Chrome nukes million-user extension for hijacking your clicks
A browser add-on that quietly flipped WebP downloads into JPG or PNG files has been yanked from the Chrome Web Store after Google discovered it was stuffing cookies and rewriting affiliate links on every site its users visited. The extension, once praised by newsrooms from Madrid to Mexico City, had topped a million installs before the takedown.
The hand-off that turned dirty
Security teams traced the rot to August 2024, when the developer email switched from Image4Tools to an unnamed entity. Overnight, the code began injecting tracking parameters into 578 e-commerce domains, skimming commissions on purchases the extension never influenced. Microsoft detected the same behaviour in February and booted the Edge build; Chrome users got an extra four weeks of silent leakage before Google pulled the plug this week.
Chrome now flashes a red warning—"This extension contains malware"—and pushes a one-click uninstall prompt. Forensic analysts say no passwords were harvested, but cookies and cached redirects must be purged manually to erase the digital breadcrumbs.
Zero-day for creators who live on images
Photo editors, social producers and journalists who relied on the right-click workaround are suddenly back to square one: either re-download WebP files and convert offline, or gamble on younger clones such as "Save image as PNG"—still clean, according to current audits. The irony stings: a utility born to rescue creatives from Google’s own format lock-in became the quietest data parasite in their toolkit.
The episode undercuts a decade of Google’s security theatre. Chrome’s review pipeline missed a seven-month cookie-stuffing spree even as the company preaches manifest-v3 lockdown. Meanwhile, the affiliate underground keeps proving that a seven-figure user base is worth more than code integrity.
Uninstall, clear data, move on—then remember the rule that never changes: if the product is free and the dev disappears overnight, you were never the customer; you were the inventory.