Socket’s John Tuckner found 264 more search-hijacking Chrome extensions, on top of the 57 he found in April 2025. That’s 319 extensions and 13.4 million installs.
How it works
They pose as PDF converters, manual finders, “safe search” and AI search tools. Once installed, they take over your default search engine, bounce every query through tracking proxies and land you on Bing or Yahoo, so the operators collect referral payouts. They’re unlisted in the Chrome Web Store and pushed through shady ads instead.
What to do
- Check Socket’s full list against your extensions.
- Remove anything you don’t remember installing, especially “converter” and “search” helpers.
- Check your default search engine afterward.
I put a quick terminal audit for Linux in this batch’s how-to.
God Bless, and Use the Source!
