Chrome or Edge? remove the extensions immediately

More than three million users have installed 15 Chrome and 13 Edge extensions that contain malicious code, security company Avast said today.

The 28 extensions contained code that could execute multiple malware . Avast says it discovered code that:

  • redirects user traffic to ads
  • redirecting user traffic to phishing sites
  • collects personal data such as dates of birth, email addresses and active devices
  • records browsing history
  • downloads further malware to a user's device

"For any redirection to a third-party domain, cybercriminals will be paid," the company said.

Avast discovered the extensions last month and found evidence that some were operational at least as early as December 2018, when some users started reporting to redirect to other sites.

Jan Rubín, Avast Malware Researcher at Avast, said they could not determine if the extensions were maliciously created from scratch or if the code was added via an update when the extensions were installed.

Many of them were very popular, with tens of thousands of installations. Most of them came as helpers for downloading media content from various social networks , such as Facebook, the , Vimeo or Spotify.

Chrome extensions

Edge extensions

Until Google or Microsoft decide what to do with the above extensions, Avast recommends that those who use them uninstall and remove them from their browsers.

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Written by giorgos

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