152 Chrome Wallpaper Extensions with 105K Installs Linked to Adware and Fake Traffic

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News Source : Internet

News Summary

  • The cluster spans 38 separate Chrome Web Store publisher accounts and three brand backends.
  • They have been collectively installed 105,000 times.
  • A sub-cluster defines two hard-coded URLs in a JavaScript file that are activated during install and uninstall operations.
  • The campaign is assessed to be a "financially motivated commercial adware and traffic-attribution-fraud affiliate operation," although its exact provenance remains unknown.
  • The names of some of the extensions are listed below: tab plugin, yow games, chromewallpaper[.]com.
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a network of 152 Google Chrome extensions that act as new tab live wallpaper addons to distribute a potentially unwanted program (PUP) family.

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