utilized to keep track of the web activity of the user. Additionally, these add-ons siphon off user data every time the user used the web browser.
Since a single user runs an installation, it can be assumed that 32 million active users are affected by this large-scale espionage. A report released by Reuters revealed that these spying extensions and add-ons claimed warning users about high-risk websites. As a result, they change the format of files but, in reality, hide under malicious intentions.
Surprisingly, according to a report from Awake, some of these spying extensions do not appear in the Google Chrome Web Store. Instead, some of these extensions and add-ons are installed in the Chromium, Google Chrome's open-source version. In other words, if done this way, these extensions could run on Google Chrome even without the search engine giant's approval.
'A newly discovered #spyware effort attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to #Google’s market-leading #Chrome web browser, researchers at Awake Security told Reuters'#spying #espionage #CyberAttack #CyberSecurity #infosec https://t.co/oxl54yhzUf — Roman (@rvps2001) June 18, 2020
According to the security firm Awake, these extensions could take screenshots of the user's device. Aside from this, they could read clipboards, load malware, and harvest tokens as well as user input. The security firm also claimed to have discovered that the hackers utilized the infrastructure of 15,160 suspicious domains. These attackers bypassed sandboxes, web proxies, endpoint detection, and response solutions.
For users who have installed Google Chrome browser extension but do not need it at the moment, it is safer to disable or uninstall it. To do so, go to chrome://extensions/ and disable or remove it. Doing this could also help Google Chrome run faster since the memory of the computer is free up.
Awake has a list of extensions that are caught spying on Google Chrome users. Unfortunately, if you found that you have added one of the extensions on the list, there is no other way to remove it but to clear it manually. The running extension is found on the upper right corner of the browser, right-click or control-click it, and choose Manage extensions.
After that, a new tab will open, showing the extension. In the tab's address bar, you could see something like chrome://extensions/?id=oiigbmnaadbkfbmpbfijlflahbdbdgdf. Disable or remove it.
