Security News 152 Chrome Extensions Hide Ad Tracking and Fake Google Search Traffic

[Parkinsond]

Content source

https://cybersecuritynews.com/chrome-extensions-hide-ad-tracking/

Socket’s Threat Research Team uncovered a coordinated family of 152 new‑tab “live wallpaper” Chrome extensions built from a single codebase but spread across 38 publisher accounts and three brands: tabplugins[.]com, yowgames[.]com, and chromewallpaper[.]com (which redirects to owhit[.]com).

On their Chrome Web Store “Privacy practices” tab, the listings state that the extensions do not collect or use user data, do not sell data, and do not transfer data for unrelated purposes.

However, the linked privacy policy clearly states that it logs IP addresses, browser type, ISP, timestamps, referring pages, click counts, and details about the user’s device and installed software, which are shared with Google AdSense, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, and unnamed third‑party ad partners.

152 Chrome Extensions Hide Ad Tracking and Fake Google Search Traffic

152 Chrome "live wallpaper" extensions logged user data and faked Google search traffic for ad revenue.

cybersecuritynews.com

 

[Digmor Crusher]

My view is that most extensions are malicious, chose what you use wisely.

 

[Parkinsond]

My view is that most extensions are malicious, chose what you use wisely.

Stopped using at all.
Adding hagezi pro to Brave ad blocker resulted in blocking of pop up ad windows I was suffering from before.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

I sometimes wonder with Google who make billions every year can't implement a system to check and verify extension?

Apple is much better at not letting crap through, yes it's more locked down but they don't rely on advertising/tracking like Google.

 

[Parkinsond]

Stopped using at all.
Adding hagezi pro to Brave ad blocker resulted in blocking of pop up ad windows I was suffering from before.

Replaced hagezi pro with hagezi pop up ads; gave me the same outcome with much smaller list (499365 vs 58144).

 

[Sampei.Nihira]

Replaced hagezi pro with hagezi pop up ads; gave me the same outcome with much smaller list (499365 vs 58144).

If I may offer some advice, you're doing it wrong.

With Brave, I would enable at least HaGeZi Multi Pro++ at the DNS level.
This is because Brave's protection against malicious downloads is weaker than that of Chrome or Firefox:

Download protection in Brave is more limited than the one in Chrome and Firefox due to the fact that we do not send any URLs to the server, so this information cannot be used to determine the risk associated with a given file. In practice this means that Chrome and Firefox will block more malicious files than Brave.

https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/15222663599629-Safe-Browsing-in-Brave

 

[Parkinsond]

If I may offer some advice, you're doing it wrong.

With Brave, I would enable at least HaGeZi Multi Pro++ at the DNS level.
This is because Brave's protection against malicious downloads is weaker than that of Chrome or Firefox:



https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/15222663599629-Safe-Browsing-in-Brave

I face hard times with pop up ad windows only; I can avoid malicious downloads without extra tools.