Cybercriminals are uploading malicious Chrome browser extensions to the official Chrome Web Store and use them to hijack Facebook accounts, according to security researchers from Kaspersky Lab.
The rogue extensions are advertised on Facebook by scammers and claim to allow changing the color of profile pages, tracking profile visitors or even removing social media viruses, said
Kaspersky Lab expert Fabio Assolini in a blog post on Friday.
Assolini has recently observed an increase in the number of Facebook scams that use malicious Chrome extensions and originate in Brazil.
Once installed in the browser, these extensions give attackers complete control over the victim's Facebook account and can be used to spam their friends or to Like pages without authorization.
In one case, a rogue extension masqueraded as Adobe Flash Player and was hosted on the official Chrome Web Store, Assolini said. By the time it was identified, it had already been installed by 923 users.
"We reported this malicious extension to Google and they removed it quickly," Assolini said. "But we noted the bad guys behind this malicious scheme are uploading new extensions regularly, in a cat and mouse game."
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