Latest news with #VolumeMax—UltimateSoundBooster
Scottish Sun
10-07-2025
- Scottish Sun
All Chrome users must delete 11 apps downloaded over two million times NOW as experts issue ‘tracker' warning
Add-ons can steal browser activity and redirect users to potentially unsafe web addresses APP-SURD All Chrome users must delete 11 apps downloaded over two million times NOW as experts issue 'tracker' warning Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THOUSANDS of Chrome users are being urged to delete immediately certain apps that pose a security risk. It comes after experts issued a "tracker" warning on 11 apps that have been downloaded more than two million times. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 Chrome is used by billion of people every day Credit: Apple The apps can track users, steal browser activity, and redirect to potentially unsafe web addresses. 3.45b users choose Chrome to surf the web Chrome is the most popular internet browser with an estimated 3.45 billion users, according to the latest statistics. Most of the add-ons provide the advertised functionality and pose as legitimate tools like colour pickers, VPNs, volume boosters, and emoji keyboards. Researchers at Koi Security, a company providing a platform for security self-provisioned software, discovered the malicious extensions in Chrome Web Store and reported them to Google. Researchers noted that many of those extensions are verified. They also report hundreds of positive reviews, and were featured prominently on the Chrome Web Store. This, the researchers note, could have misled users about their safety. Add-ons to check and remove Users should check for the following add-ons in Chrome browser and remove them as soon as possible: Color Picker, Eyedropper — Geco colorpick Emoji keyboard online — copy&paste your emoji Free Weather Forecast Video Speed Controller — Video manager Unlock Discord — VPN Proxy to Unblock Discord Anywhere Dark Theme — Dark Reader for Chrome Volume Max — Ultimate Sound Booster Unblock TikTok — Seamless Access with One-Click Proxy Unlock YouTube VPN Unlock TikTok Weather One of them, Volume Max — Ultimate Sound Booster, has also been flagged by LayerX researchers last month, who warned about its potential for spying on users. However, no malicious activity could be confirmed at the time. Urgent warning to delete 2 dangerous apps that STEAL all photos & blackmail you According to the researchers, the malicious functionality is implemented in the background service worker of each extension using the Chrome Extensions API, registering a listener that is triggered every time a user navigates to a new webpage. The listener captures the URL of the visited page and exfiltrates the information to a remote server along with a unique tracking ID for each user. The server can respond with redirection URLs, hijacking the user's browsing activity and potentially taking them to unsafe destinations that may enable cyberattacks. Although the possibility is there, it should be noted that Koi Security has not observed malicious redirections in their testing. Cybercriminals at large It comes after researchers at Koi Security discovered cybercriminals have also planted malicious extensions in the official store for Microsoft Edge, which shows a total count of 600,000 downloads. "Combined, these eighteen extensions have infected over 2.3 million users across both browsers, creating one of the largest browser hijacking operations we've documented," the researchers said. They recommend users remove all listed extensions immediately, clear the browsing data to purge any tracking identifiers, check the system for malware, and monitor accounts for suspicious activity. Google has confirmed that all the extensions Koi Security discovered have now been removed from the Chrome Web Store, according to Bleeping Computer.
Express Tribune
09-07-2025
- Express Tribune
Malicious Google Chrome extensions might be killing your system: Find out which ones
11 malicious extensions, with a total of 1.7 million downloads, have been found on Google's Chrome Web Store, posing significant risks to users by tracking their browsing activity and potentially redirecting them to harmful websites. The discovery was made by researchers at Koi Security, a platform for security self-provisioned software, who alerted Google to the issue, and was reported first by Bleeping Computer. The malicious extensions, which masquerade as useful tools such as color pickers, VPNs, volume boosters, and emoji keyboards, have received positive reviews and have been prominently featured on the store, making them appear legitimate to unsuspecting users. However, many of these extensions, despite being initially safe, later received updates that introduced malicious code. Some of the extensions have been removed from the Web Store, but many remain accessible. Users are advised to check for and uninstall the following extensions immediately: Color Picker, Eyedropper — Geco colorpick Emoji Keyboard Online — Copy&paste your emoji Free Weather Forecast Video Speed Controller — Video manager Unlock Discord — VPN Proxy to Unblock Discord Anywhere Dark Theme — Dark Reader for Chrome Volume Max — Ultimate Sound Booster Unblock TikTok — Seamless Access with One-Click Proxy Unlock YouTube VPN Unlock TikTok Weather One of the extensions, 'Volume Max — Ultimate Sound Booster', had previously been flagged by LayerX researchers for potential spying, although no malicious activity was confirmed at the time. The core issue lies in the background service worker of each extension, which uses the Chrome Extensions API to track users. A listener is triggered when users visit new webpages, capturing the URL and sending it to a remote server with a unique tracking ID. This server can then redirect users to unsafe sites, potentially leading to cyberattacks. However, Koi Security's testing has not yet observed any active redirections. The malicious code was not present in the initial versions of these extensions but was added later through updates. Google's auto-update system silently deployed these updated versions to users without their consent or interaction. This suggests that the extensions may have been compromised by external actors over time. ⚠️ Over 1.7 MILLION users impacted! Malicious Chrome extensions were found lurking on the Web Store. Is your browser safe? Check your extensions now! #ChromeSecurity #Cybersecurity — X CyberSec (@xcybersecnews) July 9, 2025 Further investigation revealed that similar malicious extensions had been found in the official store for Microsoft Edge, which have garnered 600,000 downloads. In total, the malicious extensions across both browsers have affected over 2.3 million users, marking one of the largest browser hijacking operations in recent memory. Koi Security recommends that users remove the listed extensions immediately, clear their browsing data to remove tracking identifiers, scan their systems for malware, and monitor their accounts for any suspicious activity.
Forbes
04-06-2025
- General
- Forbes
Delete All Google Chrome Extensions That Are On This List
Delete this threat immediately. NurPhoto via Getty Images Chrome warnings are again in the news this week, with Google confirming active attacks and issuing an emergency update for 3 billion users. The company also confirmed it had mitigated this threat by silently pushing out a config change to all users last week. Now a new warning from the team at LayerX has outed a silent threat of a very different kind. A 'network of malicious sleeper agent extensions" that seem 'to have all been developed by the same person or group, waiting for their 'marching order' to execute malicious code on unsuspecting users' computers.' LayerX joined the dots and flagged these specific extensions based on common code patterns, the same remote code execution to frustrate detection, and leveraging known malicious domains to carry out attacks. 'Capabilities that do not appear to have any legitimate use in relation to the supposed function of the extensions.' Thus far, four extensions have made this new naughty list — all of which 'seem to be focused on in-browser sound management' and all of which 'try to demonstrate legitimate functionality.' Critically, LayerX also warns that it is 'currently investigating several additional extensions that appear to be linked to this campaign.' This is the initial list of extensions to delete: As with other extension warnings seen in recent months, all those flagged by LayerX 'are still currently available on the Chrome Store.' I have reached out to Google for its view on these extensions and whether they will remain available on its store. It seems at least some of the extensions should have been removed already — clearly a requirement for tighter restrictions before extensions are made available to users. 'The extension 'Examine source code of Volume Max — Ultimate Sound Booster', with over one million downloads, has already been flagged by several [security] vendors. However, it was not removed from the Chrome Web Store.' While you should delete these extensions, they have been dubbed 'sleepers' because no malicious activity is yet underway. This is the threat potential given commonalities despite seemingly different developers, and those links to malicious domains. 'This type of 'sleeper' extension network,' LayerX warns, 'can serve as a substitute for traditional botnets. While building up botnets (usually on exposed IoT devices) can be slow, technically complex, and cumbersome, developing a network of malicious browser extensions is much simpler, and can provide direct access to key user identity information such as cookies, passwords, browsing data, and browsing content.' As users have been warned multiple times recently, extensions are a huge vulnerability when it comes to Chrome. A vast number of its users install at least one extension, both at home and at work, yet 'anyone can upload an extension, and it's virtually impossible to trace back the people behind these extensions.'
